Justin Burns with the six-banded moonlighter he caught from Cunningham Pier (Picture: Aisha Burns).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
A variety of fish have been caught from Cunningham Pier and along the Geelong waterfront over the years. I’ve even caught a few offbeat numbers myself, particularly in my youth while fishing – and, dare I say – spear-fishing beneath the pier, but I’ve never encountered a six-banded moonlighter, a specimen of which Justin Burns caught while casting soft plastics from here at the weekend:
Apparently they’re widespread, but not that common
Last week, I reported a catch of snapper from the Corio Bay inner harbour: No fluke as it turned out, for early last week, and in bright moonlight, Andrew Phillips and George Uranus – who’d experienced a couple of dry runs in the outer harbour since last week’s report – fished offshore from the refinery after launching at Limeburners Point.
They lay at anchor there for three hours or so, catching nothing but a couple of banjo shark and a large spider crab before their first snapper, a fish of about 4 kg, took one of their pilchards at about 10.00 pm.
From then on the action was constant until they left at about 11.00 pm leaving them biting; each having caught their respective bag limits of fish from 3.5 to 5.2 kg.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that gummy shark have been turning up amongst anglers catches along the southern border of the mussel farm with Jonny and Mowie Maroenz taking them to 1.5 kg.
Pinkie snapper are still about as well with Matt Fry, who also caught a decent gummy shark, picking up ten of legal size and four flathead while fishing directly out from the boat ramp.
Lachie Wombell with another good size King George Whiting from Cape Grant (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Lachie Wombell with one of the sweep that he and Bob McPherson caught at Cape Nelson last week (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien managed to find the whiting last week, on Thursday, when they caught 24 in six metres of water off Curlewis using their reliable pipi and squid cocktail baits.
Trying again on Sunday afternoon, they anchored up in their previously successful spot and soon had six good size whiting on board, but after that, things went quiet.
Obviously the fish had moved, an event, which in turn had them prospecting nearby areas before reaching their eventual total of 26 fish, the biggest measuring 41 cm.
Jeff Richards of Indented Head reports that snapper are still being caught within the Portarlington harbour, and that a friend of his caught one of 4 kg, and witnessed the capture of another last week. These were caught from the internal breakwater – which begins at the end of Fisher Street – while casting toward the nearby barge mooring.
Shane Hogan of Drysdale with his Murray cod from Bundalong (Picture: John Clements).
Paul Connor of Warrnambool with the 4 kg brown trout he caught from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: John Clements).
Freshwater
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that rainbow and brown trout to 1.5 kg are still being taken in good numbers, but Tim Beusman – who’d already caught a number of these – was disappointed to lose a brown trout of about 4.5 kg alongside his boat. However, Paul Connor of Warrnambool caught one of 4 kg while trolling a Tassie Devil.
Redfin remain plentiful said john with anglers like Les Broughton still picking up good catches of fish to a kilogram or so from the lake using scrubworms and minnow for bait.
As for John, he spent some time with Shane Hogan of Drysdale, and his father Tom last week while on the Murray at Bundalong near Yarrawonga where Shane took the largest of their three cod at 11.3 kg. The other two were both around the 6.5 kg mark.
Bill Athanasselis and Mick Kollaris on a file photo of a thresher shark that took a lure offshore from the mouth of the Surrey River near Portland some years ago.
Mason asks:
Geoff, I’ve seen you-tube footage of kayakers catching thresher sharks on lures and want to give it a try. Are thresher sharks about? If so, what lures do I use, and where do I fish for them?
Mason, I too have seen footage of thresher sharks being caught, and released, from kayaks – always in the company of other kayakers doing likewise – but never alone because this is a risky activity clearly demonstrated in some of this footage.
Thresher sharks are present at places along the west coast like Point Impossible with November and December good months to try: Lures like the larger Rapala CDs and X-Raps do the job, and from daybreak onward is when to fish for them.
Having caught threshers on lures myself – but never from a kayak – I can tell you that most – if not all – become hooked in the tail, from which you will need a gloved hand and a good set of pliers to affect release.
Lachie Wombell with a smple of the whiting he caught at Cape Grant last week (Picture: Bob McPherson).