Martin Zeinstra and Murray Stewart with a sample of last week’s snapper catch
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Murray Stewart admitted that on an outing from Clifton Springs with workmate Martin Zeinstra last week, was the first time he’d returned large snapper to the water.
But the evening bite they experienced just north of the channel junction off Curlewis was so furious, that at one stage they had four big fish on at once, their respective bag limit catches of snapper to 6 kg or so being a lay-down misere.
Mind you, Murray’s snapper fishing foray last week didn’t finish there, for another workmate, Paul Lowe, also expressed interest in snapper fishing, and on Friday morning, one of about 5 kg took the flathead fillet he had on for bait.
On Friday night, snapper aficionados, Andrew Phillips and Tony Greck, found their lines fouled with weed at their usual spot and eventually anchored up in 8 metres of water near the “Nine Foot Bank” pile off Avalon: A good move as it turned out, for here they caught two snapper of 2.5 and 3 kg and six flathead, the biggest measuring 50 cm.
Hoping for more snapper they stayed on, and at midnight, they caught another fish of 5.5 kg and yet another at 1.15 am on Saturday that weighed 6.8 kg, only returning to the ramp as the hot northerly breeze kicked in around 3.00 am.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire also reports seeing anglers with good size snapper last week, but the biggest fish sighted was a 2-metre gummy shark that Anthony Saric caught at Queenscliff using Australian salmon for bait.
Pinkies and flathead have been the main catch off The Springs though said Mike, and among those to catch them was Barry Oswald who used pilchards for bait.
Whiting have been a bit scarce though, and although Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien’s battle with wind against the tide on Friday afternoon, resulted in a dozen keepers to 40 cm, they returned a good many smaller fish.
Another try on Saturday morning was also tough going with the northerly pushing against the tide, but they managed another ten keepers.
Rod Ludlow at Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that squid and flathead, along with the occasional catch of whiting, were on offer whenever last week’s patchy weather permitted access for clients.
Martin Zeinstra looking pleased at his introduction to snapper fishing (Picture: Murray Stewart).
Offshore
With a northerly breeze predicted from Saturday, Chris Stamalos headed out through Barwon Heads to his usually productive ground in 32 metres of water out from the out Black Rock outfall site.
Again, it didn’t disappoint, producing three snapper, all around the 3 kg mark, a gummy shark possibly 14 kg, and two large squid, each around the 2 kg mark.
Paul Lowe with yet another good size snapper from Corio Bay (Picture: Murray Stewart).
Freshwater
Despite blue algae warnings on Lake Bullen Merri, John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that much of the lake remains unaffected. Among those to catch fish here was Brian Jones of Camperdown who took rainbow trout and chinook salmon to 1.5 kg while suspending pilchard fillets just above the bottom.
On Lake Purrumbete, Les Broughton took rainbow trout to 1.8 kg on mudeyes fished beneath a float, while Jeff Broughton took redfin to 500 grams or so while jigging in the deeper water.
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that a several members attended the Yamaha Cod Fishing Classic at Lake Mulwala, with Brody Harrison taking out second prize with a 115 cm Murray cod; one of several cod caught by club members.
Kevin also mentions that Cairn Curran Reservoir has produced good catches of redfin with Barry and Sean Crombie taking fish to 40 cm, by the dozen, using yabbies and worms for bait.
Holding out: George Gereige with a sample of the whiting to be taken at Portland lately (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Rob asks:
Geoff, I read with interest your treatise on the FG Knot last week, but have to say these joins are a bit complex for me. I use a double uni-knot to join my light braid to a mono leader; do you see any problems with that.
Rob, as I explained last week, the FG Knot is a splice not a knot: Splices are used when retaining the maximum strength of the line is an imperative such as in deep water jigging for large species like kingfish or Samson fish, or should you be fishing line-class in respect of seeking a record capture.
The brutal truth is that the double uni-knot retains less than 50% of the lighter line’s actual strength. However, the redeeming feature in relation to many braided gelspun lines is that they typically test at least twice their stated strength, so, a line designated as ten pounds (4.53 kg) will often test at 20 pounds (9.07 kg), or more.