The weather has been pretty good with plenty of fishable days for both land-based and boat fishers. Salmon off the beaches, bait fishing or spinning, has been pretty reasonable with reports of some good catches up to 2kg and Wild Dog Creek Beach is still a favourite spot.

Out wide, gummies, snapper and some big flatties have still been about in good numbers. Bald Hill, Blanket Bay and Cape Paton reefs have been very productive for the gummies in 40-50m of water. There were some thumping big flatties to 60cm+ caught out wide off Skenes Creek in 60-70m of water.

The kingfish are still being caught off Cape Otway with fish from 60-80cm+. They still don’t seem fussy about what they go for with fish caught on knife jigs, stickbaits, live baits and big soft plastics.

Unfortunately, along with the kingfish, there have been big schools of couta about. A lot of tackle has been bitten off and gone to the bottom.

The schools of southern bluefin tuna are still about off Cape Otway as well. Most of those caught have been in the 20-25kg range with one report of a 41kg fish. Casting lures into the schools has been very productive. The beginning of the year saw a lot of excited people at the Apollo Bay Harbour with a school of five tuna to 20kg cruising around the harbour for several hours. They weren’t interested in any of the lures thrown at them.

The local rivers and streams seem to be fishing pretty well with reports of plenty of bream being caught, mostly on unweighted prawn or scrubbies. There have also been a few good trout caught high up, again on scrubbies or small hardbody lures.

• If you’re coming to Apollo Bay for a fish, be sure to pop in to get all your bait and tackle needs, as well as an up-to-date report, or call us on (03) 5237 6426 and check out our website: www.surf-n-fish.com.au.