Speaking of taking fishing seriously, you would have had to be very keen to have faced the weather conditions last week, but rest assured those who did had some success as well, especially around our region where the rivers and streams were perhaps the pick of the spots producing some good hauls of cod and trout.
Gunbower Creek proved to be the pick of the spots with one angler landing a metre-plus cod while fishing there last week.
Details are sketchy but to my knowledge it was angled using bait not a lure but that is all I know apart from the fact that it was photographed and then released.
The cold has seen a boost to the number of trout being caught as they have become more active as they approach their breeding season, the brown trout first and then their North American cousins, rainbow trout, who breed around late winter into early spring.
This part of their life cycle see all trout become veracious feeders and they will take almost anything that you can throw at them, most popular being worms, mud eye and other large insects as well as solid body, bladed and soft plastic lures.
As I said last week, now that we are allowed to stay away from home overnight, places such as Dartmouth and other distant waterways are now in play.
With this being a long weekend expect the number of anglers taking advantage of this to get away for a mini break, and spend some quality time wetting a line.
There are a couple of things that you should be aware of, the increase in traffic on the roads and the probable hike in petrol prices.
Due to the lockdown road traffic has been low and the subsequent lack of demand, petrol prices fell accordingly, but with the lifting of some restrictions this is about to change despite the low price of crude oil.
If you are planning a weekend away, some places you might like to try are Eildon, any of the rivers, Dartmouth and even Lake Hume.
We may even have some nice weather and this would bring into play saltwater fishing, and a trip to the seaside might just be the icing on the cake.
At Queenscliff, Rod Lawn and Peter Smallwood from Adamas Fishing Charters are back on deck (pardon the pun) and have reported resident snapper on the bite along the coast between the heads and the bluff at the mouth of the Barwon River, as well as the southern end of Port Phillip Bay.
Peter said squid were being caught among the grassbeds on both sides of the bay.
He said jigging with small whole fish and lures in the shape of a large prawn was working.
He said they were also catching flathead when drifting over the sandy bottom towards the shipping lane off St Leonards.
Rod said groups wanting a trip should limit their numbers to no more than six so they could manage to keep the social distancing of a metre and a half between people.
Western Port Bay has been producing snapper and flathead as well as gummy shark and leather jacket, popular spots have been around Hastings and the towards Cowes and the steel works.
Rod said while he would not be heading down the coast to Portland this year, reports from that part of the coast said that there were plenty of fish on the bite down there.
There will be no changes to the bag limit on bluefin tuna at two fish despite rumours that it may be lowered to just one fish per person.
North of the border at Eden, John Liddell reported they were hearing of kingfish, flathead, snapper, morwong and other table fish being caught along the inshore reefs as far south as Green Cape as well as in front of Boyd’s Lookout and inside Two Fold Bay.
John said there had not been a lot of action off the shelf as yet, but bluefin tuna were expected to move into the area in the next month or so as they migrated from the south.
At Narooma, Graham Cowley said the story was the same from his region although there was a little more action off the shelf.
Anglers trolling skirted lures were catching occasional yellowfin tuna, kingfish and dolphin fish.
He said most of the action was still along the inshore reefs with flathead, snapper, morwong and some gummy shark being bagged by anglers bottom bouncing.
All anglers are advised that we are still required to maintain social distancing as we are not out of the coronavirus pandemic.
Keep washing hands and cough and sneeze into your elbow.
If you think you are showing symptoms then get tested, stay safe and enjoy fishing.
