Gary Mayr and Keith Fry with the kingfish they caught offshore from Barwon Heads.
Offshore
With a break in the weather last week, Keith Fry, Gary Mayr and John Porter headed out off Barwon Heads with the squid they’d already caught off Clifton Springs, for bait.
Slimy mackerel were on the bite, and they also caught several pinkie snapper, a sergeant baker and a gurnard before the action tapered off. But, toward stumps, Keith hooked something much larger; and Gary was on too.
Initially, it appeared they may have hooked the same fish, but when Gary brought in a 67 cm, 2.8 kg kingfish with Keith still hooked up, they realized that couldn’t be the case: Keith’s kingfish was somewhat larger at 6.2 kg
Also fishing off Barwon Heads that day was Ben Cranage who caught a mako shark. No details were given, but from the photo it looked to be at least 50 kg.
Mako sharks must be about, for on Sunday, Kevin McLoughlin caught and released two small ones off Torquay.
These were taken on slimy mackerel, which have been plentiful offshore lately, and have proven to be – when conditions permit – effective live bait for kingfish at Port Phillip Heads.
However, as luck would have it, Australian salmon in the 70 cm range, which are more plentiful here than kingfish, often beat them to it.
Ben Cranage with a mako shark he caught offshore from Barwon Heads last week
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs reports that small pinkie snapper are nuisance off The Springs, but Adam Robinson and Dave Howell took five keepers along with a mixed bag of silver trevally and flathead out toward the channel.
Whiting have been a little slow said Mike, but on Sunday, Andrew Johnson, Dennis O’Brien and Peter Dawson caught 17 good size specimens in 4 metres of water off Curlewis before the bite shut down.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head also reports that whiting are about but can take a bit of finding, and squid have been scarce. Flathead are plentiful though, but uncertain weather has kept most from the more productive grounds further out.
From the Beach
With particularly low evening tides early last week, Ray Millman fished from Cosy Corner at Torquay where pinkie snapper were on the bite as soon as he arrived on dusk.
Although most were on the small side, there were some better fish among them with the biggest of the keepers close to 40 cm.
Fishing from RAAF’s Beach at Ocean Grove, Tony Ingram was also among the pinkies, struggling to keep a bait on in fact, but again, some larger fish came on after dark with a couple around the 50 cm mark.
Freshwater
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that among those to catch good size brown trout over the weekend was Drew Young from Spotswood. He picked up one of 2.9 kg while Joe Bailey, and his son Matt of the Greenvale Angling Club, caught another of similar size.
Redfin remain the main catch from the lake though said John, who fished with Jeremy Richardson of Colac for a tally of 60 reddies to 600 grams using live minnow for bait.
Portland
Down Portland way, Bob McPherson reports that bluefin tuna to 18 kg or so have made an appearance off Portland with most being caught in the vicinity of the ship anchorage north east of the harbour. They’re a bit skittish though said Bob, so small lures might be the go.
Roland asks:
Geoff, I caught a silver trevally that had some creature in its mouth that looked like a large slater: What could that have been?
Roland, your description of, what appeared to be a slater, is fairly accurate and has been used to describe various parasitic marine isopods like the one you describe.
The following is from an article written by Melissa Martin of the Australian Museum entitled “Ouch! An isopod grabbed my tongue” https://australianmuseum.net.au/blog-archive/science/ouch/
“Tongue biters are isopods (a type of crustacean) belonging to the family Cymothoidae. This whole family consists of fish parasites, some of which attach to the fish’s mouth, others to the gills and fins, while others burrow into the flesh. They’re found on hundreds of species of marine and freshwater fishes throughout the world’s tropical and temperate regions.”