Laurence Hill with his 3.85 kg brown trout from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters).
Michael Evans with his 3.6 kg chinook salmon from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters).
Lake Purrumbete
Early last week, Michael Evans of Victorian Inland Charters had clients David Hill and his son Laurence down from Wollongong, and – anchoring up on Lake Purrumbete in 16 metres of water – they fished for redfin.
But as it turned out, they got more than they bargained for, for as well as catching redfin, one of the live minnow Laurence had on for bait was taken by what turned out to be a 74 cm, 3.85 kg brown trout.
Michael sometimes has a free session, and on the most recent occasion, broke out the pilchards, fillets from which he baited up on his running sinker rig and fished in 20 metres of water for chinook salmon.
Initially, all he managed to catch were some newly released yearlings to 30 cm or so. But then, he hooked a much better fish that turned out to be a 3.6 kg chinook salmon.
Ivan Taradick with a sample of the snapper that he and Mark Sesar caught out wide from Clifton Springs on Sunday evening (Picture: Mark Sesar).
Damon Sherriff with a 9.2 kg snapper that he caught just offshore from Bridport, Tasmania last week, using freshly caught calamari for bait.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Finding the whiting slow on Sunday afternoon, Mark Sesar and Ivan Taradick headed out wide from Clifton Springs, baiting up their snapper gear with silver whiting and squid heads.
A good move as it turned out, for it wasn’t long before Mark caught a nice snapper of around 5 kg followed by Ivan picking up two around 4 kg apiece.
A run of good size pinkies followed before Mark was onto another good fish of around 5 kg, just on dark.
And, speaking of snapper, Damon Sherriff has had a great season catching snapper just offshore from Bridport in northern Tasmania, and continues to send me photos of the great fish he catches, and usually releases. His most recent big fish weighed 9.2 kg and was taken on freshly caught calamari.
On Sunday Morning, Mark Richards, his son Ted 12, and friend Carl Alexander, tried for whiting over one of their usually productive spots off the Leopold Caravan Parks.
The bite was a little slower than they would have liked, but they persisted, finishing up with a total of 17 whiting, all really good size fish, the biggest around the 40 cm mark.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that Australian salmon schooling off Point Henry have saved the day for some, but whiting have been a little harder to catch.
Local anglers Peter and Des apparently struggled for a bag of 13 off Beacon Point, and that’s been the case for many, said Mike, but it would seem better prospects were to be had further down the Peninsula.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that clients did better than usual on the whiting, particularly on Sunday with good weather providing plenty of scope from Grassy Point, south to the Governor Reefs.
Pinkie snapper were also taken, said Rod, mostly from the deeper water, both by anglers at anchor and by those fishing on the drift for flathead.
Offshore
Aboard Adamas charters on Sunday morning, Simon Werner’s clients caught any amount of flathead on the drift, more than 30 of which were keepers to a kilogram along with a good many slimy mackerel, but were frustrated by the numerous tuna they could see but couldn’t catch.
With the morning’s charter out of the way, Simon, and companion Michael Dean, decided to head out themselves in pursuit of the tuna. And, although they managed to catch one of 16 kg, it was still a largely frustrating exercise.
Kevin and Amber Wild, and Kevin’s daughter Nikita, with their 103 cm cod from Lake Mulwala.
Kevin and Amber Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club with a nice Murray cod from Lake Mulwala.
Freshwater
Kevin Wild, wife Amber, and Kevin’s daughter Nikita, have just returned to Maryborough from Lake Mulwala where Murray cod were really on-song, with some good ones among them.
At one point, while Amber was playing a fish on one of her two rods, she hooked another on the other. Nikita picked it up but met her match with what turned out to be a 103 cm cod that Kevin eventually helped subdue.
Frank Benvenuto’s 43 cm bass from the Werribee River.
David Cox with one of the yellowbelly he caught from the Werribee River (Picture: Frank Benvenuto).
Frank Benvenuto continues to catch any number of Australian bass from his favourite Werribee River haunts, and in a 30-minute, afternoon session upstream from the weir, he caught three bass, the biggest measuring 43 cm.
They’re not the only species on offer though, for Frank’s friend David Cox who was also fishing nearby, caught and released two yellowbelly, each measuring 35 cm, both on a spinnerbait.