Tony Mollenhauer and Andrew Johnson with their snapper from the Wilson Spit.
Jesse Mitchell with two nice snapper from the Point Wilson shallows.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Snapper are about, and Daniel Cvijanovic, who was fishing out off The Waterfront with Gustavo and Alexia Kurten on Sunday morning, caught one of around 7 kg at 9.30 am.
Also hoping for a snapper, Nick Swifte made daybreak off Point Henry and fished with half pilchards for bait just south of the No 8 channel marker.
His first cab off the rank was a gummy shark, usually a welcome catch but perhaps not when fishing for snapper.
As it turned out though, they weren’t far away, and the one Nick hooked, soon after catching the gummy, put up a great fight, eventually greeting the scales for a verdict of 7 kg.
Tony Ortega, Alexia Kurten, Daniel Cvijanovic with the sevengilled shark (Picture: Kurten Gustavo).
Daniel Cvijanovic with a snapper he caught offshore from Eastern Beach.
With the same species in mind, Andrew Johnson and Tony Mollenhauer headed up the Wilson Spit Channel, and anchoring just north of the No 5 channel marker, were soon in business.
Finishing up with four snapper, the biggest two, each around the 6 kg mark, the pair returned with smiles on their faces.
Michael Bealham fished with his friend Jessie Mitchell off Point Wilson last week, also hopeful catching a snapper or two.
They caught three as it turned out, all good size fish – using squid for bait that they’d caught the day before off Clifton Springs – and in only 3.5 metres of water.
Michael said they fished here because of the number of sevengilled, and possibly other species of shark that he’d encountered – and been bitten off by – in all of the deeper areas he’d tried previously.
Shark encounters were also experienced by Tony Ortega and his crew who’d already been warned by his friend Daniel Cvijanovic that he’d been bitten off a number of times on previous trips.
However, Tony and Daniel, along with Alexia and Gustavo Kurten, caught a fair size giller, of which Tony sent in a photo, but unfortunately, caught no snapper on that occasion.
Michael Bealham with a 6 kg snapper that he caught off Point Wilson.
Having previously had a good session on the snapper with Tony Mollenhauer, on Saturday, Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien went in search of whiting off Curlewis.
They had to make a good many moves to find them, but fishing in only 3.5 metres of discoloured water they finished up with bag limit catches of fish to 42 cm, all taken on strips of squid.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that clients have taken respectable catches of whiting, and he got amongst them himself less than a hundred metres from the shore.
Squid are also present said Rod, but you do have to work for them.
Ella Edgecombe 8, with her 5.4 kg rainbow trout from the Goulburn.
Nick Swifte with the 7 kg snapper he caught offshore from Point Henry.
Freshwater
Fishing the Goulburn River near Alexandra with family friend Trent Price, eight-year-old Ella Edgecombe had already caught a 1.6 kg rainbow trout on a scrubworm, which – I dare say – was pretty exciting.
It was nothing compared to what she hooked next though;
The fish she now has bragging rights for turned out to be a rainbow trout that weighed 5.4 kg, also caught on a scrubworm.
Snobs Creek fish stocking coordinator, Rhiannon Atkinson, advises that Lake Bullen Merri will receive some 5000 rainbow trout averaging 70 grams at 1.15 pm on Thursday, October 13.
Should anyone be interested in attending, please email Rhiannon at rhiannon.atkinson@vfa.vic.gov.au for any changes that may occur.
Lachie Wombell with a nice Tassie trumpeter taken off Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Lachie Wombell with a school shark taken off Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Portland
With good weather on Sunday, Bob McPherson and Lachie Wombell headed out into the deeper water off Portland where, to say they caught a mixed bag would be an understatement with Tassie trumpeter, ling, nannygai and both school and gummy shark.
Roger asks:
Geoff, if you recall, I wrote to you back in March concerning The Curdies near Peterborough which had suffered not only a catastrophic fish kill, but – from my information – some two dozen cattle had also died on the banks of the river.
Do you know what the state of The Curdies is now?
Roger, I spoke to Doug Lucas who is an authority of all things piscatorial down that way and he said The Curdies has recovered with both bream and estuary perch on offer.
In addition to that, the Corangamite Catchment Authority are distributing additional timber to provide fish habitat in areas where, historically, misguided de-snagging had taken place.