Linda Stewart with one of the snapper that she and husband Murray caught from Corio Bay last week (Picture: Murray Stewart).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
While depth-sounding technology helps anglers find fish, it doesn’t help catch them; something all too familiar to those who fish for snapper during the winter when water temperatures drop to the point their metabolism is barely ticking over.
But when they’re reluctant to bite in summer, it’s generally a shark problem, something which Murray Stewart and wife Linda were reminded of last week after anchoring over a dense pod of fish that were biting very gingerly to say the least.
Having eventually come up tight on a good fish, and brought it perhaps halfway to the boat, Murray’s battle was renewed with a scorching run and several mighty headshakes before being cleanly bitten off. So, be warned; sharks are about.
Snapper aficionado Andrew Phillips and his pal Colin Radley, came up short after a long stint on Corio Bay mid-week. Undeterred though, they were out again on Saturday night under a near full moon, picking up a snapper of 5kg at about 11.00 pm.
It was something of a just reward after being constantly harassed by banjo sharks, and – after that snapper – an eagle ray that tangled all the lines. But their persistence was rewarded, first with a gummy shark of 10kg, and at 1.30 am, another snapper of 6.2kg.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports having a couple of good days with clients bringing mixed bag of squid, flathead and pinkie snapper, the latter being taken between Steele’s Rocks and the mussel farm.
Kevin Wild with the photo he took of himself with the 80 cm Murray caught he caught from the bank of the Loddon River.
Freshwater
On a recent visit to Lake Mulwala, Maryborough Angling Club members, Kevin Wild and Amber Stone, caught and released a total of 25 Murray cod using both bait and lures. These were taken at the Yarrawonga end of the lake, the biggest measuring 69cm.
Kevin also made a solo effort on the Loddon River, just downstream from the spillway at Baringhup last week. Fishing from the bank with a good supply of yabbies, he had a couple of good bites before, around 9.00 am. he caught, then released an 80cm cod, taking a picture himself holding it with his camera on the tackle box.
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that Oscar Vacan and Charlie Green, both from Torquay, fished the lake with Oscar’s grandfather, Bob Brown. Slowly trolling pilchard fillets, they caught rainbow trout to 1.8 kg.
Redfin are still the main catch though said John, with Brian Nygaard of Bacchus Marsh taking his share of fish to 600 grams while jigging with soft plastics. John also mention the nearby Lake Bullen, which has suffered a recurrent algal bloom is virtually a no-go area.
Amber Stone with one of the Murray cod that she and Kevin Wild caught and released at Lake Mulwala (Picture: Kevin Wild).
Off the beach
With high tides during the evenings early last week, surf fishing enthusiast Tony Ingram fished at Jan Juc, initially with cut pilchards and whitebait, and then – with Australian salmon coming on the bite toward dusk – he rigged his lure-casting tackle with a 40-gram metal lure and found the salmon, some better than a kilogram, in a suicidal mood.
With the bite easing off on dark, he sacrificed one of the few fish he’d kept as strip-bait in the hope of catching a gummy shark perhaps, or even a mulloway, but – as he’d done the week previously at Ocean Grove – hooked a toothy-critter that escaped with his hook.
Lachie Wombell with a large pink ling; part of a catch made by he and Bob McPherson off Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Portland
Picking a break in the weather, Bob McPherson and Lachie Wombell headed offshore, in calm conditions, where they saw patches of tuna rippling on the surface, and at least one mako shark. However, the bottom fishing was slow, but they did catch a couple of blue-eye trevalla and a large pink ling.
Jason asks:
Geoff, I enjoy reading your fishing page, but you use reports from the same people most of the time. I know plenty of people who catch fish but only the same folk are mentioned; how come?
Jason, I invite you, or anybody else whose made a good or interesting catch, to contact me by email, and – if possible – send a detailed report along with a full-size, captioned, photo of angler and catch. Or, you may phone me on 5248 1307 with your report, and – should I be available – would take a picture of you and your fish at an agreed location.