Sara Scott with a nice squid from Corio Bay (Picture: Darcy Scott).
Offshore
With good weather on Friday, Dave Batty and Josh Marshall took a run out off Barwon Heads, and – once anchored up in 47 metres of water – were hopeful of catching a snapper or two, or perhaps a gummy shark.
They each took bag limit catches of snapper to 5 kg and a gummy shark that weighed 12 kg, but Dave took the most surprising catch of all, a 1.6 kg crayfish that – obviously attracted to the squid head he had on for bait – became hopelessly entangled in the leader.
Taking a run out off Anglesea, Kevin McLoughlin and his brother Jeremy fished for gummy shark, and with a large bait out heavier tackle should there be any toothy critters about.
They’d caught two average gummies before Jeremy was in the hot seat with what turned out to be a mako shark that Kevin estimated at 40 kg.
Jeremy McLoughlin with his mako shark off Anglesea (Picture: Kevin McLoughlin).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Fishing Geelong’s Waterfront near the Carousel with soft plastics of an evening, Paul Mayer has had no trouble catching snotty trevalla to 400 grams or so and any amount of pinkie snapper. Most are small said Paul, but he’s had a few bigger ones to a kilogram.
Fishing for whiting in 6.8 metres of water off the Pelican Shores Caravan Park at Leopold early last week were Andrew Phillips and Mark and Tina Sesar. Using pipis for bait on the incoming tide, they soon had a good bite going and getting bag limit catches looked to be a lay-down misere: But a fish-thieving seal showed up, so they moved.
As it happened, they finished up with 45 whiting, a pretty good catch considering the seal had driven them off their patch, but they eventually broke out the squid jigs and between the three of them, caught 25 of the tasty cephalopods.
Fishing in much the same area from around mid day, but in 6 metres of water, Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien had no trouble picking up their respective bag limit catches of whiting, and having done so, broke out the jigs and caught 15 squid.
Making an earlier start on Saturday morning was no advantage, for they had to wait for the mid-morning tide change for the whiting to come on the bite, but they did so with a vengeance, yielding yet another bag limit catch for both anglers.
Fishing the same area, but much later in the day was Darcy Scott, sister Shenae and her partner Sara who also took a mixed bag of whiting and squid.
Fishing off St Leonards on Saturday, were Jeff Richards, Chris Hateley and Colin Wilkinson who spent a good deal of time on the drift, but for just one squid.
Whiting were on the go though and they found a good patch just north from the wreck of the Clarence. They had 24 fish to 38 cm on the flood tide before the wind came howling in from the south east persuading them to call it a day.
On the Beach
Early last week, Ray Millman fished at Torquay to the left of the boat ramp, and with a high tide on dark was hopeful of catching a whiting or two, and perhaps a snapper.
Well, the two whiting he caught, one measuring 42 cm the other 45, were a good start, but it all took a turn for the worse after that: Three large skates, a banjo shark, and even a large Port Jackson shark rounded out his catch for the night, all of which were returned.
Freshwater
Simon Werner fished from the rock wall at Wurdiboluc Reservoir on Sunday, taking two brown trout around 500 grams apiece on mudeyes fished beneath a float, and another of the same size casting a Rapala bibbed minnow.
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that club members including wife Amber, Ken Hinks, John Wilde and Brodie Harrison have been doing particularly well on redfin from Tullaroop Reservoir lately with fish, up to 47 cm, among them.
Productive methods have included baitfishing with small yabbies, jigging with Baltic Bobbers, and trolling lures at some depth using lead-cored lines, which also proved a good way to find a shoal preparatory to jigging for them.
Portland
Bob McPherson reports that tuna are about, mainly smaller fish, but there are big ones among them as Reg Kalkan can affirm after picking up a good one estimated at 100 kg on Friday. The most interesting thing is that far fewer folk have been fishing for them than has been the case in previous years.