Simon Werner, Chris Cole, Shay Doherty and Jemma Thorpe with their catch of tuna.
Offshore
On Wednesday afternoon, Simon Werner, along with Chris Cole, Shay Doherty and Jemma Thorpe, headed out from Barwon Heads to have another crack at those bluefin tuna currently schooled up off Port Phillip Heads.
Locating a good patch out in 50 metres of water, they put out their lures, but – as is frequently the case with these fish – they weren’t having any.
However, on this occasion, Simon had a secret weapon that made all the difference; a generous supply of pilchards.
A continuous trail of these, dropped over the side at short intervals – one of them a “Trojan horse” concealing a hook – took their first fish.
The same approach took three more – one each – making a tally of four fish weighing from 18 to 27 kg; ample reward for a trip lasting only three hours.
Roger Lewry with a sample from his catch of pinkie snapper from Queenscliff.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
With a break in the weather on Wednesday afternoon, Gordon and Carol Williams headed out off Clifton Springs hopeful of catching a few whiting, but getting away from the small fish proved a problem.
Never the less they persisted, and – after making quite a few moves – found a good patch off Leopold that produced fifteen reasonable fish before the undersize pinkie snapper moved in on their baits.
Bob McPherson’s catch of silver trevally, and others, off Portland at the weekend.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that strong onshore winds were the stumbling block to good fishing last week. However, those who did get on the water had no trouble catching flathead on the drift and the occasional pinkie snapper.
Squid and whiting were quiet said Rod, but further south off Queenscliff some good catches of whiting were taken over the weekend.
Among those to catch them were Steve O’Keefe and son Murray who fished off the Swan Island grass beds. Here, in a five-hour session, they took bag limit catches of whiting of varying sizes with a handful of really good size fish among them.
Also fishing for whiting off the Swan Island grass beds was Roger Lewry, and indeed he did catch a few, but on dusk, the pinkies arrived.
These were all larger than the usual undersize pests that turn up when whiting fishing and it wasn’t long before he had his bag limit along with a few other species.
Off the Beach
Last week’s evening high tides attracted quite a few anglers to Bancoora Beach where Australian salmon were the main catch, both on bait and on lures. Among them was Tony Ingram who fished on into the night to be rewarded with a gummy shark of about 6 kg.
He was hoping for more of the same, but as the tide dropped away, all he caught were various unwanted species including Port Jackson sharks and skates.
Merv and Squizzy’s catch of redfin from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters).
A pair of chinook salmon, one of 1.3 kg, the other 2.1 kg taken by Merv Hughes and Squizzy Taylor from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters).
Freshwater
Michael Evans’ filming sessions aboard Victorian Inland Charters, continued last week with Australian cricket legend – and recent inductee into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame – Merv Hughes, along with Merv’s mate “Squizzy” Taylor, on Lake Purrumbete.
Chinook salmon were a target species on the day, and of which they caught two; one of 1.3 kg and another of 2.1 kg. These were caught down near the bottom in 20 metres of water using pilchard fillets for bait.
Merv and Squizzy’s catch of redfin from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters).
Redfin were also on the agenda, and their catch of nearly 50 certainly kept everybody honest during that session.
Mind you, Michael did quite a bit of fishing on his own last week, his best fish from Lake Purrumbete was a brown trout weighing 3.85 kg. It took a clown pattern Tassie Devil trolled at a depth of 18 metres.
Michael Evans’ 3.8 kg brown trout from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters).
Zeb asks:
Geoff, I have purchased two Shimano 4500 bait-runner reels for snapper, but have been told that many fish are missed by using the bait-runner function: Is this right?
Zeb, threadline reels in the bait-runner format were introduced by Shimano in 1987. They offered a function previously found only in revolving drum, surf, game and so-called bait-casting reels, a free spool mechanism; an innovation to be applauded.
However, having your reel in free spool (bait-runner mode) while bottom fishing at anchor for snapper in the mistaken belief that your quarry must take line freely before striking, will indeed result in many fish being missed