Darcy Scott and Alex Andjelkovic with a sample of last week’s Corio Bay snapper catch.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
With the scent of snapper in the air, Darcy Scott and Alex Andjelkovic arrived at Darcy’s hotspot, just west of Wilson’s Spit, where taking bag limit catches of snapper proved less challenging than another fish Darcy hooked.
The back anchor, used to prevent the boat swinging, presents few problems with snapper because, by the time they’ve been played out and brought alongside, they can usually be manoeuvred around that obstacle.
However, Darcy’s fish showed no sign of quitting: It was in fact, a large gummy shark of perhaps 15 kg, which – on coming into view – wrapped the stern anchor rope, and – with a final burst – snapped the line.
Also into the snapper were Andrew Phillips and Tony Greck.
Anchored just north of the channel off Point Richards by daybreak, they took three from 3 to 5.5 kg in quick succession using squid and silver whiting for bait.
But as the sea calmed off after sunrise, so did their frantic snapper bite.
Paul Rahman found a good patch of whiting within Corio Bay’s inner harbour in just under two metres of water out from the Rippleside jetty.
He took a bag limit catch, something that once would have been exceptional from the inner harbour; likewise for his biggest fish that measured 40 cm.
Lachie Wombell with a sample of his, and Bob McPherson’s catch of squid, whiting and silver trevally off Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Fishing Corio Bay’s outer harbour, initially off Curlewis, Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien found whiting hard to find, but find them they did, down toward Leopold’s caravan Parks, and what great fish they were:
Averaging in the mid-30s, their biggest fish stretched the tape out to 43 cm.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head, reports that whiting were also present down that way – from the Governor Reefs back to Grassy Point – with the bigger fish measuring 40 odd centimetres.
Squid have also been present in good numbers said Rod, but again, flathead have been the main catch with anglers catching any amount on the drift out in the deeper water.
Mick, Mark & David came down from Horsham, and – as you can see – returned with a nice catch of redfin.
Lorne
With persistent easterlies making beach fishing difficult last week, Ray Millman and Callum Stavris arrived at the Lorne Pier at around 4.00 am.
Already present were two anglers catching yellowtail scad (yakkas), from the low landing. And, after polite negotiation, Ray and Callum also joined the fray, catching enough to use as bait, hopefully for something larger.
Not in vain as it turned out, for just on daybreak, Ray’s reel howled off to the tune of what turned out to be a snapper of about 4.5 kg, the first of three they caught before most other anglers arrived.
John Gray with a good size redfin from Tullaroop Reservoir (Picture: Amber Wild).
Don Rayner with a 47.5 cm redfin from Tullaroop Reservoir (Picture: Amber Wild).
Freshwater
Michael Evans of Victorian Inland Charters found fish on Lake Purrumbete for his clients and a few for himself.
The latter included a 60 cm chinook salmon on a 26-gram Tassie Devil and nice tiger trout on a mudeye under a float.
Client George’s catch included a beautiful, 60 cm (3.3 kg), hen brown trout that took a mudeye under a float in the late afternoon after his catch of redfin on live minnow from 10 metres of water with a running sinker rig.
Other clients to catch redfin included Mick, Mark & David from Horsham, Chris, Peter and Daniel from Ballarat and Heath from Geelong. They all caught plenty of redfin to 40 cm or so, mainly using Michael’s running sinker rig in 10 metres or so, but some were taken on soft plastics.
Michael Evans with a 60 cm chinook salmon (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters.
Michael Evans with a nice tiger trout that took a mudeye fished beneath a float (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters.
Manny asks:
Geoff, your mention of the white occys skirts last week reminded me of a much older diagram you made showing the insertion of a small ball sinker in the body, something my uncle – whose an old fisherman – said wasn’t necessary and that you don’t need the sinker: Can you explain?
Manny, those skirted occy lures are designed to be used with a small sinker (usually a size 0) in the head; that is a fundamental design feature of the lure.
Without the sinker; one, they are very difficult (almost impossible) to deploy from the back of a moving boat, especially in a cross wind, and two, the sinker acts as a spacer to position the hook back in the skirt, and to prevent the skirt riding up over the swivel should a hooked fish take line.