Gun angler, Muhammad Faiz Azmi, with a sample of his silver trevally catch from the Sheepwash boat ramp pontoon on Thursday afternoon.
Barwon Heads
There were few, if any boats out on the Barwon estuary in Thursday’s breezy conditions, but land-based anglers were catching some nice silver trevally.
Among them was Muhammad Faiz Azmi, who – in reply to my inevitable question – proudly displayed an impressive catch of silver trevally in a keeper net he’d secured to the Sheepwash boat ramp’s pontoon.
My next question was, would he mind if I stood by in anticipation of his next catch for a photo?
He didn’t mind at all, but he first hooked three small tailor, all of which bit him off, two escaping with the third hitting the deck, also biting through his trace.
But bite number four was a decent silver trevally that finished up in his already overcrowded keeper net, and of course as a digital record in my camera.
St Helens regular, Frank Simon with the 75 cm snapper he caught from the rocks at St Helens on Sunday afternoon
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Frank Simon spends a fair bit of time fishing at St Helens, and on Saturday evening he tried his luck with light tackle from one of the pontoons within the boat launching area where he caught several mullet.
They weren’t really big enough for the table, but with snapper a definite possibility he decided to use them for bait on his heavier tackle the following day. And, although he to wait until early Sunday afternoon, his strategy paid off with the capture of a 75 cm snapper.
With the current run of northerly winds, Derrick Hargreaves and Harley Griffiths anchored up in around five metres of water off Point Wilson last week, hopeful of catching a few whiting.
This they did, but the surprise of the trip was, after almost getting spooled on his relatively light tackle, Derrick brought in what eventually turned out to be yet another 75 cm snapper they estimated at 6 kg.
The rise in water temperature from 10.5 to the current 12.5 degrees began earlier than usual this year, and – as expected – was enough to trigger the appetites of the snapper wintering in Corio Bay.
With an improvement in the weather on Friday, Andrew Johnson and Steve Timmins were out off Curlewis by 7.15 am.
And, as luck would have it, they dropped straight onto a hot whiting bite, each taking their respective bag limit catches of whiting from 34 to 41cm by 8.45 using strips of squid and pipis for bait.
Also taking advantage of a break in the weather late on Friday afternoon, Andrew Phillips and Tony Greck headed down off the entrance of Swan Bay to fish the ebb tide for whiting, and as usual, they bagged out with their biggest measuring 44 cm.
However, a couple of screaming runs, ultimately ending in bust-offs, persuaded them to break out their heavier tackle which was generously baited with squid, and that accounted for three snapper, each around the two-kilogram mark.
Murray and Darcy Scott headed out that way on Saturday, picking up their respective bag limit catches of squid to approximately 1.5 kg on the drift, fairly close in off the entrance to Swan Bay.
And, with the St Leonards boat ramp still being re-furbished, Simon Werner launched of Indented Head, and fishing offshore from St Leonards, picked up his bag limit of ten squid, five of which were nudging the kilogram mark.
Derrick asks:
Geoff, I have noticed that you don’t promote catch-and-release in any of your articles. Shouldn’t you be doing that?
Derrick, anglers have an obligation to release undersize and unwanted fish. There is also a sound argument for releasing some large fish, particularly the pregnant females of same.
On the other hand, the widespread practice of catching, then releasing, large numbers of legal size and edible fish purely for the angler’s amusement, particularly on very light tackle, is – I feel –questionable.
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