Brimming with pride: Martinus de Lange with his bream from the Hopkins River at Warrnambool (Picture: VFA).
Martinus de Lange took a pre-dawn run down to Warrnambool last week, and fishing from the Deakin University jetty on the Hopkins River with scrubworms for bait, he had no trouble taking any amount of bream. Although small, most were of legal size, but with bigger fish to fry, they were returned to the water.
His patience eventually paid off with two good size bream, one after the other, the larger certainly well over a kilogram. That was just as a couple of Victorian Fisheries folk arrived, and who obligingly, photographed Martinus with his catch.
Class catch: Darcy Scott with the school shark he caught offshore from Black Rock on Sunday.
Offshore
Fishing offshore from the old Black Rock outfall site in 50 metres of water on Sunday afternoon, Murray and Darcy Scott were hoping for a gummy shark or two, or perhaps a snapper. But the snapper, although present, were nothing to skite about and there were no gummies at all.
When about to give it away though, Darcy’s rod wrapped over to the growl of the reel, heralding a good fish, which – as it turned out – was no gummy, but a school shark of about 10 kg providing some prime flake.
Fishing off Ocean Grove in 6 metres of water on Saturday, Simon Werner, Rod Butcher and Rod’s mate Pete, found a good a good patch of whiting, and – using squid and pipis for bait – caught 24 to an impressive 46 cm.
Fishing off Barwon Heads in 30 metres of water on Saturday, Justin Burns and Simon Williams caught an assortment of fish including barracouta, two blue devils and several Sergeant Baker, which they released.
They also caught several snapper to 3 kg, first on bait, before changing over to Berkley Gulp soft plastics for a similar result.
Barwon estuary
On Thursday afternoon, and with low slack water on dusk, Tony Ingram and Col Simmons headed upstream from the Sheepwash hoping to catch a mulloway, and with fresh squid for bait they fancied their chances.
With their larger baits being knocked about by small fish on the last of the outgoing tide, their light tackle yielded a couple of small, but legal size salmon, one of which they put out as a live bait. However, it was a strip of squid that yielded a barely legal size mulloway that they returned.
They had an unexpectedly long wait before the tide eventually began running in, but the wait proved worthwhile for they caught two mulloway, each around the 90 cm mark on squid, and missed another on the salmon had had out as live bait.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Andrew Johnson christened his new boat on Saturday, and – along with Dennis O’Brien – fished a number of locations, making several moves to see that all was shipshape.
They did some fishing though, and – offshore from the Pelican Shores Caravan Park in 6 metres of water – they found a good patch of whiting, mostly on the small side – but they kept 17 respectable fish to 38 cm.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that flathead have been the main species caught with anglers catching them on the drift provided conditions allow, but squid have been scarce said Rod, and you really need to work hard to find them.
Among those to catch squid early last week were Andrew Phillips and Tony Greck who made a 7.30 am start off Point Richards. And, despite their quarries apparent scarcity, they eventually took a respectable catch, the biggest a beauty of 1.2 kg.
Ben asks:
Geoff, is there a difference between a fly and a lure, or are those names interchangeable?
Ben, in the strictest sense, a fly is a dressed hook pure and simple. The dressing may be configured to resemble a particular insect as in the case with many freshwater flies, particularly dry flies that are designed to float on the surface of the water.
On the other hand, a lure is an artificial representation of a baitfish to which one or more hooks are either attached per medium of eyelets or rings, or – in the case of lures used for trolling – possibly featuring a skirted head or other tubular device designed to slide down the trace onto, or just above the hook.