Chris Stamalos with the gummy shark he caught off Barwon Heads.
Phillip Wilson with the gummy shark he caught off St Leonards (Picture: Andrew Greed).
Offshore
Chris Stamalos was fishing at anchor in 25 metres of water off Barwon Heads over the weekend, but why his lines were clearly angled the wrong way, and his depth readings on his sounder kept fluctuating, was of concern.
He was obviously on the drift, as indicated as one line then the other would catch on the bottom. But as he was about to retrieve the anchor – which he later found was fouled in the chain – one of his rods, buckled over, not from being caught on the bottom, but with the weight of what turned out to be a gummy shark he estimated to be at least 10kg.
Also fishing out off Barwon Heads over the weekend were Danny Skene, Phil Dickson and Clint Hotchin who’d found a large school of Australian salmon: Eager to take lures, they had no trouble catching plenty of fish around the 2.5 kg mark along with an small kingfish or two from the same shoal.
Bottom fishing on the drift in 35 to 45 metres, they found small pinkie snapper to be a nuisance, but Phil hooked what turned out to be a 16 kg gummy shark, tempted with a bait of slimy mackerel.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
On the water by first light as usual, this time with his friend Colin Radley, Andrew Phillips was on the whiting trail just east side of Point Henry. But again as usual, things were a bit slow to begin with, with only an occasional whiting bite on the pipis they were using for bait..
But after a series of moves, they found the motherload in 5 metres of water, and – within two hours of hectic fishing – both had taken their respective bag limit catches, the biggest nudging 43cms.
On Thursday evening, Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien tried their luck on the whiting, but as luck would have it, the wind came up toward dark curtailing what promised to be another productive trip at the east end of the mussel farm, never the less, they still finished up with 21 good size fish.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that squid have been offer with Merrick O’Neil among those to take bag limit catches along the Curlewis Bank. And, after launching at Avalon on Saturday, Darcy Scott found the water discoloured, so he too took a run across to Curlewis where he took another bag limit catch.
With fresh squid to spare, Darcy and father Murray put in a marathon session on the Barwon estuary hoping for a mulloway, their prime baits proving irresistible to a couple of large stingrays. Unfortunately, they caught no mulloway.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that clients have been returning with respectable bags of whiting and squid, but the more adventurous have taken a gummy shark or two out in the deeper water.
One gummy shark captor was Phillip Wilson of Burrumbeet who hadn’t been fishing for a while, but took advantage of being able to head out into 20 metres of water off St Leonards with his friend Andrew Greed, hopeful of at least catching something decent.
But being a volunteer group officer for the CFA, he was on the phone when his rod buckled over as a gummy shark of about 1.2 metres took his bait. Also included in their catch were a number of squid from Governor Reef near the boat ramp.
Andrew Greed and Phillip Wilson’s catch of squid from Governor Reef at St Leonards (Picture: Andrew Greed).
Freshwater
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Caravan Park reports that brown trout are still on offer with fish from 1.8 to 2.8 kg being weighed in over the weekend.
Among those to catch them were Michael Evans of Victorian Inland Charters, Melton angler Brian Hrvojevic, and Uri Korvut of Williamstown, all downrigging 26 gram Tassie Devils (preferred colour black) at depths of around 9 metres.
Redfin have been the main catch though said John with Terry Haig and Craig (Mutley) Rosen, both from Geelong using minnow for bait.
Fishing nearby Lake Bullen Merri, Chris Farrugia and wife Renae from Oakland’s Junction, took 20 chinook salmon. These were caught on lures fished at a depth of 9 metres with downriggers, and on pieces of pilchard suspended just above the bottom.
Lachie Wombell with a sample of the blue grenadier he and Bob McPherson caught off Portland last week (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Justin Jankauskas with one of the tuna he’s caught lately withing the Portland shipping anchorage Picture: Bob McPherson).
Portland
Down Portland way, Bob McPherson reports that tuna are still on offer from the ship anchorage which is 10-14 metres east of the harbour with Justin Jankauskas being successful out there.
As for Bob, he and Lachie Wombell have were out in 500 metres of water catching blue-eye trevalla, pink ling, gemfish and quite a few blue grenadier.