Ray Millman with the mulloway he caught from the beach at Torquay on Thursday night.
Off the beach
Fishing from the beach at Torquay on Thursday evening, Ray Millman caught a good size whiting just on dark, but nothing else for some time after that.
Ray’s next fish stripped metres of line from his reel before biting off the hook. Hard to say what that was, but later on, Ray was onto another good fish, a mulloway as it turned out that registered 12.36 kg on his digital scales.
Cleaning it revealed the probable cause for the whiting going off the bite earlier on, for it had three prime specimens of same in its stomach.
Barwon Heads
Paul and Selin Rahman caught eleven mulloway from the Sheepwash over three days of hard fishing last week, five of which were caught in the space of 20 minutes using squid for bait. Others were caught on live mullet, and the fillets from a large Australian salmon.
Although the mulloway they caught were an acceptable 70 to 95 cm, Paul hooked what was clearly a much larger fish that he had on for some time before the hook pulled free.
Darcy Scott with the 25 kg tuna that he caught on a pilchard off Barwon Heads last week (Picture: Murray Scott).
Offshore
With tuna still the attraction off Barwon Heads, Murray and Darcy Scott headed out with a good supply of pilchards, somewhat chastened after last week’s gummy shark fishing trip off Torquay, when surrounded by tuna that they were unable to tempt with lures.
It was a different story this time though, with their best fish weighing 25 kg.
Selin and Paul Rahman with a sample of their mulloway catch from the Sheepwash.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that Dylan Lewis, who – along with companions Michael and Damian – caught whiting to 43 cm from 3 metres of water offshore from the fairly prominent red shed at Curlewis, using pipis for bait.
Graeme Russell also did well, taking a bag limit catch off Avalon with pipis again the preferred bait.
On Friday afternoon, Andrew and Jenny Johnson headed out into 4.9 metres of water off Portarlington and were also into the whiting, catching 19 fish to 40 cm before the tide slackened.
They stayed on hoping the bite would resume on the ebb, but – apart from a couple barely making the grade – all was quiet.
So, they headed out a little deeper to where they caught another 13 before the wind picked up a little too strongly for their liking.
On Friday, Colin Mann and David Richards were into the whiting over the Swan Island grass-beds at Queenscliff, and – only having to make one move when that bite died – found them again out near Coles Beacon, both finishing with bag limit catches.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that there’s any amount of flathead to be caught on the drift in the deeper water, along with the occasional legal size pinkie snapper.
Whiting were also a welcome catch said Rod, along with good numbers of squid.
Bob McPherson’s mixed bag of fish from Portland, both for the table and for bait (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Bob McPherson reports that a variety of leatherjackets have been a by-catch while fishing for whiting, and sent in photos of a couple.
Freshwater
Kevin and Amber Wild, both members of the Maryborough Angling Club fished the Cod Nationals at Lake Mulwala, was pretty busy with 36 teams from different clubs catching, and releasing 573 cod to 93 cm, 181 of which were of legal size.
There were a good many reports of even bigger cod following angler’s lures but turning away at the last moment.
Kevin also reports that club members Stephen Eales and John Gray have both taken good catches of redfin from Tullaroop Reservoir using ice-jigs and lures in the vibe category.
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that there are plenty of redfin on offer from the lake and that he and Shaun Weiring of Monbulk caught any amount from 400-800 grams using worms and live minnow for bait.
John also reports taking chinook salmon to 2.5 kg from the lake in 21 metres of water on pilchard and mackerel fillets fished just above the bottom.
Forwarded to me by John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park was this picture of a young lad, first name Ryder, who caught this 3.4 kg brown trout from the lake on a scrubworm.
St Helens
VRFish board member and Secretary of the Association of Geelong and District Angling Clubs, John Hotchin – who has long been instrumental in acquiring grants for recreational fishing infrastructure – reports that two solar lights have been installed along the St Helens Rock wall.
They are the first of six to be installed there said John, the foundations for the remaining four having been already laid; something sure to be welcomed by the numerous land-based anglers who fish here after dark.
Jamie asks:
Fishing from my Kayak on the Barwon River early last week, I caught, and released, what I believed to be an Australian bass. It measured 42 cm and was caught just upstream from the Fyans Street boat ramp.
I am familiar with bass, having caught a good many from Queensland’s impoundments. But could it have been an estuary perch, a fish with which I am not familiar?
Jamie, there are certainly estuary perch in the Barwon River, both juveniles from recent VFA releases and a population of mature specimens within the estuary downstream, some exceeding 50 cm. However, I have it on good authority that there is a discreet population of Australian bass in the Barwon as well.
And, since bass are basically a freshwater rather than an estuarine species, the fish you caught was, almost certainly, what you recognised as a bass.