Marcus Pearson wrestles Kevin’s potential line class GFAA record school shark (Picture: Kevin McLoughlin).
Taking a run down to Port MacDonnell – just over the South Australian border – to fish their annual competition last week, proved fruitful for Kevin McLoughlin and Marcus Pearson.
Not only did their catches of various fish, including a tuna and a mako shark win substantial prizes, Kevin’s capture of a 28.1 kg school shark on 2 kg class tackle is a potential Game Fishing Association of Australia record, for which he is preparing a claim.
Kevin McLoughlin with the mako shark he caught while fishing the annual Port MacDonnell fishing competition last week (Picture: Marcus Pearson).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Jonathan Feldman and his father David, fished for two hours at various places along the Coles channel off St Leonards on Friday with scarcely a bite, so it was clearly time to look elsewhere.
Eventually, out of desperation, they tried the Swan Bay channel and were instantly onto the whiting, ending up with 26 fish to 41 cm; most being in the high 30 cm range. Also included in their catch were a number of good size leatherjackets.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire also reports that whiting are still on offer. Among those to catch them were local anglers Mark and Laurie who found a good patch off Curlewis from which they caught 40 whiting and several Tommy Rough using squid for bait.
Also fishing off Curlewis on Friday were Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien, who found a productive patch off Curlewis, and in 5.5 metres of water, took bag limit catches of whiting, their biggest fish approaching 40 cm
Simon Werner, who has been fishing with his son Jayden and one of Jaiden’s companions, also off Clifton Springs, had good results while drifting for squid, taking 20 on one occasion and 15 on another.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head also reports that squid remain plentiful and widespread between Grassy Point and the Governor Reefs, but whiting have been scarce.
John and David Feldman’s catch from the Swan Bay channel.
Jonathan Feldman shows a sample of the quality whiting he and his father David caught from the Swan Bay channel.
Off the Beach
With evening high tides early last week, Tony Ingram fished Bancoora Beach, and – following his encounter with tailor the week previous – was using ganged hooks baited with pilchard. However, his first catch included a couple of Australian salmon around the kilogram mark that that fell victim to his rig.
Fishing on into the night, he began losing his baits, possibly to sea lice. So, sacrificing a fillet from one of the salmon he’d caught, he presented a strip of that on his rig, which did in fact claim a couple of tailor, along with a gummy shark of possibly 6 kg.
Wayne Snell’s 2.5 kg rainbow trout above, and his 3.8 kg brown trout below (Picture: John Clements).
Will and Jordan Walter with a sample of their redfin catch from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: John Clements).
Freshwater
Fishing Highton’s Saint Augustine’s water hole on Sunday morning were Dave Batty, Jake Leach and Ben Lang.
The sum total of their catch was two small redfin, two roach, and a rather large rainbow trout for this small water. Dave doesn’t say how big it was but judging from the photo it could have been as much as 2 kg: All were caught on corn kernels.
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that Rob Walter and sons Will and Jordan of Hamilton, took just on a hundred redfin from the lake using minnow and soft plastics.
Wayne Snell of Colac fished mudeyes under a float, hopeful of catching a good size brown trout. He certainly did that with a brown of 3.8 kg; he also caught a rainbow trout of 2.5 kg.
Kevin McLoughlin of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that Tullaroop Reservoir is again the stand-out fishery up that way with redfin a-plenty being taken with a variety of methods including trolled lures, bobbers and bait, the favourite being small yabbies.
Also on offer are both good size brown and rainbow trout like one Brad Sturgess caught last week trolling a lure.
Kevin also reports that club members have taken good size redfin from Lake Fyans near Stawell, the be best results being early in the morning.
Andy asks:
Geoff, a mate and I were recently discussing the term “stranger” used for grass whiting, do you know how they came to be called that: Is it still a valid name, and where they can be caught?
Andy, I recall that in the 1960s, stranger was a valid name for grass whiting, and – if I’m not mistaken – it had a legal-size limit of 9 inches. In my youth I caught a good many on sandworm from the rocks below the Esplanade, North Shore.
Among various descriptions for stranger on http://www.finedictionary.com/stranger.html is: “A name in Victoria and Tasmania for a labroid (meaning from the genus Labridae) fish, Odax richardsonii”.
However, Barry Hutchins and Roger Swainston’s Sea Fishes of Southern Australia, describes this fish as the “blue weed whiting” in respect of the male’s blue colouration. It does not include the former name stranger, and the species now seems to have been reclassified as Haletta semifasciata.