Jake Redpath with a sample from his kingfish catch.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
There are kingfish in Corio Bay’s inner harbour. That’s no secret, although some might wish it to be so. They’ve been popping up between North Shore and the Grammar School Lagoon for some time now.
Among those to catch them were Mick Redpath and wife Ilythia who’ve used Halco 105 mm minnows to great effect. And early last week, prior to the bad weather, they introduced nephew Jake to the kingies and he caught four, the biggest around 90 cm.
On Friday morning, Andrew Phillips and Tony Greck fished off the Pelican Shores caravan park, where – after making several moves – found a good patch of whiting in 7 metres of water on the incoming tide.
Finn Crane 4, holds up yet another kingfish from Corio Bay (Picture: Shane Handley).
They finished up with their respective bag limits by lunch time using pipis for bait and there were some good fish among them, the biggest measuring 43 cm.
On Friday afternoon, Andrew Johnson and wife Jenny were on the water off Curlewis by mid-day, but found nothing doing out deep though. So, they moved into 4 metres where they found a purple patch from which they took their respective bag limit catches that included a highlight.
Fishing with two rods each on that occasion, Jenny hooked up on one rod, her second rod also signalling a bite. As fate would have it, it was the same fish, a whiting of perhaps 38 cm that had become hooked on both lines.
Matt Doolan, Travis Bownds and Adam Hansen with the barrel-size tuna they caught out wide from Portland on Sunday morning.
Garry Ridgeway with a sample of his chinook salmon catch from Lake Bullen Merri (Picture: Renater Ridgeway).
Off the Beach
Australian salmon have been present in increasing number of late, and among those to take advantage was Ray Millman who put in a lure-casting session at Jan Juc during the last two hours on Sunday’s incoming tide.
He kept 20 fish, the biggest of which was 2 kg. However, when the tide changed around 2.30 pm, the fish went completely off the bite.
With plenty of fresh salmon for bait, Ray returned at around 10.00 on Sunday night and almost immediately hooked a good size fish. Unfortunately, the line became entangled in a raft of weed that became impossible to manage, and soon after that, the fish broke free.
Encouraged by this encounter, Ray stayed until the early hours of the morning, but – apart from the usual assortment of skates and other undesirables – all he caught worth keeping after that was a gummy shark just over a metre long.
Jamie Behrens with his mulloway from the Maroochy River QLD.
Nick Alexoff from Geelong with a 3.5 kg brown trout that he caught from Lake Purrumbete over the weekend.
Freshwater
With few, if any, positive reports from Lake Bullen Merri lately, Garry Ridgeway and wife Renater booked in over last week’s new moon period to check it out.
The insane weather would have put most people off. However, with the wind and rain easing off on Wednesday afternoon, Garry headed out, dropping two anchors on the angular bank, one quite shallow, and the other at 10 metres where he fished.
With a quantity of minced fish for berley deployed, over went two rods, each baited with whitebait, one suspended just above the bottom, the other unweighted.
Both hooked up in short order, and it wasn’t long before Garry had his bag limit of five chinook salmon ranging from 38 to 54 cm, the largest weighing 1.4 kg on kitchen scales.
Garry was the only one fishing on the lake, so he was a little surprised to be approached by a chap from a local newspaper, not sure which, that wanted to interview him and photograph his catch.
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that trophy size brown trout are still on offer and among those to catch them was Nick Alexoff of Geelong whose best fish was possibly 3.5 kg.
Michael Goldby with a frostfish taken out wide from Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Michael Goldby with a pair of ocean perch taken out wide from Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Portland
Matt Doolan, Travis Bownds and Adam Hansen, caught a barrel size tuna while trolling out wide along the continental Shelf off Portland on Sunday morning. After being cleaned it weighed 111 kg, making its probable whole weight around 128 kg.
Also fishing out wide from Portland were Bob McPherson, Lachie Wombell and Michael Goldby, and – bottom bouncing on the drift – their impressive catch of blue eye trevalla was supplemented with several other species that included ocean perch, gemfish, blue grenadier and a frostfish.
Upstate
Erstwhile Barwon Heads resident and prolific angler, Jamie Behrens, who was known for his ability to catch estuary perch, mulloway and a good many other species, has lived in Bli Bli Queensland on the Maroochy River for some time now.
And, unlike a good many of us in Victoria, he looks forward to winter because this is when mulloway move into the River.
Last week Jamie sent me a picture his first mulloway for the year, a nice fish of just on 10 kg: No doubt there will be a good many more to come.
Ramp closure
Queenscliff Councillor and Mayor, Ross Ebbels informs fishermen, and other boat users, that the Queenscliff boat ramp will be closed for stage 1 upgrades until at least the end of August. This is part of the Better Boating Victoria boat ramp upgrades taking part around the state: https://www.boating.vic.gov.au/ramps/a157F000001P6RPQA0