The salmon have still been very good at Killarney despite the amount of anglers trying their luck from the beaches. For Johnno, there was a surprise capture of a nice 47cm tailor that was mixed in with the schools of 2kg plus salmon. Although not a unicorn in the fishing world for us down here, it's certainly an unusual capture and definitely one that Johnno was stoked with. Casting metal lures in the 40-60g size class and using baits such as blue bait and squid, anglers have been having a ball on these brilliant fighting fish. Speaking of brilliant fighting fish and one species that we have certainly missed the last couple of months is the school size bluefin tuna that migrate down here over summer in search of small baits inshore. Typically a tougher time to catch them due to the bait size they are gorging themselves with, they also get anglers who target them thinking of new ways to trick them into a strike.

When anglers new to tuna fishing think of the type of lures needed to catch them, they automatically assume you need a 200mm long hard body that dives deep but this couldn't be any further from the truth. The ones that are successful on the school tuna are really trying to match the hatch of what these fish are feeding on. Running super small skirts in the 3-4" range and typically in white or pink colours to match the whitebait and bigeye that they feed on in close will give you a real chance of coming tight with one. Another technique that is deadly over summer is casting stick baits at the fish on the surface. These lures come in both sinking and floating styles and are a deadly technique over summer, especially on the calmer days when they sun themselves on the surface. It's not as easy as speeding over to the school of fish sitting on the surface and casting long and cranking it back to the boat. There's a lot of work that goes into it even before you cast that lure.

First thing is locating the school, which can be done by a couple of indicators - birds diving or simply looking for a slightly different patch of water that sometimes looks like a wind pattern. When looking for birds, it's important to know which birds you're looking for and how they are acting around you. When the first lot of tuna were caught here many years ago, anglers thought that Albatross were the birds to look for, but after a while, they soon worked out that it was Gannets and Terns that they needed to look for. Once you've found these birds and they are diving on bait schools, you need to set your boat up in the direction of where the fish are swimming to. If you get it wrong, you'll be constantly chasing them around and getting no closer to hooking up. Switch your engine off when drifting with the school; otherwise, they will soon disappear, and you'll be kicking yourself after doing the hard work of finding them. So, you've found them, and they are feeding on the surface, now what do you do? Pick a lure that isn't a threatening size to them and work out if you need floating or slow sinking. Typically, whites and blues are a go-to over summer, so start with that and change it up. Using light line will also give you as many chances as you can with these smart fish. Dropping down to even 20lb fluorocarbon, they will become less spooky and crunch the lure; all you need to do is take your time with the fish and enjoy the fight.

Allistar Bourke landed a cracker 101cm mulloway on only 6lb leader while chasing bream and perch in the Hopkins. The fight lasted over an hour, so landing it on light line after such a big fight was a super effort. Allistar's fish took a liking to a Daiwa Bait Junkie in the Pearl Gudgeon colour. This isn't just the only big fish that has been hooked over the past couple of weeks, as there was numerous other fish hooked but lost. A number of bait anglers have encountered a rampaging mulloway while targeting bream and have ended up losing that particular fish. The fish finders of anglers have been lighting up with these big silver slabs, stacked 10 high in some instances. If I was targeting them and was looking for an area, I would start looking around Rowans Lane and Kinnears. These are proven places for mulloway to sit during summer.

Targeting them with live mullet or cut mullet is a great way to stop the bream picking at your baits. Although I have had nights when a bream will be picking at the bait, and then boom, a mulloway screams off with the bait. There are a lot of mullet in the river, so it's no surprise that the silver ghosts are in here too.

The Curdies River is still fishing well, especially down the front section of the lake at Peterborough for both bream and perch. Young guns Allistar Sharp and Toby Helessey spent a day with gun angler Kris Hickson, who is currently travelling around Australia. The boys had a ball, casting soft plastics and hard bodies under the guidance of Kris in their kayaks. It's guys like this that have made fishing what it is today, taking time out of his day to teach the up and coming anglers of the future. When I was growing up, it was when others took the time to teach me that I remember so well and I still to this day use these tips.

Lake Bullen Merri has again produced more big bass for those doing the hard yards. One customer, who had never fished Bullen Merri before, landed a cracker 47cm bass, casting soft plastics down deep. These fish can also be targeted on lures, towed with down riggers and paravanes along the drop offs. This week has seen another few thousand trout and salmon released into the lake, which means it will only go from strength to strength after the last fish kill, thanks to a bad algae bloom. The local rivers have seen some more dirty, fast-flowing water come down, making it difficult to fish but I would expect that things will quiet down and will return to normal. Typically, the week or two after things slow is go time for trout in our rivers. Casting bigger lures into the runs should come up trumps.

With the weekend looking like a tackle prep one, I reckon reports will be hard to come by for the offshore crew but estuaries will fire up again. Until next week, tight lines and best of luck.