Ray Millman’s 15 kg gummy shark from Eastern View.
Carolyn Griffiths with the 1.52 metre gummy shark that she caught offshore from Lorne (Picture: Wayne Griffiths).
Early last week, Ray Millman and Callum Stavros arrived at Eastern View at around 5.00 am for a serious bait fishing exercise from the beach using fillets from some of the Australian salmon Ray had caught here previously, and a good bite shortly after they arrived resulted Ray beaching a 15 kg gummy shark, but all was quiet after that.
Even the salmon, that were so prolific the previous week were absent, except for a few small ones, the fillets from one that they used for bait that tempted a large, unwanted eagle ray.
However, another angler who introduced himself as George from Altona, joined them on the beach for a chat, revealing he had just taken a good catch of Warehou (snotty trevalla) to approximately 800 grams from the nearby Lorne Pier.
Wayne Griffiths reports that fishing offshore from Lorne recently with wife Carolyn produced a number of snapper to 55 cm. However, Carolyn caught the fish of the day, a gummy shark that stretched the tape out to 1.52 metres, and of which he sent me a photo.
Fishing Bancoora Beach on Thursday night’s evening high tide Col Simmons and Tony Ingram had no trouble catching Australian salmon, including some approaching the 2 kg mark, the bite lasting until just on dark when they sacrificed some of their catch for bait, hopeful of catching a gummy shark. However, a plethora of unwanted species, including skates and draughtboard sharks put paid to that exercise.
Maryborough Angling Club member Stephen Eales with a sample of his redfin catch from Tullaroop Reservoir (Picture: Kevin Wild).
Stephen Eales and son Mason 3, with a sample of their catch of redfin from Lake Tullaroop (Picture: Kevin Wild).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
On the water by 9.00 am on Wednesday morning, Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien found the whiting in 5 metres of water off Curlewis. The bite was on right from the start and they had no trouble taking their bag limit of whiting to 42 cm in just two hours.
With the day still young, they broke out the squid jigs, and – fishing on the drift in around 3 metres of water – they also took their respective bag limit catches of squid as well. And, as Andrew said, it was a great day’s fishing in great weather conditions that have been somewhat elusive of late.
Jaimie Behrens with a 15 kg mulloway he caught from the Maroochy River near Bli Bli in QLD last week.
Freshwater
Simon Werner visited Wurdiboluc Reservoir last week, and – casting a Strike Pro Bob N Spoon from the rock wall – picked up three modest size brown trout, and sighted others following his lure.
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that Tullaroop Reservoir continues to produce redfin, and that he fished this water several times last week, variously with other club members including Stephen Eales and Stephen’s 3-year-old son Mason, and John Grey.
While redfin have been the main species caught, with catches sometimes exceeding 40 fish, brown trout are also present. And while they only caught one of modest size, some of the kayakers have taken some good size specimens.
In addition to that, Kevin reports that anglers fly-fishing from the bank of Tullaroop have also been successful, some taking good size brown trout.
George Vlahogiannis’ catch of garfish from the Frankston Pier last week.
Frankston
George Vlahogiannis doesn’t mind fishing the late shift, and – arriving at the Frankston Pier at 1.00 am one morning last week – he was soon into the garfish, and – using silverfish for bait – he’d caught 40 by 4 am and was on his way home.
Ralph asks:
Geoff, I have heard people talk about drop-shotting and drop-shotting rigs; are they the same as paternoster rigs?
Ralph, whereas a paternoster rig makes use of one or more hook-droppers standing out from the main line, the hook on a drop-shotting rig – which may be either baited, or used to present a fly or soft plastic lure – is tied directly to the main line so that it stands out more or less at right-angles.
Whereas, the sinker on a paternoster rig is tied at a fixed distance below the hook or hook dropper, the specialized sinkers used for drop-shotting make use of a wire pinch-loop that enables the sinker to be moved further away from, or closer to, the hook on the line above.
For a more in-depth description, I suggest articles such as https://www.anglingtimes.co.uk/advice/tips/drop-shotting-for-beginners/ would be a good start considering the author – although living in the UK – is fishing for similar species that we do.