Jason Andriske with one of three large brown trout he caught from Lake Tullaroop last Tuesday (Picture: Amber Wild).
Ernie Ollington with a nice redfin from Lake Tullaroop (Picture: Amber Wild).
Freshwater
Maryborough Angling Club has actively lobbied to have boat access to nearby Lake Tullaroop, and on Tuesday last – along with a ministerial visit – this water was indeed opened to kayaks and boats powered with electric motors, and which included boats that were also equipped with fuel powered motors.
Some excellent fish were taken during this event that included a brown trout of 4.5 kg, one of three caught by Maryborough angler Jason Andriske, while redfin, some over the 45 cm mark, were taken by (among others) Ernie Ollington and Brad Sturgess.
At Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park, John Clements reports that although the fishing has been slow, Les Boughton of Geelong caught several chinook salmon to 1.5 kg while Mitch Lee of Greendale had no trouble catching redfin to 800 grams or so on soft plastics.
Keith Fry with a snapper he caught recently off Barwon Heads.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
With a break in the weather last Wednesday, Andrew Phillips and Tony Greck headed off to their usually productive whiting spot to the east of Point Henry, and – while they did catch a few whiting – their baits attracted a good many leatherjackets.
A series of moves located a better class of whiting, some well above the 40 cm mark, and fewer leatherjackets, and by 9.00 am or so they were well on their way to their respective bag limit catches. Also included in their catch were several good size flathead, the biggest measuring 55 cm, and on this occasion, very few undersize pinkie snapper.
On Friday afternoon Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien, headed down to Curlewis in benign conditions in spite of an unfavourable forecast, and caught six good size whiting before the predicted north-westerly came up, persuading their return to the boat ramp.
However, they decided to have one last try at The Dell before retrieving the boat, and as it happened they caught another 24, bringing their tally to 30 before calling it a day. But even with the rough weather they may have tried for their respective bag limits except it was Dennis’ birthday and celebrations had been pre-arranged so their choice was made.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that with good weather early last week, the boat harbour was busy with a variety of fish, including whiting, being taken.
Among the successful anglers were Dominic Nappi and Graham Brown who returned with respectable bags of whiting taken offshore from Hermsley Road Curlewis, using mussel and pipi for bait.
Tom and Ray Doolan with their 106 kg tuna from Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Portland
Down Portland way, tuna continue to be caught, but Bob McPherson reports that most are juveniles to 18 kg or so. However, Tom and Ben Doolan, who were clients of Reelmen Charters, picked up a good one on Thursday that weighed 106 kg.
Chris Stamalos aboard “True Blue” offshore from Surfers Paradise with a 15 kg cobia.
Upstate
Chris Stamalos, whom we often feature in the column, was in Brisbane last week, and along with friend Ian Todd, took a run up to Surfers Paradise where a fishing trip was on the agenda, and aboard the charter boat “True Blue” – along with several other clients – they headed offshore.
The fishing tended to be a little slow, but they’d already caught some live slimy mackerel for bait; so when another charter boat called them over to a hot cobia bite, they were ready to go. But as sometimes happens, the bite had all but finished by their arrival, never the less, Chris caught what turned out to be the catch of the day, a cobia weighing 15 kg.
Brad Sturgess with a pair of redfin from Lake Tullaroop (Picture: Amber Wild).
Joshua asks:
Geoff, I spooled my Abu surf–casting reel with an expensive braided line, but I keep getting backlashes that snap the line when I cast out. Is there a solution?
Joshua, polyethylene gelspun lines, either fused or braided, magnify the difficulties presented when casting with overhead reels. Their finer diameters for given breaking strains, when compared with nylon monofilament, along with being relatively limp and lacking memory, makes them vulnerable to separation at the occurrence of a backlash.
Whereas nylon monofilament lines usually give prior warning of an approaching backlash as the spool begins to over-run – providing a cue to the angler to apply a little more thumb pressure – gelspun lines present no such warning, hence your problem.
The solution is to tighten the casting control on your reel to the point that a sharp pull on the line, with the reel in casting mode, is sufficient to restrict the rotation of your spool to no more than a couple of revolutions. This may impede your casting distance to some extent, but that is the solution to your problem.