Aaron Habgood with yet another good catch of snapper off Clifton Springs (Picture: Aaron Habgood).
Zoe Stanford with a sample of her whiting catch from Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Bellarine Peninsula/ Corio Bay
On Friday, Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien failed in their quest for whiting off Leopold, and in other places where they’d done well recently. So, after hours of catching virtually nothing, they headed back to Clifton for one last try before heading in.
That was around 3.00 pm, by which time the tide had began running in, and with it, the whiting came on the bite. They kept 27 ranging in size from 35 to more than 40 cm, and two flathead, each approaching 50 cm, while using pipis and squid for bait.
Andrew’s son Tim, along with companions Joel Trezise and Callum Olsen, also did well after crossing the channel and anchoring up north east of Point Richards on Sunday where their catch of snapper ranged from 2.5 to 4.5 kg. Hard to say how many they caught, but they kept only one each, releasing the rest.
The night shift remained productive for Andrew Phillips and George Uranus who made another successful trip off Point Wilson on Friday night. Andrew caught a snapper of 7.2 kg toward the high tide at around 8.00 pm, and George caught one of 6.5 kg at midnight.
Alf Cardarelli with the snapper he caught off Clifton Springs last week (Picture: Mike Windsor).
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that while snapper remain the main attraction – as Alf Cardarelli could relate after catching one of 5 kg on Thursday – good size pinkies snapper are also present. And that’s something Terry Beasley and Peter Richardson from Cobden in the Western District could relate, having caught them from 35 to 72 cm using pilchards and squid for bait
Australian salmon have also been a strong presence in Corio Bay for some time now and are easily located by the aggregation of birds overhead; something that Simon Werner, daughter Kassidy, and friend Jake Callahan, took advantage at Point Wilson over the weekend, taking fish to a kilogram and better at will.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports on the first good catches of whiting this spring with clients bringing catches of up to a dozen fish, with some around the 40 c mark. They’ve mainly been taken on mussel and pipi. Apart from that said Ro, there’s been plenty of flathead taken as well, along with squid, which were fewer in number this week.
Offshore
With a break in the weather last week, Steve O’Keefe made an early start off Barwon Heads, where – in 43 metres of water – he picked up several snapper from 40 to 69 cm along with a gummy shark and a couple of other species.
George Bolton of Colac with his 4.55 kg brown trout from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park).
Jayden Wright with a rainbow trout that he caught from Lake Bullen Merri (Picture: Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park).
Freshwater
Steve also fished Lake Elingamite near Cobden where his catch included a 1.76 kg brown trout.
Lake Tooliorook near Lismore has been producing some fine fish lately, and among those to do well here last week were Jake Habib and Justin Cole. They kept ten rainbow trout from 2 to 3 kg, while releasing a good many others; all were taken on lures.
After their success, a return trip was in order , this time with Justin’s 3 year old son Mason, who – with a bit of deft coaching – caught a brown trout of 2.5 kg and a similar size rainbow.
Sammy Giles of Bannockburn also fished Tooliorook last week where his catch included a 2.7 kg rainbow trout that he also took on a lure
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that trophy size brown trout are still on offer with George Bolton of Colac picking up a beauty of 4.55 kg on a Tassie Devil. Tim Beusman of Geelong also caught one of 2.72 kg – while down-rigging with Tassies – along with several smaller browns and rainbows.
Gary Drew and Jason Eastman from Ballarat tackled Lake Purrumbete’s seemingly inexhaustible population of redfin, taking any number from 600 grams to 1.2 kg using minnow and scrubworm for bait.
Tim Beusman of Geelong with brown trout from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park).
Mason Cole 3, with the fruits of his introduction to fishing (Picture: Jake Habib).
Portland
Down Portland way, Bob McPherson reports that shoals of good size whiting are widespread from Portland’s North Shore, all the way down to Cape Nelson, and among those to catch them last week were Zoe Stanford and her father Phil, who – no doubt – have already dined on whiting fillets.
Graham asks:
Geoff, have you done any calculations on sink the rate for rubbers and various head combinations? For example; what weight of jig head would you use on a 6″ paddle tail rubber in 25 metres of water running at 2 knots using 10 kg braid?
Graham; such calculations are well beyond me. However, you may find the publication “Lures in Depth” by Bill Classon and Frank Prokop, helpful. It was published by AFN (03 9729 8788) in 1995 and is available from Amazon, and possibly AFN. Or, perhaps the manufacturer of your lure may be of some help: Keep me updated on your progress.