Spring took a long time coming but when it did arrive there was no halfway measure. Land-based anglers and boaters were in no doubt and the big chill seems to have left us.

I received a call from visiting angler Tony Rogers from Dandenong who loves to get out the water from Mahers Landing where he has had so much success. Shortly before this report he said that he was with a long time fishing mate and they arrived shortly after the turn of the run-in tide. Tony said that they headed up towards the area known as the Double Islands looking for whatever might come along.

They didn’t have to wait long as the fish were hungry and took whatever was on offer. The main catch was nine very nice salmon that were all around 800g. As well salmon there were quite reasonable numbers of barracouta, flathead and silver trevally. Tony said that he also bagged a couple of very good estuary perch around .

Land based anglers have also been doing reasonably well and I came across two anglers who were happy with their results as they had a very presentable bag of salmon and mullet taken on whitebait.

The area known as the A frame house has been very good as far as boaters are concerned. The fish have been taken mainly on the run-in tide where salmon to the 700g have been making up most bags. There have also been quite reasonable bags of mullet and flathead and further up towards Stevies Gutter, despite the conditions a few whiting to 34cm have also been taken.

Leading into spring Anderson Inlet went through an intense spell of awful conditions, which normally would spell a stretch when fishing would grind to a halt. For some reason there were good spells especially as far as salmon were concerned. At the time of writing the hordes of whoppers to 4kg hadn’t showed up but most fish were around 800g. No one is complaining as fish this size are much better on the table.

The Inverloch jetty has been popular with land-based anglers who have been doing all right on the first half of the run-in tide. Mullet and salmon have been the main catch where natural baits have been doing the job.

Further down to the bathing boxes the good schools of mullet and salmon continue make a visit to this part of the inlet worthwhile. There has been plenty of room owing to the fact no doubt that the conditions have been not all that inviting.

There have been and should continue to be plenty of salmon being caught to the 1.5kg along with silvers, mullet and reasonable size flathead. The low water on both sides of the tide have been most productive.