Martinus de Lange with his rainbow trout from Lake Bullen Merri.
Barwon Estuary
Fishing upstream from the Sheepwash with fresh squid for bait he’d caught previously, Garry Ridgeway was after mulloway, but by 3.00 pm and after some 7 hours on the water, he was about to give it away when he hooked a good size fish.
The mulloway he caught had just stretched the tape out to 82 cm when his other rod buckled over. But, as is sometimes the case – after taking quite a bit of line – the hook pulled free and it escaped.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
On Friday afternoon, Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien fished offshore from the Pelican Shores Caravan Park at Leopold in 4.5 metres, where – despite the extreme clarity of the water – they eventually took bag limit catches of whiting to 40 cm.
Returning with Peter Dawson on Sunday in the strong north westerly, Andrew found the water discoloured and more amenable to whiting fishing, and indeed they soon had five fish. But then, the undersize pinkies moved in persuading them to move out a bit deeper.
That did the trick as it turned out for, by evening, and in six metres of water with the north westerly dying off, they finished with another bag limit catch.
Also picking up a good tally of whiting out here on evening were Darcy, Murray, Shenae and Sara Scott.
With the strong north westerly discolouring the water on Sunday afternoon, Simon Werner quickly took advantage of ideal snapper conditions from the Portarlington Breakwater, and – as you can imagine in those conditions – he had plenty of elbow room. He also caught several good size pinkie snapper, the largest measuring 40 cm.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that clients have brought in good catches of flathead of late, that’s when the weather has permitted fishing on the drift out in the deeper water.
Squid have been also plentiful with early mornings and late evenings the best times to catch them said Rod. And, with strong winds predicted for Port Phillip on Friday, Andrew Phillips and Tony Greck were among those to make early start.
The weather did close in on them, but by 10.30 they’d taken their respective bag limit catches of squid, the biggest around the 1.5 kg mark.
Matthew Hunt with the tuna taken by clients Dean Todd and Shaun King.
Freshwater
Fishing from the rock wall at Wurdiboluc Reservoir on Saturday, Simon Werner put in a lengthy lure-casting session with a metal spoon. And not in vain either for he caught five rainbow trout, all around the 500 gram mark.
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that some larger redfin have shown up lately, the biggest was taken by Colby Lesko and weighed 2 kg.
John also reports that Lake Bullen Merri is back on line, so to speak, with Steve Moore of Warrnambool picking up both chinook salmon to a kilogram and rainbow trout to 1.5 kg trolling lures.
Fishing from the north bank of Lake Bullen Merri with Berkley Powerbait last week was Martinus de Lange. Initially, all he caught were newly released chinook salmon, but his patience eventually paid off with the capture of a 1.5 kg rainbow trout.
I received notification from Rhiannon Atkinson of the Victorian Fisheries Authority last week, that 2000 cheetah trout and 2000 tiger trout were scheduled for release into Lake Purrumbete on Thursday. And, in addition to that, I got a call on Monday from Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club that VFA were about to release 20,000 rainbow trout fingerlings into Tullaroop Reservoir.
Tullaroop has been producing good size redfin said Kevin, and on Friday, he saw an angler take two very large brown trout while down-rigging.
Jamie Behrens with a nice mulloway he caught from the Maroochy River upstream from Maroochydore
Portland
Early last week, Dean Todd and Shaun King, clients of Matthew Hunt’s Fishing Services, fronted up with 15 kg game fishing tackle, which most would consider a bit on the light side for catching big tuna; something they would soon be able to judge for themselves.
The strike came at 9.00 am in 70 metres of water south west of the Cape Nelson Lighthouse. The fish, a tuna of about 100 kg as it turned out, took Dean, ably assisted by Shaun, four hours and 10 minutes to bring alongside.