Steve Evans and Jason Powell of “Bag out Charters” with the 108 kg tuna (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Australian salmon are probably the easiest catch from Corio Bay at present with shoals of fish to a kilogram or so in both the inner and outer harbours, their presence being betrayed by birds working overhead.
Land based anglers have also caught them from the wall adjacent Cunningham Pier; a good spot to cast a lure.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that squid are still about in good numbers, but whiting are scarce with only a handful of anglers picking them up.
Those to do so include Dennis O’Brien, who took a bag limit catch early last week, and Andrew Johnson and Tony Mollenhauer, who on Saturday evening, took a catch that included half a dozen from 40 to 42 cm.
Those fishing for whiting between St Leonards and Queenscliff have had to contend with increased numbers of leatherjackets lately, but they are good to eat, as Martin Neilson and William Spitiri could attest after catching 40 of them off Swan Bay on Saturday.
Whiting have been scarce off Indented Head as well as Jeff Richards and Chris Hateley can relate after putting in a fruitless late afternoon session, but – as they’d already caught their respective bag limits of squid – they didn’t return empty handed.
Michael Goldby with one of the pink ling that he and Bob McPherson caught off Portland over the weekend (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Offshore
Early on Sunday morning, Murray Scott, his son Darcy, and Scott Teesdale took a run out from Barwon Heads, along with a good many others, but – as we discussed on May 30, with tides falling much lower than predicted – some of the larger game fishing rigs had obvious difficulty. Because of this, there is an urgent need for another boat ramp to be built where the old slipway used to be, just downstream from the bridge.
Returning to Ocean Grove boat ramp on Sunday afternoon, the heads and frames of four large tuna, that weren’t there in the morning, were hard to miss; so at least some were able to benefit from our growing offshore tuna fishery.
As for Murray and his crew, they caught a dozen or so snook in the vicinity of Claremont Reef before being rewarded with two gummy shark to 7 kg in a bottom bouncing session off Torquay.
Freshwater
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park, reports that large brown trout, including one of 5.2 kg taken by Darren Busfield of Colac, came from the lake last week. Another of 4.5 kg was weighed in by a fly fisherman from Ballarat who prefers to remain anonymous.
Redfin still remain the main catch at Purrumbete said John, and over the weekend, Tom Stanford of Bannockburn took his 7 year old son Harry out on the lake, along with eleven year olds Lachie Groves, Sammy Giles and Ryan Perkins, all of whom caught respectable catches of redfin using live minnow for bait.
Portland
Down Portland way, Bob McPherson reports that small tuna are still the main focus for offshore anglers, but not all of them are small. Steve Evans and Jason Powell on “Bag out Charters”, soon realized a client had hooked something out of the ordinary, which after a lengthy battle, turned out to be a 108 kg tuna.
Bob, along with George Gereige and Michael Goldby, took advantage of good weather at the weekend to go bottom bouncing in 500 metres of water where they caught a variety of fish including several large pink ling.
Ollie asks:
Geoff, I see land based snapper from Corio Bay being posted on facebook but no location given in relation to their capture. Can you give me any insight as to where I might try?
Ollie, at this time of year there are several possibilities. However, snapper have been caught along the Geelong Waterfront from Cunningham Pier to the Yarra Street helipad, and also from the jetty adjacent to the Geelong Yacht Club.
During the years when I was more predisposed to fishing land based, I caught quite a few from the small jetty, and beach, in front of the Geelong Grammar School during the winter, including one of 7.5 kg last August. The first half of the incoming tide is a good time to fish here, the change being an hour or so later than at Geelong wharves.