Justin Burns with a tuna he caught offshore from Barwon Heads (Picture: Simon Williams).
Kane Ardiri and Nello Sorgiovanni with the tuna they caught offshore from Barwon Heads.
With a favourable weather forecast for Sunday, a good many were out off Barwon Heads in search of tuna. Among them, Justin Burns and Simon Williams who caught one each with the challenging technique of casting lures (stick-baits on this occasion), to fish feeding at the surface.
That was out in sixty metres of water, while Kane Ardiri and Nello Sorgiovanni found them a little closer in and broke out the pilchards; a free feed for some – those that missed the Trojan horse with the hook – four that didn’t, finished up in the boat.
Anchored up in 50 metres of water off Torquay on Sunday were Murray and Darcy Scott, and Ben King. They were hoping for a gummy shark or two, and – as it happened – they caught three, two around the 6 kg mark and another of 8 kg. They also caught a 40 kg seven-gilled shark.
However, two big fish got away: One that Ben hooked, possibly a very large gummy shark that just kept peeling off line until it broke free, possibly snagging the line a reef, and another that Murray hooked, which was probably a school shark rather than a gummy, because – well within sight of the boat – it bit through the trace above the hook.
Mind you, they cast many a lure toward endless shoals of passing tuna, some well within casting distance from the boat, but there were no takers.
Wayne Bastin with yet another trophy size brown trout from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Cranbourne Fishing World).
Bob McPherson and Lachie Wombell’s mixed bag of fish taken off Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
With Clifton Springs boat ramp car park at capacity, and vehicles parked up Bay Shore Avenue, Andrew Phillips, along with Mark and Tina Sesar, headed down to the less crowded Point Richards ramp from where they launched and were away by 9.00 am.
Initially, there wasn’t much doing with the whiting, but they kept picking up the occasional good size flathead for an eventual tally of six. And, their luck with the whiting eventually improved as well, with a final tally of 50 fish, the biggest measuring 45 cm.
But that was before the undersize pinkies moved in on their baits, so at around 1.00 pm, they returned to the ramp with a very respectable catch.
On Saturday, Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien finished up with 20 really good size whiting after releasing a good many that, although of legal size, didn’t quite meet their standard.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that squid are about, and among those to catch them were Paul Moore and Nathan and Toby Campbell who found a productive patch in 3 metres of water out from The Dell. And, using a portion of their squid for bait, they also caught 6 nice whiting from much the same area.
Flathead are also about in good numbers said Mike, with Nathan Huybens picking up 17 offshore from the boat harbour, along with 3 small gummy shark, four pinkie snapper and several Australian salmon that he returned.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat reports that squid are also the main chance off Indented Head, along with flathead abundant out in the deeper water.
Lachie Wombell with a sample of the catch taken by he and Bob McPherson off Portland at the weekend (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Queenscliff
Anchored up over the Swan Island grass-beds at Queenscliff on Friday evening, and hopeful of a good whiting catch, were Murray and Darcy Scott and Trent Budinski.
Conditions were good with quite a bit of run left in the tide, but the whiting were biting timidly. In fact, they would go completely off the bite at times despite the favourable conditions,
Never the less, they finished with 35 rather than the bag limit catches they’ve been used to of late, but for many, that would have been a completely satisfactory catch.
Portland
Fishing close in off Portland on the weekend, Bob McPherson and Lachie Wombell were hoping for a good catch of King George whiting, but – although they were there – the large population of silver whiting usually beat their larger brethren to the bait.
Never the less they finished up OK with some prime specimens of the royal variety.
Abe asks:
Geoff, I’ve noticed that huge tracts of seagrass have disappeared from some areas in Corio Bay. What would have caused this, and will they return?
Abe, for as long as I can remember seagrass beds in Port Phillip and Corio Bays have flourished then regressed in what some have described as a natural cycle.
Searching scholarly articles on the causes of seagrass regression revealed that intensive aquaculture, algal blooms, bottom trawling with nets, along with turbidity from dredging, are the chief concerns over the health and longevity of sea grass meadows and the intricate biological webs dependent on them.