Lachie O’Reilly with crew members Mark and Adrian, after boating the tuna.
Lachie O’Reilly with the tuna he caught from the wide grounds off Apollo Bay.
Offshore
Last week we reported that those prepared to make the long run out to the Otway Basin from Apollo Bay were catching large tuna.
Among those take up to the challenge were Lachie O’Reilly and his crew; Adrian, Zac and Mark, who battled strong winds and heavy swells for three hours before a flock of birds working over a patch of water caught their attention.
Out came the lures, including a Pakula Grasshopper that was hit on the first pass; line screaming from the reel as Lachie took the rod.
After battling the tuna for 40 minutes in rough conditions he eventually had it alongside, whereupon the crew managed to wrestle it aboard.
Their tuna was officially weighed at 78 kg cleaned, giving it a probable whole weight of 90 kg.
Andrew Ketelaar with a 2 kg rainbow trout from Wurdiboluc Reservoir.
Michael Evans with the 69 cm trout he caught from Lake Purrumbete on Saturday evening (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Andrew Johnson, Dennis O’Brien and Peter Dawson were in a quandary whether to go out on Saturday afternoon, but put in off Clifton Springs they did, and – as far as they could tell – were the only ones to do so.
Whiting were hard to find, and with a strong north-westerly pushing up against the incoming tide, fishing was difficult.
But after making several moves, both out deep and in shallow, they eventually hit paydirt in 4.8 metres of water offshore from the Pelican Shores caravan park, and by evening, they were well within reach of their respective bag limits.
But then a seal showed up – probably the same one that harassed them the previous week – and that was that.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire reports having boats out on Sunday, but with squid and whiting absent, flathead saved the day once again.
Neal Dowsett with a couple of good size redfin from Lake Fyans.
Freshwater
Michael Evans of Victorian Inland Charters regularly provides good fishing for his clients, and in between times does a bit of prospecting himself, and on Saturday evening caught a nice female brown trout from Lake Purrumbete.
The fish measured 69 cm, weighed 3.75 kg, and was taken on a bent minnow surface lure, cast around the edges of the shallow weed beds.
Michael also caught several nice redfin to 37 cm on 3” minnow-style soft plastics in a natural green colour rigged with a ¼ ounce jig-head at depths from 18-20 metres.
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that Tullaroop Reservoir is fishing well according to club member Brodie Harrison who reported the captures of redfin of up to 1.8 kg, with the bigger fish on the bite just on dark.
Kevin also mentions that Lake Fyans, at the foot of the Grampians, is also producing some very large redfin, mainly on soft plastics, and sent in a picture Neal Dowsett with a couple of beauties.
We don’t get many reports from Wurdiboluc Reservoir, but among those who do fish this water successfully is Andrew Ketelaar who paid a visit early last week.
Casting and retrieving his 12 gram, Nories Wasaby Spoon across the deeper pockets among the weed – as was his approach on his last visit – tempted several rainbow trout, the biggest weighing in at 2 kg.
Some 80 waters around the state have been stocked with rainbow trout for the school holidays, three of which are in close, or fairly close proximity to Geelong.
St Augustine’s water hole in Highton received 750, Bannockburn Lagoon 300, and Lethbridge Lake 300.
Michael Evans shows off one of the redfin he caught on a soft plastic from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters).
Michael asks:
It’s my understanding that if floating natural gas terminals are built in Corio Bay and off Avalon Beach, these terminals will discharge chlorinated water used to clean them. They would also change the temperature in surrounding waters. What impact is this likely to have on fish and other marine life?
Michael, as it happens, I’ve already looked into this proposal, and – in my opinion – there is no way these gas storage and transfer terminals should go ahead, certainly not in the least tidal affected and within the lowest water exchange in the whole of Port Phillip Bay.
The toxicity of chorine is well known and exposure to chlorination, even in the short term, would be deleterious to marine life; repeated exposures would decimate all marine life within close proximity.
In regard to the well-known refrigerating effect of gas transfer, to which I assume you refer – in my opinion – would not only create artificial polar conditions within close proximity, shutting down all marine life – and that would include at existing aquaculture sites like those off Avalon – within reach of these cold-water plumes.