Jack Jarvis with the 116 kg tuna he caught offshore from Port MacDonnell last week (Picture: Steve Arthey).
Portland
Early last week, Jack Jarvis, Nathan Forester and Steve Arthey headed offshore from Portland, and on reaching a depth of 50 metres, put out a spread of lures that soon resulted in a strike.
To their surprise, the protagonist turned out to be a mako shark of about 70kg that took a green skirt. But, with the constant presence of killer whales, and perhaps for that reason no sign of tuna, they re-located to Port MacDonnell just over the South Australian border where they fished the following day.
After an early start they headed toward bird activity in the east where Jack hooked a tuna that later weighed 116kg. It kept him busy for two hours, during which time they’d travelled another 5 kilometres out to sea before subduing the prize catch, which – they discovered back at the cleaning tables – had been gorging on squid.
Southern right whales provided a spectacle for bystanders as they swam alongside the Lee Breakwater at Portland at the weekend (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
With squid on the go around the Bellarine Peninsula, Andrew Phillips and Tony Greck headed down to Indented Head on Wednesday. While there was little wind, the ebbing tide provided sufficient coverage over productive ground for each to take their respective bag limit catches of squid, and there were some good ones among them.
Undeterred by the fog early last week, Harley Griffiths and Stanley Owen were out off Clifton Springs, but – although they managed to catch several squid – the whiting did not become compliant until the early afternoon ebb tide. From then on though, they picked up a respectable catch, including a couple approaching 40 cm, using pipis for bait.
Winter snapper aficionados have also been out during the cold nights we’ve had of late, and – although they’ve been regularly sounding up what are almost certainly good size pods of fish from the Geelong Waterfront to Corio – very few have been caught, which is usually the case with the falling water temperatures we’ve experienced of late.
Amber Wild with her prize-winning redfin from Lake Tullaroop (Picture: Kevin Wild).
Freshwater
Lake Tullaroop near Maryborough continues to be a productive location, particularly for redfin, and on Friday, Kevin Wild and his father John picked up 29, the biggest just on a kilogram.
Kevin reports that on Sunday, The Maryborough Angling Club had a competition on the lake which was won by Amber Wild with a 43 cm redfin. Her father Don Rayner came second while Leone James came third.
They were all fishing from the same boat and trolling Feralcatt lures, which certainly produced a great result on the redfin, but seeing several large brown trout following their lures back to the boat without striking was frustrating.
After making a cold start on Lake Purrumbete, Rod Shepherd began his usual assault on the redfin with an assortment of lures including a Pontoon 21 Flash, J Huddles and Magbites, initially with only moderate success, but by 3.00 pm he had what many would have described as a respectable catch.
John Clements of Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that few anglers have been out of late with elements ranging from dense fog to heavy rain, but – as an item of interest – on Wednesday (tomorrow) afternoon, a trial release of 1400 cheetah trout, a hybrid species; brook trout (male) and rainbow trout (female), will be released into the lake.
Hybrid cheetah trout, 1400 of which are being released into Lake Purrumbete tomorrow afternoon (Picture: Victorian Fisheries Authority).
Tony asks:
Geoff, I watched a Foxtel program recently that featured an item on swell sharks, and if they are not our common draughtboard shark, I’ll eat my metaphorical hat. What was of most interest is that they are said – and were visually demonstrated to be – bioluminescent, meaning they glow in the dark. I’ve caught heaps of them, mainly at night and never seen one glow in the dark: Can you shed some light on this?
Tony, in my experience, the terms swell shark and draughtboard shark are interchangeable, and – like you – I’ve never seen one glow in the dark. However, an article I found on line by one Zoe Gough http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150519-the-shark-that-glows-in-the-dark might offer some clarification.
It says that this shark, Cephaloscyllium ventriosum actually glows bright green thanks to fluorescent proteins inside its skin that are activated by blue light. And I quote: “This phenomenon, called biofluorescence, is thought to be a form of communication to other swell sharks that – unlike humans – can see the extraordinary light display”.