Brian Nolan with the hefty school shark he caught offshore from Torquay early last week (Picture: Kevin McLoughlin).
Offshore
Making an early start last week, before the foul weather rolled in, Kevin McLoughlin, Andrew Moffat and Brian Nolan headed out off Torquay where, in around 30 metres of water, they caught several gummies and a school shark that was clearly over 20kg.
They used the fillets of freshly caught barracouta and slimy mackerel for bait in an obviously successful trial of 7/0 Charlie Brown circle hooks.
Fishing a little further out, also off Torquay in just over 40 metres of water, Rick Thomas and Ryan Dickson were also fortunate enough to catch a barracouta or two, and fishing with fillets of those for bait, they too were soon well occupied.
They caught three gummies, the biggest a beauty of 18kg, but – as is often the case – what may have been the catch of the day, a large school shark, gained its freedom after diving beneath the boat.
Also on the job early last week was Chris Stamalos who anchored in 30 metres of water off Barwon Heads, but it was lean pickings at first and a large squid was stealing his baits. He almost managed to net it after bringing it to the surface on one occasion, but it let go at the last minute.
Things settled down after that, but there was no sign of any potential bait fish. However, around 11 o’clock, he caught what turned out to be a seven-gilled shark that Chris estimated to be at least 20 kg: Good eating certainly, but they put up only token resistance when hooked.
Rick Thomas with the 18 kg gummy shark he caught offshore from Torquay early last week (Picture: Ryan Dickson).
Corio Bay
Snapper aficionados Harley Griffiths and Stanley Owen made a pre-dawn start off Avalon early last week hoping to pick up a snapper of two, but again they found the fish they located on their sounder, just off the aquaculture sites, uncooperative.
However, on this occasion they had included their whiting tackle, and a bag of pipis that were eventually brought into play, but their success was moderate, taking just a modest catch of good size whiting among a plethora of tiddlers and toadies.
Off the beach
Fishing last Monday’s big high tide off 50W along Thirteenth Beach initially proved disappointing for Tony Ingram with too much side drift and floating weed. However, things settled down a bit as the tide began falling, and it wasn’t long before he caught a couple of good size Australian salmon, but nothing after that.
Mark asks:
Geoff, as keen snapper fisherman with 15 year experience on the Port Phillip Bay, I do very well on snapper, but I have yet to catch a really big one. My dad tells me you are the man to ask. Can you give me any tips?
Mark, one difficulty in targeting big snapper is that the smaller fish will usually be first to take your bait. My suggestion is to use fish heads for bait on at least one of your lines; those of whiting and small barracouta are particularly good, but others will do.
I suggest that you save the heads of whiting that you or your friends have caught, and small barracouta can often be caught by suspending a pilchard fillet on a flight of ganged hooks over the side of your boat, but not too deep because small flathead can become a nuisance. These are prickly to handle and their heads are difficult to rig as baits.
There are several ways to rig a fish head, but I favour attaching a length of hat elastic, or a size 34 or 36 rubber band, to your hook – preferably a circle of size 3/0 to 5/0 – so there are two free ends dangling from the hook. These are stitched in opposite directions through the eye tunnel (I use a twisted loop of .8mm tie-wire as a needle) and tied off under the head.
I’ve sent you both illustrations and a description of the procedure, and am quite happy to pass same on to anyone else making a request by email.
While using a fish head for bait will still take medium size snapper, it not only selectively excludes the smaller fish; it provides an opportunity to fish into the night when sea lice usually destroy softer baits like pilchards