Sagar, Lovish and Rohan with their bronze whaler, taken from the Point Lonsdale Pier in the early hours of Friday morning.
With bronze whaler sharks presently plentiful along our coast, it’s no wonder the Point Lonsdale Pier – a traditional hot-spot for catching them since the mid-1960s – has received some attention from shark fishing hopefuls of late.
On Thursday night, Rohan Kabir, along with brothers, Sagar and Lovish, arrived for such a session, and at 3.30 am, the small tuna Rohan had on for bait was taken by what turned out to be a bronzie of just over two metres in length.
Grazio Dalli with the bronze whaler he caught from the Point Lonsdale Pier in the early hours of Saturday morning.
On Friday night, Grazio Dalli also put in a session, and – accompanied with thunder, lightning and drenching rain – it wasn’t at all surprizing that he had the pier to himself.
He pulled the hook on his first shark encounter; that was sometime after 3.00 am. But there was no mistake with the second, eventually subduing a slightly smaller bronzie than the one Rohan and his brothers caught the night previous.
Needless to say, all of the aforementioned will have sufficient flake for quite some time.
Aldo Mase with the metre-long kingfish that took everybody aboard charter boat Adamas by surprize (Picture: Rod Lawn).
Off the beach
Ray Millman had caught quite few a juvenile bronze whalers from various beaches of late, and – motivated to catch a bigger specimen – he arrived at Jan Juc with his heaviest surf fishing outfit before dark. First off, he began a lure-casting exercise, hopeful of catching a decent size Australian salmon for bait, but although he persisted until nightfall, no salmon were forthcoming.
But he fished on into the night with what bait he had, taking four respectable pinkie snapper, and at around 1.00 am, he caught a gummy shark of approximately 7 kg; a worthwhile catch certainly, but not perhaps, all he was after.
Darcy from Epping with a redfin and a cheetah trout that he caught from Lake Purrumbete (Pictures: John Clements).
Offshore
Deckhand Simon Werner reports that Adamas charters’ crew were catching pinkie snapper and good size whiting off Ocean Grove when client, Aldo Mase, hooked something that just kept swimming.
Initially, there was a general consensus that it was probably a ray, and just a waste of time. But, something about it aroused their curiosity and Aldo was encouraged to play it out: A good move as it turned out, for – after a considerable passage of time – it eventually turned out to be whopping great kingfish. While they had nothing to weigh anything of this size, it stretched to tape out to a metre.
Maryborough Angling Club member Greg Streets with a 93 cm Murray cod that he caught from Lake Mulwala (Picture: Leonie Jones).
Maryborough Angling Club member Kevin Wild, with the Spanish mackerel he caught, on charter, off “Jumpinpin” (Picture: Amber Wild).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that local anglers have taken good catches of whiting from Curlewis, The Dell, and out toward the mussel farm: Among them were Andrew and Jenny Johnson, who returned with the goods on Friday afternoon.
Mind you they had to work pretty hard for their catch, moving position probably 7 times when each bite shut down, and returning a good many fish that didn’t quite make their personal size limit of around 33 cm. Even so, they finished with 27 keepers from 34 to 43 cm using pipis and squid strips for bait.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire reports that squid of mixed sizes have been taken in some quantity from Grassy Point near Portarlington, to the Governor Reefs off Indented Head, while whiting, while present in some angler’s catches, were by no means plentiful.
Freshwater
John Clements reports that excellent fishing from Lake Purrumbete has had an unfortunate side effect in the accumulation of discarded fish offal and frames from the cleaning table. So, please do the right thing and put your discards in the bin instead of tossing them into the lake.
Western District fisherman, Jack Passe, reminds anglers that the boat ramp at Lake Bullen Merri was closed last week for a $2.5 million upgrade that will possibly take four months. For more information, please contact Corangamite Shire on 5593 7100.
Bullen Merri has had another outbreak of blue/green algae, which is not nearly as bad as most of its previous outbreaks. This is possibly due to Corangamite Shire’s 12-month trial of solar-powered, ultrasound units supplied by EnviroSonic. The effect these units produce is to cause the algal cells to collapse, leaving fish and other aquatic life unaffected.
Should anyone require additional details about this trial, please feel free to contact Lyall Bond at lyall.bond@corangamite.vic.gov.au
David Goleby with a 95 cm mulloway that he caught on Saturday while fishing just offshore from Brisbane’s Moreton Island.
Upstate
Fishing off Brisbane’s Moreton Island on Saturday, David Goleby dropped over a live squid; a tempting bait that soon claimed a 60 cm snapper. With the bait still intact, he dropped it over once more, this time it tempted what turned out to be a 95 cm mulloway.
Maryborough Angling Club member, Kevin Wild, who was attending his son’s wedding on the Gold Coast with wife Amber, sent through a photo of himself with a Spanish mackerel, one of several fish they caught about 3 km out from “Jumpinpin” on a charter. Amber also caught some nice fish including a snapper.
Fishing personality John Bell reports on his trip to the Jewel Reef which is just north of Lizard Island in the Coral Sea: A “crazy topwater bite,” said he, sending in a picture of one of his fish, a freshly caught yellowfin tuna.
John Bell with a yellowfin tuna; a sample of the great fishing to be had at Jewel Reef in the Coral Sea.
Correction
The gentleman I named Meng Zhang last week, was in fact Meng Cheong: Apologies there.