Bream bounty: Martinus de Lange with a sample of the bream he caught from the Hopkins River at Warrnambool on Friday morning.
Elbow slapper: Geelong Boat Hire proprietor Ivan Bereza with a one of his whiting from Corio Bay.
Taking a run down to the Hopkins River at Warrnambool early on Friday’s chilly morning, Martinus de Lange didn’t have to wait very long before the scrubworms he was using for bait attracted attention from the local bream population at the Deakin University pontoon.
While most were somewhat on the small side, there were a couple of good ones among them, the biggest clearly over a kilogram.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Ivan Bereza of Geelong Boat Hire, and a companion, fished the east side of Point Henry on Wednesday afternoon and soon had a good whiting bite going, and – despite returning a number of small but legal size fish – they were well on their way to bag limit catches.
But by 5.00 pm or so, the undersize pinkies moved in and it began to rain quite heavily, so – with a final count of 36 keepers – they called it quits.
After making a daybreak start off Clifton Springs earlier in the week, the first item on the agenda for Harley Griffiths and Stan Owen was to catch a few squid, but with no wind to speak of there wasn’t enough drift.
However, a patch of surface activity nearby caught their attention, so they broke out the lures, and – as they suspected – Australian salmon were feeding on baitfish, several of which they caught, mostly around 500 grams, before they disappeared.
By then though, a gathering breeze provided sufficient drift over usually productive ground off Curlewis picking up three squid to supplement the pipis they’d brought out as whiting bait, and they too finished with a respectable catch.
Interestingly, as good as the whiting fishing was during the week, from all accounts the bite virtually shut down over the weekend, but I guess that’s why it’s called fishing and not catching.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that anglers fishing on the drift out in the deeper water have had no trouble picking up flathead, but whiting and squid remain scarce.
However, in calm conditions on Sunday, Andrew Phillips and Mark Sesar headed down to Queenscliff where they found a good patch of squid just off the mouth of Swan Bay.
They caught a dozen, including one of about a kilogram. That was before the outgoing tide slackened off at around 12.30, at which time they headed out near the Coles Beacon to try for whiting.
Initially plagued by small leatherjackets and other unwanted species, they moved a couple of times before the incoming tide picked up, bringing the whiting on the bite.
They finished with 26 all up, including some good ones – the biggest measuring 41 cm – before calling it quits at around 4.00 pm.
Lachie Wombell and Michael Goldby hold up a good sample of the weekend’s catch of blue-eye trevalla; the red fish is an Alfonsino (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Offshore
With good weather on the weekend, a good many anglers headed offshore. Unfortunately though, while some caught fish, most of the usual guns had a quiet time catching very little.
However, down Portland way, Bob McPherson, along with Lachie Wombell and Michael Goldby headed out to the wide grounds where they picked up good catches of blue eye trevalla, gemfish and some of the other species often found in almost 500 metres of water.
Holding out: Michael Goldby with the Alfonsin taken off Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Rohan asks:
Geoff, I’m having a problem working at the tides at the Sheepwash. On Saturday, I looked up the low tide for Barwon Heads and it was roughly 9.00 am at the bridge. So, I expected it would have probably been an hour later at the Sheepwash, but the tide just kept running out for ages after that: Can you shed any light on this?
Rohan, the difficulty is that the time of low tide in the Barwon estuary does not coincide with low slack water, which – at the bridge – occurs least is two hours later; later still should there be any significant flow from the Barwon River itself.
And, you are right; low tide in the Sheepwash is about an hour later than at the bridge. But, bear in mind that the change of direction in the current will be at least two hours later than that. So, low slack water in the Sheepwash on Saturday probably would not have occurred until mid day.
Please send fishing reports and photos to geoffw10@optusnet.com.au: Thank you.