Mick Zsargo with the 77 cm snapper he caught from the Point Lonsdale Pier.
Point Lonsdale Pier
Regular Point Lonsdale Pier fishing identity Miklos (Mick) Zsargo has caught a wide variety from the pier, from salmon which can be plentiful, to squid that he uses to tempt some really good-size snapper.
However, things were pretty slow on his last visit, so – on cleaning a Tommy Ruff he’d caught earlier – he thought its head might make a good bait, so he put that on his hook and cast it out.
Well, at 77 cm and at an estimated 6 kg, the snapper he caught was a pretty good return on the investment of a fish head.
Mitch Ilievski 11, with his 4 kg snapper from Corio Bay’s outer harbour.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Taking an early morning run out from St Helens, Adam Ilievski, his eleven-year-old son Mitch, and Mitch’s friend Hendrix, were hoping for a snapper or two as they headed out past Point Henry into Corio Bay’s outer harbour.
As it turned out, they didn’t have very long to wait, for at 6.00 am, Mitch was into what turned out to be a 4 kg snapper. It was followed by another of 1.5 kg before they topped off their outing with several nice flathead.
Making a daybreak start to catch the last of the incoming tide early last week, Gordon and Carol Williams tried their luck off the east end of the mussel farm at Point Richards hopeful of getting onto the whiting.
And initially they picked up a half dozen nice fish, but they went off the bite as the tide slackened off, something which seemed to encourage undersize pinkie snapper and other bait thieves.
Eventually though, as the ebb tide picked up, they finished with a respectable catch of whiting, the biggest nudging 40 cm, along with a couple of really good size flathead, each around the kilogram mark.
Offshore
Simon Werner has been on charter aboard Adamas, with weather the only stumbling block to good fishing. And, while most seem to enjoy catching bottom species, slimy mackerel, snotty trevalla and varieties of shark, and – dare I say it – tuna, are all currently on offer.
Barwon Estuary
Intending to head out onto the bay after a snapper on Wednesday, but with an unwelcome forecast of strong winds, Stan Owen and Jason Treloar
headed down to the Barwon estuary to catch the afternoon’s incoming tide in the Sheepwash.
While they caught nothing really large, a mixed bag was the order of the day with mullet, salmon, whiting and even a couple of small but legal-size trevally that they put out as live bait hoping to tempt a mulloway, which are rumoured to be present, but they had no luck there.
Garry Ridgeway with a tiger and rainbow trout, samples from his and Lindsay Robinson’s last week’s catch from Lake Purrumbete.
Freshwater
Jack Paasse fished Camperdown’s Lake Bullen Merri from 6.00 pm until 9.30 on Wednesday night, baiting up with a live minnow under a bubble float rig, and at around 7.30, caught a tiger trout of about 900 grams.
He thought that might have been his lot for the evening, but the mudeye he was now using for bait, tempted a well-conditioned brown trout that was clearly over 2 kg, and the largest brown trout he’d caught from the lake in ten years when fish of this size, and larger, were a common catch after dark.
Equipped with a good supply of mudeyes, Garry Ridgeway and Lindsay Robinson fished Lake Purrumbete early last week, and with the stiff breeze, they fished the sheltered weed margins on the north-east side of the lake.
And, apart from sacrificing some baits to the recently released chinook salmon yearlings, their trip produced chinook salmon, rainbow, tiger, and brown trout with the biggest of the latter nudging 3 kg.
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that members have found good fishing in local waters, at Tullaroop Reservoir in particular where Daryl and Craig Watts have had no problem catching redfin to 1.3 kg on soft plastics and Beetlespins.
Stephen Eales took his five-year old-son Mason to the Loddon River below Bridgewater, and – using cheese for bait – caught a couple of cod in the 55 to 58 cm range in an after-dark session behind the Lauke flour mill.
Nicolas asks:
I recall your accounts in past years of folk catching sharks land-based using a Kayak to deploy their baits; something I’d like to do.
I was further encouraged by a fishing website that did mention people currently doing that, but – except to say they were fishing in Corio Bay’s outer harbour – there was absolutely no detail: Nada!
Can you suggest a starting point or location?
Nicolas, the captures I described were taken mainly from ocean-facing beaches where there were some mishaps, including the loss of a Kayak. So, some risk was involved.
While I have no experience of using this technique in Corio Bay, the main challenge facing you is finding an area giving access to around 5 metres of water reasonably close to shore with no obstacles likely to snag you.
Mind you, the summer run of sharks is not limited to the outer harbour, they may be encountered in the inner harbour as well.
Please send your reports to geoffw10@optusnet.com.au, on messenger, or by phone, 03 5248 1307.