Getting a gong: Zavier Anthony 13, of Bell Park with the wobbegong he caught from the beach during the annual Kingston Surf fishing competition in South Australia last week (Picture: Melissa and Raymond Anthony).
Rylan Stewart 5, with a sample of the squid he and father Mark caught off Clifton Springs at the weekend (Picture: Mark Stewart).
South Oz trip
Melissa and Raymond Anthony of Bell Park, along with their 13-year-old son Zavier, visited Kingston in South Australia last week where Zavier entered the annual Kingston Lions, surf fishing competition.
He’d already caught and released several small mulloway that evening, but at about 10.30 pm, he tried for a big one, casting out from the beach with a whole squid. The large bait was obviously too much temptation for a wobbegong measuring over 2 metres long, and which took Zavier 30 minutes to bring in.
Zavier released the wobbegong as well, only to discover the following morning that it would have won a good prize for the largest shark taken; another wobbegong of 57kg caught by Ross Stafford of Mount Gambier taking out that prize.
The overall winner of the competition was Dano Little of Mount Gambier whose 18.4 kg mulloway, the biggest of 36 mulloway weighed in, won him a 410 Polycraft trailer boat.
Kingston Lions sponsor’s representative, Ken Walsh of Techwool Trading Pty Ltd, and Dano Little from Mount Gambier, with the 18.4 kg mulloway, and overall winner of the Kingston (SA) Lions Surf Fishing competition last week and recipient of a fully equipped and registered 410 Polycraft trailer boat that was on offer as first prize.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Mark Stewart, and his 5-year old son Rylan, found a good patch of squid off Clifton Springs, which was something of an adventure for lad, but there was more to come.
Using some of their freshly caught squid for bait in the deeper water, they had no trouble catching pinkie snapper. But then, young Rylan hooked something that Mark described as going like a freight train; the severed trace and teeth and teeth-marks on the line leaving no doubt as to what that was.
Whiting have been good with Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien picking up their respective bag limits on the south side of the mussel farm on Saturday, while Rod Batten and Leo Gmehling caught their respective bag limits in Corio Bay’s inner harbour.
Leo Leo Gmehling and Rod Batten with samples of their whiting catch from Corio Bay’s inner harbour on Saturday evening.
Jason Treloar took a run across the bay from Clifton Springs to fish the feature just east of Point Wilson known as Arthur the Great where he took a mixed bag of whiting, pinkie snapper and flathead using squid and pipis for bait.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head also reports that clients are picking up good catches of whiting although, he said that squid have been scarce. Flathead and pinkies have also been good said Rod, but hordes of voracious undersize snapper have been a nuisance.
Fishing the mouth of Swan Bay on the outgoing tide, Chris Stamalos and Kelvin McLean made good use of their landing net to snare two big flathead that they caught among their mixed bag of flathead, mackerel, silver trevally, whiting and leatherjackets over the weekend.
Lachie Wombell with a sample of the pink ling he and Bob McPherson caught in 620 metres of water of Portland on Saturday (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Ricky Milich with his catch of kingfish taken along Portland’s north shore (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Portland
Bob McPherson reports that kingfish are on the go at Portland and among those to catch them was Ricky Milich. Bob didn’t say what size these were, but from the photos he sent me, Ricky’s fish looked to be around the 9 kg mark.
The “Hooked on Tuna” competition held over the weekend lived up to its namesake with bluefin tuna to 31 kg being taken from the ship anchorage which is between Portland harbour and Lady Julia Percy Island.
As for Bob, he and Lachie Wombell took advantage of good weather on Saturday to head out to the deep mud in 620 metres of water off Portland where they caught several large pink ling.
Leopold Angling Club member Rita Polgar, with a nice squid taken off Clifton Springs (Picture: Ivan Bereza).
Ollie asks:
Geoff, can you provide any guidance, or formula, in regard to the assembling of a lead-line for catching kingfish at Port Phillip Heads?
Ollie, while there is some variation in the lead-lines used for kingfish at Port Phillip Heads, those I’ve assembled for that purpose consisted of fifty metres of 2mm diameter nylon monofilament and 6kgs of No 5-barrel sinkers, which is about 110.
These sinkers are about 60mm in length, and spacing them about 240mm apart – an interval for which you can cut a spacing template from stiff cardboard – will leave the top 25% of the line unleaded.
After unspooling your line and threading on all of the sinkers, attach strong swivels to each end. Then, working back from the end swivel – the one to which you will be tying your leader – and, using your spacing template – space the sinkers evenly along your line, crimping each firmly into place with a hammer and anvil; a cobbler’s shoe-last or the like.
It is customary to attach a sturdy, say 150mm, rubber O ring at the holding point on the line with a “Cat’s Paw” or similar loop connection, enabling a grip or cleating point. The line itself can then be stowed in a stout plastic bucket ready for use