Jack Sherriff with the 2.63 kg black bream he caught from the Brid River at Bridport in north eastern Tasmania on Wednesday morning (Picture: Damon Sherriff).
The Brid River at very low tide.
Fishing Tassie
The bream are bigger in Tassie, and tempting them with square-backed crab and prawn from the Brid River in north eastern Tasmania on Wednesday of last week, were Bridport resident Damon Sherriff and his son Jack.
They failed to connect on a couple that went the crab, but a magnificent 2.63 kg (5-pound 13 ounce) black bream that fell for the raw prawn did the trick for Jack, and of which Damon sent in a photo.
Snapper were also about: Damon caught 4 beauties to 80-odd centimetres in breezy conditions on Saturday afternoon, just offshore from the Bridport harbour entrance in 9 metres of water.
All were caught on fresh mullet heads, Damon’s favourite snapper bait.
Damon Sherriff with one of the four snapper he caught while fishing offshore from the Bridport harbour entrance on Saturday afternoon (Picture: Damon Sherriff).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
With disagreeable weather for most of the week, there was certainly plenty of elbow room on both Corio Bay’s inner and outer harbours, so – with snapper on their mind – Derrick Hargreaves and Ben Davis soaked a few pilchards out toward Point Henry where there was some shelter.
Anchoring just south of the Hopetoun Channel proved fairly comfortable, and produced a couple of nice snapper around the 5 kg mark as well.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire had a lean week with all the easterly winds we’ve been having of late, but on Sunday afternoon, the wind dropped and the punters were lining up.
Not in vain either for whiting were on offer with some good ones to 40 cm –mainly from the Governor Reef area – among them.
Squid were harder to find, said Rod, but those prepared to cover a bit of ground brought in some nice catches, while flathead – again – proved the main chance with good numbers being taken on the drift out wide.
Michael Evans with his brown trout from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters).
Michael Evans with his rainbow trout from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters).
Offshore
A deckhand on Rod Lawn’s charter boat Adamas, Simon Werner reports there are snapper a plenty off Ocean Grove, and – fishing at anchor in 40 metres of water – their clients had no difficulty taking fish to 5 kg on Sunday.
Mind you, it wasn’t a day for small boats, said Simon.
Ken Carmen with his redfin catch from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters).
John Clements with a 96 cm Murray Cod that he caught on a Bardi grub at Lake Mulwala.
Off the beach
With the extra low evening tides early last week, Tony Ingram and Col Simmons fished RAAF’s beach at Ocean Grove where they caught several good size pinkie snapper.
And, after dark, as the tide began coming in, they were hoping for a gummy shark or two, but after being bitten off a couple of times, the sharks that had moved in were obviously of the toothy variety.
Stephen Eales with a pair of redfin from Tullaroop Reservoir, the biggest one measured 49.5 cm (Picture: Amber Wild).
Lachie Wombell with a good size squid from Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Queenscliff
Darcy Scott, along with his young fella Alfie and friend Trent Budinski, headed down to Queenscliff on Sunday in search of squid
Arriving at the ramp around 12.30, they were back an hour or so later after an extremely hot session on the squid, taking 30 beauties from the Lonsdale Bight, the biggest weighing 2 kg.
Freshwater
Michael Evans of Victorian Inland Charters had little difficulty finding good fishing for his clients on Camperdown’s Lake Purrumbete last week, among them Ken Carmen who was after redfin.
They found a good patch in 10 metres of water pretty well straight away and hit them with soft plastics that they took without hesitation. They also caught some on live minnow.
Michael spent quite a bit of time himself in pursuit of the trout, both browns and rainbows, that this water is noted for. And, he caught both; a 48 cm brown trout weighing 1.3 kg and 60 cm, 2 kg buck rainbow.
Both were caught on mudeyes suspended from floats.
Steve O’Keefe headed up Deniliquin way, prospecting for cod on the Edwards River.
As luck would have it, the cod were plentiful but mainly small. However, his biggest fish stretched the tape out to 75 cm.
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that club members have been doing well on redfin from nearby Tullaroop Reservoir of late. Biggest to date measured 49.5 cm and was taken by Stephen Eales.
Kevin, wife Amber, and a handful other club members journeyed to Yarrawonga on Lake Mulwala where chicken proved the most effective bait, with Don Rayner taking the biggest Murray cod at 72 cm. Amber also took a couple of respectable cod of 62 and 68 cm.