Short changed: Charter boat operator Ivan Bereza with the snapper that came up a bit short.
Offshore
With a good weather forecast for Sunday, Chris Stamalos was out through Barwon Heads and at anchor in 30 metres of water by daybreak, his berley trail soon attracting a shoal of slimy mackerel; great bait for the bigger fish out here.
And a perfect pink dawn was matched by the colour of Chris’ first good fish, a snapper of about 3 kg. It was followed by two more of the same size before all went quiet … that was until around 7.00 am when another reel growled off, the rod it was on buckling over.
But this fish was clearly no snapper; peeling metre after metre of line from a brand new outfit he was using for the first time. However, patience eventually prevailed for Chris with a school shark of possibly 25 kg in his landing net.
End of term: Chris Stamalos with the school shark he caught offshore from Barwon Heads on Sunday.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Ivan Bereza of Geelong Boat Hire and Fishing Charters has had no problems finding snapper for his clients off Curlewis, so when his brother-in-law Bill, and his two sons, Christopher and William began talking snapper, he knew just where to take them.
One fish of 42 cm was a good start, but it wasn’t until an hour or so after that, that another rod buckled over, the reel howling for several seconds before a mako shark, well over two metres in length, leapt from the water.
And they did catch a snapper: It should have been around 5 kg, but it came up a bit short, missing about a third of its body up from the tail.
And, speaking of mako sharks in Corio Bay, Darcy Scott hooked a very large specimen on his snapper gear on Sunday morning near the Nine Foot Bank. It leapt from the water several times before breaking free, and – interestingly – was accompanied by another smaller mako that appeared near the boat while the bigger fish was in play.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that good fishing has been a blessing, especially if you are an early starter like Dean McDermott who set off at 3.00 am to be rewarded with a mixed bag of whiting, flathead and pinkie snapper to 2 kg from the mussel farm.
Bigger fish have been on the go as well said Mike, with Charlie Grasso’s catch including snapper to 4.2 kg.
Kevin and Amber Wild with a sample of their weekend’s redfin catch (Picture: Amber Wild).
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports a case of flathead-elbow this week, having cleaned and scaled so many for his clients. Squid have been a bit scarce though said Rod, but cuttlefish are present and fishing for whiting has been good.
And speaking of whiting, a 4.00 am start off the Swan Island grass beds at Queenscliff on Friday put Murray and Darcy Scott into a full-on whiting bite. They boated their respective bag limits of 20 fish each on the incoming tide before daybreak, the bigger specimens approaching 40 cm.
Also on Friday, Peter Dawson, Steven Timmins and his son Luke, picked up 27 beautiful whiting to 40 cm off Portarlington in the afternoon before giving Andrew Johnson – who had just finished work – a call.
Luke abandoned ship, but Andrew and Dennis O’Brien were only too happy to join Pete and Steve on the whiting, but – as it turned out – they were now clearly off the bite.
So, following an executive decision on tactics, they put heavier leaders on their whiting gear and headed north across the Point Richards channel hopeful of catching a snapper.
They caught twelve as it turned out, not monsters by any means, but at an average size just shy of 3 kg, it was a memorable catch.
Jamie Dixon (right) with his 6 year old son Harley and one of their carp from the Barwon River.
Freshwater
Jamie Dixon and his 6 year old son Harley fished from the Barwon River near the James Harrison Bridge in Belmont where they had no trouble catching European Carp. These ranged in size from 3 kg to one purler that bottomed out their 8 kg scales. All were caught using a combination of corn kernels and bread for bait.
Maryborough Angling Club members Kevin and Amber Wild fished Tullaroop Reservoir over the weekend, and jigging with Storm micro jigs, they caught any amount of redfin in 8-9 metres of water, keeping nine from 38 to 43.5 cm.
William Little and Dean Wombell with a sample of their blue eye trevalla catch over the weekend (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Portland
With good weather over the weekend, Bob McPherson headed out to the shelf off Portland with Dean Wombell and William Little. They were hoping for some deep water action, which they achieved in spades with bag limit catches of blue eye trevalla.