Kane Ardiri sent in this picture of sons Ashton and Joseph, and granddaughter Phoebe with their mixed bag of fish taken off Barwon Heads.
Offshore
Bottom fishing offshore from Barwon Heads in 30 metres of water last week were Kane Ardiri, sons Ashton and Joseph, and granddaughter Phoebe.
They were off to a good start taking some reasonable pinkie snapper and gummy shark before Kane hooked a bronze whaler of possibly 30 kg, but which ultimately escaped.
After that, they spied some action at the surface that turned out to be tuna, and – breaking out the appropriate tackle – were kept busy for an hour or so taking several, and a kingfish that Ashton caught on a jig amongst the tuna.
Also taking advantage of the remaining good weather last week, the Lorne Aquatic and Angling Club’s third fishing competition this year produced 28 nice fish. Carolyn Griffiths of Lorne caught the largest, a 60 cm flathead that came from 25 metres of water.
Whiting were the main catch though with Mal Hunter taking the biggest at 535 grams; his son Jack took out the junior section with another nice one of 510 grams.
Carolyn Griffiths with the southern blue-spotted (yank) flathead she caught offshore from Lorne
John Ireland with a bumper catch of redfin from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: John Clements).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Early last week, Andrew Phillips and Mark Sesar fished the morning high tide change in perfect weather off Point Richards, but the whiting were hard to find. And, with grass whiting, small leatherjackets and other unwanted fish taking their baits, they continually kept on the move.
Eventually though, they found a good pod of whiting off the east end of the mussel farm, and using pipis and squid for bait, they finished with a bag limit catch, the biggest, 42 cm, along with several nice flathead, the biggest measuring 51 cm.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports good fishing prior to the weekend, and that on Wednesday, Bill McHardy and Steve Kent caught good bags of whiting to 40 cm, and some good size flathead using pipis for bait just 300 metres off the boat ramp.
They said they would have caught even more had it not been for the number of small pinkie snapper that moved in on their baits.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head also reported excellent fishing before the unseasonal weather rolled in with any amount of flathead being taken on the drift out in the deeper water.
Closer in, squid were the main catch said Rod, and there were some good ones up to a kilogram or so along with the welcome appearance of some good size whiting.
Among those to find the whiting on Wednesday were Jeff Richards and Chris Hateley who picked up eighteen really good size fish to 42 cm just north of the No 6 West Channel Marker before the pinkies moved in on their baits.
Geoff Bice with his 3.15 kg brown trout from Lake Purrumbete.
Andrew Ketelaar with a 2.5 kg rainbow trout that he caught from Wurdiboluc Reservoir.
Freshwater
Andrew Ketelaar had a fantastic session at Wurdiboluc Reservoir on Saturday using soft plastics in the Berkley power bait minnow 3-inch range, and Nories Wasabi Spoons.
He finished up with 3 rainbow trout including one beauty of possibly 2.5 kg, and recommends fishing this water early in the morning or late afternoon for best results.
Redfin remain the main catch at Lake Purrumbete with John Ireland from South Australia scooping the pool using live minnow for bait.
Jeff Bice of Werribee also fished Lake Purrumbete, and trolling Tassie Devils along the surface, caught a nice brown trout of 3.15 kg and 9 chinook salmon, each around the kilogram mark.
Most of the larger chinook seem to be down deep near the bottom though, and among those to pick them up was Lauren Pearce of Brighton whose catch included one of 2 kg that took a fillet of pilchard.
Geoff Bice’s catch of brown trout and chinook salmon from Lake Purrumbete.
Andrew Ketelaar’s rainbow trout from Wurdiboluc Reservoir.
Ollie Asks:
Geoff, congratulations on having an artificial Reef in Corio Bay named after you; but where is it?
Thank you, Ollie, the reef in question at the entrance to Corio Bay between Portarlington and Kirk Point. GPS co-ordinates, in the Geocentric Datum of Australia (GDA94) format are 38° 03.436’ x 144° 36.588’
It’s on the north side of the Point Richards shipping channel at a depth of 8.5 metres and consists of six, 6×4 metre modules within a 38×18 metre rectangle, which is marked.
Construction involved 330 tonnes of basalt, capped with 33 tonnes of limestone and seeded with approximately 3 tonnes of mussels and about 130,000 native oysters.