Charter boat skipper Matt Cini and his deckhand Rambo Lawson with their 169 kg tuna (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Portland
By mid-day on Thursday, clients aboard Matt Cini’s “Reel Time Charters” had all taken their respective bag limits of southern bluefin tuna, when – while passing Cape Sir William Grant on their return to Portland – a lure deckhand Rambo Lawson had out was taken.
The tuna he hooked was not only the catch of the day, but at 169 kg, and stretching the tape out to 2.5 metres from its nose to the tail fork, it was the biggest tuna taken from Portland’s waters since Ken Hines and Cameron Ordner of Port Fairy caught the first of these big fish back in June 2006. And, as far as we know, it’s the second biggest fish of this species taken on rod and reel in Australia.
Scott Gray of Warrnambool with a sample of the trophy size brown trout to be caught from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Scott Gray).
Scott Gray and Colby Lesko with another sample of their catches of brown trout and redfin from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Scott Gray).
Offshore
Chris Stamalos made a daybreak start in perfect weather off Barwon Heads on Saturday, but – as is sometimes the case in such conditions – there was nothing doing.
But he stuck it out, and his luck changed around mid-day when one of his rods buckled over; line howling from his reel to the tune of a 28 kg school shark that Chris – in the closing stages of the engagement – had to disentangle from his anchor rope, an exercise costing him his sinker and a hook but thankfully, not his prize catch.
Chris Stamalos with the 28kg school shark he caught off Barwon Heads on Saturday.
Andrew Phillips with Mark and Tina Sesar, and Saturday’s whiting catch.
Corio Bay
Also making a daybreak start on Saturday, Andrew Phillips, along with Mark and Tina Sesar fished their favourite whiting patch east of Point Henry, but – as has been the case lately – most of the fish they caught, although better than legal size, were somewhat smaller than we have come to expect.
Eventually though, after a series of moves, they located a patch of larger fish in 6.5 metres of water offshore from the Winchester factory, and from which they each took their respective bag limit catches.
Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien, along with Chris Mortimer, also found the larger whiting somewhat hard to come by, but eventually they found a productive patch of better fish between Hermsley Road Curlewis and the Leopold caravan parks. They kept 15 of these, returning many more legal size but smaller fish.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that his clients caught plenty of squid over the weekend, and there were some good size specimens among them. Whiting were scarce though said Rod, with flathead saving the day for most. However, one group returned somewhat shaken following a close encounter with what they described as a large shark.
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club with a 49 cm redfin (Picture: Amber Wild).
Lake Tullaroop boat ramp offers a relatively smooth ride down but is somewhat bumpy at the bottom, which will be undoubtedly be the case until we get more rain. (Picture: Amber Wild).
Freshwater
Kevin and Amber Wild of the Maryborough and Club, and Amber’s dad Don Rayner, fished Lake Tullaroop near Maryborough over the weekend for a good catch of redfin to 49 cm. And, they weren’t the only ones to do so with possibly 50 craft on the water over the weekend.
Some of their fish were taken while jigging with bobbers in 13 metres of water, while others were taken downrigging.
John Clements of Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that brown trout are still on offer with Chris Farrugia, and his son Charlie of Oaklands Junction, picking up eight to 3kg, of which they returned seven. These were taken both by surface trolling and downrigging.
Chinook salmon are still being taken as well, said John, with Tim Beusmans of Geelong catching several to 1.5kg or so on a Daiwa Double Clutch, while Yuri Corbett of St Albans took a similar catch on cut pilchard fished just above the bottom.
Don Rayner with one of his redfin from Lake Tullaroop (Picture: Amber Wild).
Kevin and Amber Wild with a sample of their catch of redfin (Picture: Amber Wild).
Steve asks:
Geoff, I was fishing with live bait in the Barwon estuary recently when my rod began shaking violently. On retrieving my line, I found the live fish I’d been using for bait had been bitten in half: What would that have been?
Steve, tailor have been present in the Barwon estuary with quite a few approaching a kilogram in size, in fact I caught one myself there a few weeks ago, and judging by the bite you describe it was almost certainly a tailor.
I doubt they would be present now though, given that the estuary is heavily discoloured following recent rain, except perhaps for the lower reaches that clean up during the latter stages of the incoming tide.