Up and down conditions result in a mixed bag for anglers

Inland has seen some great fishing lately for those landlocked.

The barrel fishing has gone off this week, with stacks of boats coming through at all hours of the day and night in search of one of these beasts.

Portland and Port Macdonell continue to be the place to be, but it was one outing on Tuesday that might change anglers' minds.

Salty Dog Charters fished out of Port Fairy, targeting school fish but stumbled across some barrels mixed in with them.

Landing one fish over 100 kilograms and two other nice fish, along with a heap of schoolies, their clients had a full-on experience of bluefin fishing.

Another crew that had a ball on the tuna was Adam Vogels and Steve Board, who caught 10 school tuna up to 20kg.

They also hooked a 70-80kg human after Steve became hooked up on one of the trebles in his leg while the fish was going nuts on the deck.

Not something that anyone would like to go through and certainly a good reminder of why single hooks are a safe option when dealing with fish in the boat.

The depth that these fish have been coming from is anywhere from 50-60m, so focus your efforts in that area.

Portland and Port Mac have seen far more boat traffic, with 113 boats counted on Monday at Port Mac alone.

Sometimes thinking outside the square and finding your own patch of water is all that's needed to come up trumps.

From other offshore reports, there has been a few gummy shark caught in the same depth lines as the tuna.

In the coming weeks, we will see a lot more of these shark coming into the ramps as they begin to have their spawn run.

Squid, coutta, salmon and tuna fillets have all been working well for these tasty bottom feeders.

Berleying has been the best bet and will allow the fish to find your baits easier.

Young fishing diehard Max Kandage has been at it again this week, landing some nice fish, but it was his dad, Janaka, who trumped him, landing a 41cm bream on a Daiwa Presso minnow.

Walking the lower sections of the river with waders on, the boys have been able to get where others haven't.

This has paid dividends, with the higher water level meaning these fish are in shallow water.

Using shallow running hard bodies, such as the Presso, will allow you to parallel the banks and pick off the fish that are holding right in tight.

Deny Hickson has been targeting Mulloway for the past couple of weeks and has hooked four big fish without landing any of them.

Using slightly bigger plastics in the 3-4" range, they have engulfed them but landing a fish like this is no easy task.

Getting the hook to stick is only part of the battle; you then need to land it.

Typically, a Mulloway will shake its head violently and will throw the hook then, but with a soft arm that lunges with the fish, you can counteract this action.

The estuary perch have been fairly quiet in the estuary side but there have been some great fish caught in the fresh.

Anglers casting shallow hardbodies and topwater lures are still experiencing the explosive strike when the fish are feeding on things like crickets etc.

The nights where the crickets are super loud are the best as they are flying around and landing on the surface, which is what perch look out for.

Working the lure slowly will get the best results, as this will represent how the crickets look when they get stuck on the water.

The Glenelg River is slowly beginning to fire up with Mulloway.

Rob O'Neil headed over fishing for a few days and landed some decent fish to 78cm on cut baits and spew worms.

Hopefully, we will see some more rain and the river starts to get some colour in it. When this happens, it's go time for the mulloway.

Lake Purrumbete has been fishing well again this week for both trout and redfin.

The Warrnambool and District Angling Club held its first redfin competition over the weekend, which saw 18 anglers brave the horrible conditions that it threw up.

Jessica Lane continued her hot form with the heaviest trout of the day, which was a tiger trout weighing 980g. The heaviest bag of redfin was won by Shane Murphy, who showed he isn't just good at bream fishing but handy on the reddies also.

Kylie Rowe won the heaviest bag of redfin in the ladies section for the day.

The most productive technique for redfin was on live minnows fished in 18-25m of water. The trout were either cast to with hard bodies or trolled along the East bank near the quarry.

With this weekend forecast to have some rain and some moderate winds, the fishing might be tough again.

Keep sending those reports into us at fishing@richardsonmarine.com.au or via our Facebook page for your chance to win prizes weekly. Until next week, tight lines and best of luck.