Paul Raduka with his bronze whaler from Black Rock.
Paul Raduka with his58 cm flathead from Corio Bay.
On the rocks
With Saturday’s north easterly breeze, Paul Raduka and his mate Brenton ballooned a bait out from the old Black Rock outfall site near Bream Lea, hopeful of catching a shark.
All went well with their bait out in the strike zone by early afternoon, but it was a wait of several hours before the action went down at around 6.00 pm.
As it turned out the shark, a bronze whaler in this case was no giant, but at something approaching 20 kg provided a good supply of fresh flake.
Earlier in the week, Paul had gone floundering after dark, and although flounder were scarce he did manage to spear a 58 cm flathead.
Chris Stamalos with his 20 kg gummy shark (Picture: Daniel Stamalos).
Corio Bay Bellarine Peninsula
Although Andrew Phillips and Tony Greck were on the water at first light, they found the whiting slow on the east side of Point Henry where they’d been previously successful, and – with undersize pinkies moving in on their pipi and squid baits – they moved.
Only about 80 metres as it happened, but that was enough, boating the first of what eventually became bag limit catches of whiting averaging 35cm; their largest nudging 43cm.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that, as well as whiting, good size flathead are about and among those to catch them was Peter Sierakowski who caught 12 while fishing offshore from The Dell using squid and pilchards for bait.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that whiting and squid are still the main chance, but small pinkie snapper remain troublesome; something Jeff Richards and Bill Pilipasides could confirm after their trip on Friday evening.
They caught a dozen or so squid off Grassy Point before moving to one of their whiting marks, a profitable exercise to begin with taking 22 fish to 43 cm, but the pinkies moved in toward dark and that was that.
Also on Friday evening, Darcy Scott had a better run off the Swan Island grass beds taking his bag limit of 20 whiting averaging 40 cm between 6.30 and 8pm.
Lachie Wombell with yet another pink ling taken offshore from Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Justin Jewkauskaf with some blue eye trevalla taken offshore from Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Offshore
Taking a run out off Barwon Heads on Saturday evening – while most were heading back in – Chris Stamalos and his brother Daniel’s first catch from around 40 metres of water were a couple of legal size pinkies and any amount of aero squid.
After dark their baits were beset by various toothy critters to the cost of several hooks, one being a fair sized seven-gilled shark that escaped beside the boat.
Unfortunately, their first really good sized gummy shark escaped after rolling up in the line, parting it near the boat. They caught the second, which – even though it was obviously smaller than the first – still greeted the scales for a verdict of 20 kg.
Kevin McLoughlin with a mako shark of possibly 40 kg that he caught off Port Fairy (Picture: Marcus Pearson).
Fishing offshore from Barwon Heads in perfect conditions after a 6.00am start on Sunday, Murray and Darcy Scott, and Scott Teesdale, also caught four respectable gummies, not feeling the oppressive heat of the day until they arrived back on shore.
Fishing in 150 metres of water off Port Fairy over the weekend were Kevin McLoughlin and Marcus Pearson. Catching a mako shark or two wasn’t a problem, and they kept one of possibly 40 kg.
One of three mako sharks encountered by Bob McPherson and Lachie Wombell while deep-dropping off Portland over the weekend (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Portland
With good weather over the weekend, Bob McPherson and LachieWombell headed out into 600 metres of water where an exercise in bottom bouncing produced blue eye trevalla, pink ling and gemfish. However, mako sharks proved to be a nuisance with a tally of three caught and released on the trip.
Bob also mentions that there are bluefin tuna as close as 10 km east of the boat harbour near the ship anchorage. Although they seem to be in good numbers said Bob, they are not the easiest to catch with small lures fished on light tackle a suggested option.
Tim Beusmans with a trophy-size brown trout that he caught from Lake Purrumbete last week.
Freshwater
John Clements of Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that among the most successful anglers to fish Lake Purrumbete last week were Tim Beusmans of Geelong and David Woldarczyk of Keilor, both of whom picked up trophy size brown trout while downrigging with lures at depths between 9 to 18 metres.
But, said John, redfin are the main chance and that he and Ronald Miller of Strathmerton took their share, along with Broughton brothers Jeff and Les from Geelong, and Mick Giles from Bannockburn, all of whom had the same plan.
Tobias asks:
Geoff, I believe there is a chart showing the position of various ships that were sunk off the coast from Torquay to Barwon Heads. I have done an internet search for such a chart without success; can you help?
Tobias, the chart to which you refer is The West Coast Torquay to Ocean Grove including the ships graveyard: Scale:1:25,000. I purchased a copy some years ago that was compiled by a Mr A Smith of PO Box 245, Foster, 3960, an address the Foster Post Office confirms is still current.
You could also apply for membership the Victorian Shipwreck’s site: http://vicshipwrecks.com/ for detailed information on any number of shipwrecks.