Leonie Jones of the Maryborough Angling Club with the 66cm Murray cod she caught from Lake Mulwala at the weekend (Picture: Amber Wild).
Freshwater
Soaking a pilchard fillet from the northern bank of Lake Bolac, along the Glenelg Highway during office hours on Friday, Murray Scott was intrigued by a large splash just out from the bank before noticing one of his lines had gone slack.
You guessed it; he’d hooked one of those great rainbow trout this lake is famous for, and which leapt from the water several more times before being coaxed to the bank. It was the only fish he caught though, which – after being gilled and gutted – weighed 2.2kg.
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that six members visited Lake Mulwala at Yarrawonga for their monthly competition over the weekend for a total catch of nine Murray cod. Chicken was the best bait, out-fishing everything else.
Their largest cod measured 70cm and was taken by Greg Street while Leonie Jones was runner up with one of 66cm.
Kevin also reports that club member Danny Miller fished Lake Tullaroop at the weekend taking a good catch of redfin to 35cm while trolling lures at some depth using a downrigger.
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that good size brown trout are still on offer: Warren Hails of Sunshine caught one of just on 2kg, while Melbourne angler Leigh Ryan caught one that weighed 3.4kg. Both were caught trolling.
Greg Street of the Maryborough Angling Club with his 70cm Murray cod from Lake Mulwala (Picture: Amber Wild).
Corio Bay Bellarine Peninsula
It’s been lean pickings for whiting on Corio Bay following our recent bad weather, but Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien, who – after making several moves – hit a good patch off the Leopold Caravan parks on Friday afternoon that yielded 20 fish 40 cm.
But that was before the undersize pinkies moved in at around 4.00 pm and there were hoards of those. Moving elsewhere proved no salvation either for the little blighters seemed to everywhere.
Harley Griffiths and Stanley Owen were out on Corio Bay before daybreak in their search for snapper late last week, finding a sure indication of same on their sounder off Point Lillias, but despite their best efforts they proved unco-operative.
Returning to the ramp, a flock of circling birds caught their attention and salvaged their trip with any amount of Australian salmon to 800 grams or so taking their lures.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head was on the verge of repetitive strain injury after cleaning bucket loads of flathead taken by clients who picked them up on the drift toward the end of last week. Squid were present too said Rod but somewhat patchy.
Andrew Phillips and Tony Greck found them scarce as well, coming up dry on their first few drifts out that way on Saturday morning, but moving into deeper water proved fruitful though with the first of these tasty cephalopods coming aboard.
As is usually the case with this persistent pair, they fished well into the afternoon and finished up with a bag limit catch that included a couple around the 1.5 kg mark.
Murray Scott snapped this shot of the rainbow trout he caught from Lake Bolac on Friday.
Conrad asks
I’ve been persuaded to use lead-cored line for added depth when trolling for trout in the Camperdown Lakes. The problem is that I am having difficulties attaching it to the backing on my reel. Can you offer any suggestions please?
Conrad, the best approach is to peel back the Dacron sleeve at the start of your lead-cored line so that about 25cm of the lead core is exposed. The lead core is then snipped off so that the braided sleeve can then be loop-spliced with either a splicing needle, or – as I have used on occasion – a doubled over length of stiff, light-gauge single-strand wire.
Having completed that first loop splice, which is best connected to your backing with interlocking loops, the lead cored line is wound onto your reel. The procedure is then repeated to form a second loop splice, enabling a monofilament leader to be attached, also with interlocking loops, to which your lure is attached.
There are a good many YouTube presentations showing this procedure, some incorporating swivels. However, my advice is to avoid the use of swivels on any junction between the lead core line and leader that is to be wound in through the rod guides.