In the pink: Martinus De Lange with a sample of the pinkies he caught from the St Leonards pier last week.
Murray Stewart with a good size snapper caught on an ABU 8500, the reel on which he’d caught his very first snapper 50 years previous (Picture: Linda Stewart).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Last week’s strong onshore winds and their discolouration of the water, created ideal conditions for land-based anglers seeking snapper from St Leonard’s pier and each of Portarlington’s breakwaters.
Among those to take advantage was Martinus De Lange who caught several good size pinkies, and a couple of larger fish, from the St Leonards pier last week, all during the early hours of each morning he fished.
Making an early start in Corio Bay’s outer harbour, Murray and Linda Stewart missed a couple of snapper around 5.30 am, but all was quiet after that. But after making another move, they picked up a promising signal just north of the Wilson Spit channel, cast out their lines and had four fish on at once.
Needless to say they each took bag limit catches, the biggest around 6 kg, including one that Linda caught on a whiting rod and 3 kg line while, at one point, attempting to catch some silver whiting as fresh bait.
And, silver whiting are good bait as Andrew Westlake could attest after using one to tempt a snapper of 8 kg from 13 metres of water off Werribee South early last week.
Around 6.30 on Thursday evening, Andrew Phillips, Darren Baldock and Mark Sesar anchored over a promising sounding just east of the Nine Foot Bank pile and caught their first snapper within 15 minutes.
From then on until 9.30 they took bag limit catches of fish to 4 kg and were well on their way to doing the same on fish below 40 cm, but – with the wind beginning to squall up from the west – they returned to the ramp.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that Cam Knuckey’s 3.00 am start off the Mountain View Quarries on Sunday produced 3 snapper to 4 kg, while Charlie Sciberras’ day shift catch in 6 metres off Curlewis included pinkies, flathead and cod.
And gummy shark are also about as Chris Stamalos could affirm after he and Kelvin McLean caught two of 4.5 to 5 kg among a mixed bag of fish, just west of the Wilson Spit.
Having just returned from Nelson, where he and Grandad Mick fished the Glenelg for bream, taking bag limit catches on live crab, Paul Rahman was a bit spoiled. Never the less he, Goran Nedic and Selin Inan were soon out fishing again, this time for whiting off Clifton Springs, taking 50 fish over 30 cm.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that fishing has been good with the only stumbling block being the number of easterly winds we’ve had lately.
The good news is that squid are back in good numbers, said Rod, along with whiting, which have been of good size but sometimes a little hard to find.
Linda Stewart with the snapper she caught on her whiting rod and 6 lb line (Picture: Murray Stewart).
Andrew Westlake with an 83 cm (just on 8 kg), snapper from Werribee South.
Off the beach
Fishing one of last week’s exceptionally low evening tides from RAAF’s Beach at Ocean Grove, Tony Ingram and Col Simmons didn’t have far to cast into productive water, catching several pinkie snapper to possibly 45 cm.
However, they were both bitten off a time or two by something with much sharper dentition than the pinkies that were on offer.
As the incoming tide began covering the beach, Col hooked what he thought was a good size gummy shark, given the time it took him to bring it in. But this critter had teeth and was almost certainly a juvenile bronze whaler. And, given that there was no sign of their missing hooks in its mouth, it probably wasn’t alone.
Offshore
Fishing for tuna off Port Phillip Heads last week, Simon Werner picked up one of 15 kg on a small occy skirt, but since then he said, the tuna – which are often visible at the surface in around 30 metres of water – have been hard to tempt.
Lachie Wombell with a sample of the blue eye trevalla on offer from the wide grounds off Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Paul Rahman with a sample of the bream he caught from the Glenelg River.
Portland
With a break in the weather on Saturday, Bob McPherson and Lachie Wombell headed out to the wide grounds off Portland to do a little bottom bouncing, and – with conditions just about perfect – they had no trouble catching their bag limits of blue eye trevalla.
Keryn Millard and her father Dean were fishing nearby, and they too had a similar result on blue eye, judging by the photos Bob sent in.
Passing traffic! (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Freshwater
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that fellow club members Ken and Faye Hinks fished for 3 days at Lake Mulwala; a productive trip as it turned out for – while using chicken for bait – they caught eight cod, the largest three measuring 58, 61 and 74 cm.