Sophia Jankowski 7, with her 3.7 kg snapper (Picture: Warren Jankowski).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
With a break in the weather on Sunday afternoon, Warren Jankowski took a run out from St Leonards with 7 year old daughter Sophia, and they caught several pinkie snapper as they’d done on their previous trip.
However, as they were about to leave, Sophia hooked a clearly larger fish, which – on the light tackle she was using – proved quite a challenge for the young lady, and – greeting the scales for a verdict of 3.7kg – it was her biggest snapper to date.
Early last week, Sam Melia spent an evening fishing near the channel junction off Curlewis where, using light tackle, found silver whiting plentiful, and – taking advantage of the fresh bait they provided – caught two snapper of 3.7 and 4.5kg.
Fishing the Ron Kitchen Memorial competition over the weekend was Daniel Sparks, who – on Friday evening – anchored up off Clifton Springs in a 38 knot gale, took three snapper from 3.5 to 6.9kg. This gave him an almost unassailable lead before clinching his victory with two fish of 7.5 and 6kg the following morning in similarly abysmal weather.
Andrew Phillips, Mark Sesar and Darren Baldock, who fished off Avalon on Sunday night, took two snapper, each around the 3.5kg mark, on squid.
On Sunday evening, Chris Stamalos and Kelvin McLean fished alongside the mussel farm off Clifton Springs where they had an entertaining session catching three pinkie snapper, two ling, a gummy shark and a good catch of both King George and silver whiting.
While much attention has been on snapper, King George whiting remain the focus for some including Andrew Johnson and Tony Mollenhauer who were fishing in 6 metres of water off Curlewis on Sunday night when I rang just after 7.00 pm. They’d already taken 20 respectable keepers by then, and those bigger fish, some better than 40 cm, had just come on the bite.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head has faced the unseasonal bad weather that’s affected us all lately, but – despite this stumbling block – clients who picked a break in the weather returned with good catches, and some with their bag limits of squid.
Ian Morse of the Maryborough Angling Club with his competition-winning 58 cm yellowbelly from Cairn Curran Reservoir.
Freshwater
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that the club hosted the Midland Shield over the weekend, an interclub competition involving a number of clubs from central Victoria; quite a big event, which was held at Cairn Curran Reservoir.
The competition was won outright by Ian Morse of the Maryborough Angling Club who showed exceptional form in taking, not only the winning fish, a 58 cm yellowbelly (golden perch), but two other yellowbelly over 50 cm. All were caught from the bank using yabbies for bait.
On September 17 we published an account, and photo, of Geelong angler Frank Bluch’s world record capture of an 8.25 kg rainbow trout on a 1 kg class tippet from New Zealand, one of several world records he currently holds.
Well, Frank has just returned from New Zealand with yet another world record from Lake Ruataniwha in the Twizel district, in this instance, another rainbow trout of 13.30 kg taken on a 2 kg tippet; an incredible capture.
A mixed bag taken on Sunday night off Clifton Springs by Chris Stamalos and Kelvin McLean.
Gordon asks:
Geoff, with time on my hands now, I’d like to fish for trout. I used to fish Lakes Modewarre and Murdeduke and caught some of my best ever trout from the latter. Are these lakes currently stocked?
Gordon, neither lakes Murdeduke or Modewarre are currently stocked because they hold either insufficient water, or water of insufficient quality to sustain viable fisheries. Your current options within 100 km of Geelong include the following:
· Wurdiboluc Reservoir, which is only 40 km from Geelong via Cape Otway Road, but negotiating the rock wall could be problematic.
· Upper Stony Creek Reservoir, which is less than 50 km from Geelong via Anakie on C141, provides bank access with both trout and redfin on offer, and is only one of several reservoirs stocked with trout north of Geelong.
· Lake Wendouree at Ballarat, which is just over 90 km north of Geelong on the Midland Highway/A300, has excellent pontoons and other bank access, with both brown and rainbow trout being regular captures.
· West Barwon Reservoir at Forrest, which is also just over 90 km, but south west from Geelong via Cape Otway Road and C119, is currently full and regularly stocked with both brown and rainbow trout.
· Lake Tooliorook, which is 5 km from Lismore, via the Hamilton Highway and some100 km from Geelong is also productive and, there are land based options including a jetty near the boat ramp.
· Deep Lake, which is some 4.5 km from Derrinallum – a few kilometres up the highway past Lismore – may also be worth investigating with the rock ledges along Chatsworth Road providing good land based access. There is also a pontoon, from which you can fish as well.