With a slow start to the season off the surf, due to bad weather conditions, finally some welcomed steady weather on the beach has let anglers catch a swag of fish.

It has probably been one of the worst summers of fishing off the Ninety-Mile Beach that I can remember in a long time, and just when we thought the beaches were never going to come good, they have, in a big way!

The gummies have really come on strong over the past month and a lot of anglers are bagging out on gummy sharks to 1m in length. Some anglers have been lucky enough to have a blinder of a night, landing 4-5 gummy sharks in one session. All the gummy sharks have been caught at night, often coming on the bite at around 9pm and some anglers are fishing as late as 1am to get their bag of gummies. Squid legs have been the standout bait, but blue bait and eel have been pretty good too.

Golden Beach has fished very well; however there has been a bar present in fairly close a lot of the time over the past month. Anglers using braided lines and distance casting rigs have had the edge over other anglers using more old school tackle as they are able to get that extra distance to get just over the sand bar. If you can’t cast that far, I would be keeping the rod and reel in the car and look for a beach with either a break through or no sand bar at all and fish there. Don’t just pull up to the first beach you find and start fishing, make sure it looks good to fish first.

Along with the gummy sharks, the elephant fish have come on again as expected for this time of year. Over the next month, they should go berserk as May is often when the beach is littered with elephant fish. There will still be good numbers of gummy shark around as well, especially as it feels like it’s a bit of a late season.

Tailor should also come on strong this month, which will be great news for the shark fishers as fresh tailor is hard to beat for bait and not too bad on the chew if you eat it fresh.

May is when you want to be casting lures off the beach. When you read a magazine or Facebook page and see anglers holding up monster salmon caught in South Gippsland, you can guarantee it was caught in May – almost every year without fail. Hopefully I haven’t jinxed it.

Walking the beaches casting metal slugs off the surf is hard to beat as sport fishing. Just get yourself an 8-10ft graphite spin rod, and small reel with some 10lb braid on it and start casting and hold on. These big salmon fight harder than most other fish on the beach, especially on spin tackle. So get ready anglers, still some of the best fishing has yet to come.

• For more information, contact Will at Allways Angling in Traralgon on 51748544. You will get expert advice and great deals on fishing bait and tackle. Tune into Rex Hunt and Lee Rayner’s “Off the Hook” on 1242 to hear will’s report on what’s going on in Gippsland!