Night stalker: Aaron Habgood with two of the snapper he caught after dark off Clifton Springs (Picture: Red’s Fishing Adventures).
Brandon Scaffidi with a squid of 2.68Kg that he caught off Queenscliff, and which won the Bellarine Pirates Angling Club’s Squid Challenge.
Early last week, snapper aficionados Andrew Phillips and Tony Greck launched at Clifton Springs and by 8.00 pm were anchored up on the east side of the Wilson Spit in 8.5 metres of water.
Initially, the fishing was slow, but they caught the first of three snapper – that later weighed from 3.5 to 5.2 kg – at around 10.00 pm using pilchards and silver whiting for bait, the other two soon followed.
Australian salmon are still present, both in Corio Bay’s inner and outer harbours. Among those to catch them from the outer harbour last week was Tony Hargreaves who’d already caught two good size snapper while bottom fishing.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that among those catch snapper last week, were Kiong Wong and Shane Gordon of whom Mike sent in a photo with their catch of fish to 5 kg or so.
Kiong Wong and Shane Gordon with a sample of their snapper catch off Clifton Springs (Picture: Mike Windsor).
Peter on the Lee Breakwater with one of the snapper he’s caught from here lately. This one weighed 7 kg (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Also successful were Paul Agterhuis who caught one of 5 kg and Michael Barallon, whose catch included pinkies to 38 cm and several flathead, all from Point Wilson.
Jeff Richards, of Indented Head reports taking a walk out onto the Portarlington Breakwater early last week to find the water discoloured from the recent onshore blow.
However, as unattractive as it may have appeared to the untrained eye, anglers were numerous and had taken a number of snapper, some proudly displayed by their captors. The biggest would have been around 4 kg said Jeff, but most were in the one to 1.5 kg range.
Andrew Johnson had just returned from the Murray at Echuca on Friday, after which he was proud to announce, that despite his best efforts, he did not catch a single carp. However, using scrubworms for bait, he did catch several golden perch (yellowbelly), the biggest of which weighed 2 kg.
Needless to say, that on his arrival back home, he and Dennis O’Brien went in search of whiting, and at around 10 am on Sunday, found them off Leopold on the outgoing tide: Good size fish certainly, but it wasn’t long before they went off the bite.
Trying other areas with little to show for their efforts, they returned to their original spot at around 3.00 pm, and – as luck would have it – the whiting were back on the bite and they finished with a tally of 20 fish to 42 cm.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that squid have been a little scarce of late, but snapper to 2 kg or so have been taken between the red portside marker off Grassy Point and the nearby mussel farm, something which is fairly predictable at this time of year.
George Gereige with a sample of the blue-eye trevalla that he and Bob McPherson caught offshore from Portland last week (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Lachie Wombell with a sample of the blue-eye trevalla that he and Bob McPherson caught offshore from Portland last week (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Portland
Down Portland way, Bob McPherson reports that several good size tuna have been captured of late and sent in a photo of Bailey Petch and Jamieson Goldby with a beauty of 114 kg that they caught offshore from Cape Bridgewater at daybreak on Sunday; the second big one they’ve caught over their past few trips.
As for Bob, he, Lachie Wombell and George Gereige, have made good use of their sea time bottom-bouncing on the wide grounds where their main catch has been blue eye trevalla, accompanied with the usual by-catch of pink ling and other assorted species.
Bailey Petch and Jamieson Goldby with the 114 kg bluefin tuna they caught off Portland on Sunday.
Mark Asks:
Geoff, who would be responsible for a possible upgrade of the Kirk Point Boat Ramp on Beach Road. Surely in this day and age with fisherman paying yearly fishing licences, and with ever more families getting involved with recreational angling, you would think an upgrade would be warranted.
Mark, the following is part of a submission made to Travis Dowling, Executive Director of Fisheries Victoria on 19/10/16, and to whom I forwarded your question, which in turn received a prompt reply, to both of us, that included the following:
Mark Sesar sent in this picture of the Kirk Point Boat Ramp with his query.
“ Happy to look into this one again. Not sure what happened last time around.”
Kirk Point boat ramp (Melway 40 ref, Page 11, D13).
This ramp is located at the eastern end of Beach Road, Avalon, the last section of the road is badly corrugated; an upgrade is required.
A single lane boat ramp with limited parking, it has no toilets or other facilities other than a wheelie bin for rubbish.
Good lighting is required because this ramp is almost impossible to find when coming back in the dark without GPS.
This ramp is badly exposed to winds, and sometimes swells, from the southwest.
This ramp has no security and thefts from unattended vehicles have been reported.
Fish cleaning facilities would be appreciated.