May is better than you might think

PPB WEST Alan Bonnici

alan@fishingmad.com.au

Surprisingly, the back end of autumn and around this time of year has always been a productive fishing time for me. I have had many productive trips away to places like Gippsland and Portland, and I can safely say there is plenty of amazing local fishing on offer if you are content with targeting bread-and-butter species.

In fact, at this time last year I had my most productive month catching King George whiting and squid. I had many bag-out sessions on both species. You can experience frantic moments on the water where you’ll get a King George whiting or squid per cast, which can be as much fun as any other form of fishing. Most of this is in shallow waters under 5m deep. Those people who follow my fishing adventures will know that

I prefer targeting King George whiting with soft plastics, or even hardbody lures when in very shallow water. I’m not suggesting it’s a more productive technique than bait, it’s just an exceptionally fun way of targeting. You remain busy at all times, you feel the strikes with rod in your hand, and you need less gear. It’s also equally as productive once you know what to look for.

Both whiting and squid school up in big numbers and love similar ecosystems, which are generally shallow waters, with a good volume of weed, sand holes and baitfish. Because of this, it’s easy to target both species at the same time. Some days the whiting will fish better than squid, or vice versa, depending on the water clarity and conditions. It’s not gospel, but often the whiting fishing is better in dirty water, and squid fishing is better in clear water. However, as I said before, I’ve had many sessions bagging on both at the same time.

For squid in the shallows, I usually run with a size 3 squid jig that’s typically slow sinking to avoid snags. I often start with a UV white coloured jig, but I don’t think colours matter all that much. Sometimes I think that jig colours are more for customers than for the squid! I’ve caught equal numbers of squid on gold, red, black and green in all sorts of different weather conditions, and even on some of those weird and wonderful colours.

I like to work my jigs really slowly, with a couple of big, erratic lifts every 10 or 15 seconds. Generally, this is a recipe for a good feed and some fishing fun. Squid grounds are a lot more common than you might think. You will find squid in most of the shallow weedy zones, even in our local waters around Altona, Werribee, Kirks Point and Port Melbourne. Although drives to the Bellarine and Mornington Peninsula are usually very productive for squid, it’s not essential to go that far if you know what you’re looking for. Worst case scenario, you can do some experimenting or trial and error in new grounds, and you might just be surprised with some of the results – especially as these are often very low fished areas.

For whiting, I’ve started giving the new Berkley 4” Fat Hollow Sandworms a good go, initially because it had become increasingly difficult to find the old 4” Turtleback worms. Maybe all my videos highlighting how good Turtlebacks can be on whiting have driven sales through the roof!

I have found that the 4” Fat Hollow Sandworms don’t have quite as much action, but they still produce excellent results.

Being hollow, they are easier to rig, much easier than the Turtleback. Of course, I always run the stinger hook about 6cm down from the main jighead hook, as this helps greatly with catch rates. These plastics do seem a tad more durable (but only a tad). I generally work them slowly, and even tap the rod handle to impart some action, which is similar to what I do when working walk-the-dog surface lures for whiting.

As mentioned at the start of this report, if you are happy with catching a good feed of King George whiting, squid, flathead and even pinkies, this should be a productive month. Don’t let the dip in outdoor temperature or water temperature stop you from getting out on the water.

Recently I ventured up to East Gippsland and spent a few days fishing the Mighty Bemm River. It’s a magnificent fishing destination which should be on all Victorian anglers’ bucket lists. We fished by kayak and also hired a boat for two days, which was amazing as we got to fish all parts of the river – the entrance mouth near the surf, the main river, and also up skinny waters of the river. All spots have a very different story to tell in terms of target species and how to catch them.

On that trip we caught countless bream on soft plastics, hardbody lures and surface lures, with the biggest being around 43cm. We caught several flathead up to 60cm on soft plastics and shallow diving cranks. We also caught a massive volume of silver trevally and tailor on soft plastics and surface lures. Some of the tailor surface lure hits were insane, as they hit