[/caption]
Murray Scott with Saturday’s snapper from Corio Bay’s outer harbour (Picture: Darcy Scott).
Murray Scott with an outsize calamari he caught at Port Phillip Heads on Sunday (Picture: Darcy Scott).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Launching from St Helens on Saturday morning with a good supply of pipis and squid for bait, Collan and Malcolm Erard were after whiting, and it was actions station from their first drop of the anchor just east of Point Henry.
With fish continually coming over the side, they had no need to move, and within two hours had caught their respective bag limits of whiting from 35 to 41 cm.
Also launching on Saturday morning, but with snapper in mind, Murray and Darcy Scott headed out from Avalon, anchoring along the western edge of the Wilson Spit.
They had only a few tentative bites to begin with, but at 8.00 am, one of Murray’s rods buckled over, reel singing to the tune of a 5 kg snapper that took a strip-bait from a fresh squid that Darcy had caught the night before.
Off to an early start, Jason Treloar and Harley Griffiths were soaking their baits off North Shore at the weekend, when – at very first light – their patience was rewarded with the capture of a 6.5 kg snapper that took a fancy to one of Jason’s pilchards.
There was nothing doing after that though, so – after waiting until an hour or so after sun-up – they trolled a couple of lures in close to the North Shore Rocks, hoping to pick up another snook like the one Jason caught land-based the week previous, but they may have left their run a bit late in the day, for there was nothing doing in that department.
However, they did pick up some small, but legal size Australian salmon to augment their snapper-bait supply.
Speaking of salmon, they’ve been present in Corio Bay and a fairly abundant by-catch for anglers seeking other fish like snotty trevalla, which have also been abundant and a species of which Darcy Scott has arguably, caught his share while fishing with various companions in the vicinity of Corio Quay recently.
Salmon have also been present inside the Queenscliff boat harbour, along with good size silver trevally, the latter reportedly being present during the latter half of the rising tide and eager to take various baits and soft plastics.
Ash Rawlings with a sample of the chinook salmon to be caught at Lake Bullen Merri (Picture: Trish Rawlings).
Freshwater
Ash Rawlings, who fished Camperdown’s Lake Bullen Merri with wife Trish on Saturday, reports that – judging from the number of folk fishing from boats, and from the bank – news of this great fishery has spread far and wide.
The crowds hadn’t slowed the fishing though, for no sooner had they put their lures out, before chinook salmon to a kilogram or so struck with ferocity, both at the surface and on the lures they’d down-rigged at some depth – particularly their Rapala X-Raps in the Pearl White and Spotted Ghost colours – enabling the catch, and release, of perhaps 30 of the fish they’d caught.
They also bait-fished successfully for a period of time, but returned to trolling for the sheer joy from the exciting strikes that this approach produced.
Collan Erard with he and his brother Malcolm’s catch of whiting (Picture: Malcolm Erard).
Off the Beach
Fishing one of the daybreak low tides at the Point Lonsdale back-beach late last week, Tony Ingram and Col Simmons had to put up with some of the usual unwanted species like draughtboard sharks, but their luck eventually changed for the better with a couple of good size pinkie snapper, the biggest just on 50 cm, using squid for bait.
Lachie Wombell with one of the snapper he and Bob McPherson caught offshore from Portland at the weekend (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Portland
While fishing on the drift in 130 metres of water offshore from Portland over the weekend, Bob McPherson and Lachie Wombell broke no records, but they did catch plenty of fish.
These included Tasmanian trumpeter, snapper, rock ling, flying gurnard and red cod. While they kept a selection for the table, most – those that were in good condition – were released.