Phillip Pirotta with his 4.8 kg brown trout (Picture: Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Snook are about in good numbers, in both Corio Bay’s inner and outer harbours. Among those to catch them last week was Darcy Scott who picked up several, using the fillets of one of them for bait.
To good effect as it turned out, for he caught two snapper around the 2 kg mark and a gummy shark of about 5 kg.
Darcy, along with companions Aidan, Liam and Layton Kelly, also did well on the whiting in the Lonsdale Bite at Queenscliff, and what beauties they were: They caught 20 altogether, ranging in size from 40 to 48 cm, using squid for bait.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that squid are back in good numbers over most of the inshore reefs, along with modest catches of good size whiting, particularly on the flood tide.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that the southern boundary of the mussel farm is producing the goods of late with pinkie snapper; gummy shark and flathead being caught. However, good size whiting are scarce.
Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien had a good crack at them on Friday afternoon, and in one of their favourite areas off Curlewis, but as sometimes happens, they caught no big fish at all and had to settle for the ever-present pea-dodgers.
The following day though, Andrew, and his friend Luke Hurley, returned to much the same ground, armed this time with squid jigs; a good move as it turned out for they caught 17 with some good ones among them.
Spearfishing closer in to shore, in about 3 metres of water, Andrew’s son Tim was hunting for the large flathead this area is known for, when he got a surprise. What he first thought was a shoal of large salmon, turned out to be a half dozen or so kingfish, each around the 70 cm mark: But they passed too quickly for a shot.
Fishing offshore from Limeburners Point with soft plastics on Saturday morning, Justin Burns and wife Katryna were soon in business with rock flathead to 800 grams or so, and some fairly large snook. However, the snapper they were hoping for, and which they’d caught here previously, didn’t seem to be present.
Simon Williams with the rainbow trout he caught from Wurdiboluc Reservoir (Picture: Justin Burns).
Peter Collicoat with his 3.9 kg brown trout (Picture: Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park).
Freshwater
On Sunday morning Justin and Simon Williams tried their luck at Wurdiboluc Reservoir, where – fishing from the rock wall near the car park – Simon caught a rainbow trout of 1.4 kg while Justin had to settle for a half dozen small redfin.
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park, reports that large brown trout are still on offer with Phillip Pirotta hooking a real beauty on a Rapala F11 one evening last week, only to lose it near the boat.
Undeterred, he headed out first thing the following morning and was rewarded with a brownie of 4.8 kg that – on this occasion – took a Tassie Devil.
Drop-shotting with a Tassie Eliminator, Peter Collicoat from Bellbridge picked up another beauty of 3.9 kg.
Redfin also remain on offer said John, with regulars like Joe Vito picking up fish to a kilogram or so last week using scrubworms for bait.
Lachie Wombell with sample of the whiting being caught at Portland lately (Picture: Bob McPherson).
George Gereige with a sweep from Cape Nelson (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Ryan asks:
Geoff, I recently caught a snapper with a hook in its mouth and trailing a short length of line. It had obviously been there a long time because the hook was corroded and the line had seaweed growing from it. I’ve been told that fish get rid of hooks in a short space of time; so what is the truth?
Ryan, fish that become hooked and escape with the hook imbedded, are stuck with it for quite some time; usually until the tissue around the hook forms a cyst, which eventually breaks away with the hook: A somewhat unpalatable fact for many.
A lot of unwanted or undersize fish are released by cutting the line, leaving the fish burdened with the hook. That is why having a suitable hook remover with you when fishing, and using it carefully to remove the hook – preferably while holding the fish with a wet towel or the like – is a good idea. Of course some fish swallow the hook and there’s little to be done about that.