Chris Stamalos with one of the snapper he caught offshore from Barwon Heads on Sunday.
Offshore
With good weather predicted for Sunday, Chris Stamalos headed out from Barwon Heads, and anchoring up in 30 metres of water, was hopeful of catching a snapper or two.
He caught four as it turned out, the biggest weighing 4.2 kg, along with a gummy shark, a catch that should keep him and his family in seafood for a while.
Dave Reynolds holding 10 of the whiting that he and Neil Slater caught in 4 metres of water using pipis and squid for bait on Saturday afternoon off Curlewis (Picture: Neil Slater).
Lucis Mebis and a companion caught these whiting off Blacknose Point, Portland on Sunday (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Also, with snapper on their mind, Andrew Phillips and Tony Greck launched at Limeburner’s Point early last week, and by 4.00 am were at anchor north east of Point Henry where they’d previously been successful.
A snapper of 5 kg soon came aboard, followed by another of 4.2 kg. Hoping for more, they fished on as the day unfolded until their departure was hastened by a strengthening south easterly that chopped the sea up against the outgoing tide.
Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien headed out to Curlewis to catch the late morning high tide change, and in 4.8 metres of water, they had no trouble catching whiting, and there were some real beauties to 43 cm among them.
Inexplicably, the bite shut down in the early afternoon, but with 35 prime fish in the bag they had little to complain about.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire reports that extremely discoloured water, that’s passing though in patches – possibly due to a nearby dredging and beach reclamation project – has slowed the squid down somewhat, but flathead are again saving the day for anglers; those on the drift out in the deeper water anyway.
Shoals of Australian salmon have been keeping anglers entertained at Geelong’s waterfront, both those fishing from boats and land-based.
Among the latter was Ray Millman who caught his share from the wave attenuator using soft plastic lures; great bait for his planned trip to the beach at Torquay that night with friend Kallon Stavro.
Fishing near the Torquay boat ramp, their catch included a pair of gummy shark to 4 kg or so, but Kallon hooked what was possibly a good size school shark, that – after making a couple of solid runs – bit him off.
Selin Rahman with a nice chinook salmon from Lake Purrumbete on Sunday (Picture: Paul Rahman).
Brian Rivett, Robert Rayner and Don Rayner with a good sample of yellowbelly from the Loddon River below Laanecoorie Weir.
Freshwater
John Clements of Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports some good catches were taken from the lake over the weekend where he fished with Michael Evans of Victorian Inland Charters.
They caught chinook salmon to 2.8 kg, both on trolled lures, Daiwa Double Clutch and bent minnows on this occasion, and others on pilchard pieces suspended just above the bottom.
John says that redfin have become a little harder to catch of late, but John Hewett of Port Fairy has taken his share, including some to 800 grams, along with a brown trout of 3 kg.
Among others to do well on Purrumbete at the weekend were Paul and Selin Rahman who also took some good size chinook salmon.
Simon Werner, along with son Jayden and his friend Jaimie Dixon, headed up to the Goulburn River near Eildon, and forewarned of rising water levels took their kayaks.
A good move as it turned out for there was no bank access and fishing difficult; a few modest rainbow trout being their only result.
Moving to the Eildon Pondage – where they fished from the bank, casting and retrieving Rapala floating minnows – proved more productive with the fairly recently released brood stock rainbows on offer.
They finished up with three beauties, the biggest weighing 6 kg, the other two weighing in at 5.5 and 3 kg.
Michael Korbut photographed the 4.67 kg brown trout he caught from a farmer’s paddock, alongside the somewhat larger rainbow trout he caught, and kept, from the Eildon Pondage.
More on the Pondage
Michael Korbut provides an update on the Goulbourn River at Thornton, which is high and heavily discoloured and almost unfishable, and the nearby Eildon Pondage where he put in an all-night session just prior to the October new moon; the most productive period according to Michael.
With all the brood stock rainbows in the pondage, he was disappointed not to get one over the 7 kg mark, two of which he caught on a previous trip, but – over the course of the night, and using mainly saltwater pilchards for berley, and the fillets for bait – he caught nine rainbows, keeping one for the smoker.
But he wasn’t done yet: On his return, he noticed a large fish, obviously feeding in a farmer’s paddock, flooded by the Goulburn. Ever up for a challenge, he positioned himself in what he assumed to be the fish’s path, and after patiently waiting, presented it with an unweighted scrubworm.
Remarkably it was a wild brown trout, not part of any brood stock, and needless to say, at 4.67 kg was by far the biggest brown trout he’d ever caught.
Yellowbelly
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that club members fishing Cairn Curran Reservoir have done well on yellowbelly of late with Brian Rivett taking one measuring 57 cm from the bank using worms for bait.
Fishing a little farther afield, Robert, Don, Brian and John Raynor picked up their share of good size yellowbelly from the Loddon River below Laanecoorie Weir.
Peter asks:
Geoff; where can you get the tubing that allows the hook to slide on your mulloway and snapper traces?
Peter, while I don’t know exactly what the tubing is on the production items, which are made in China, the original samples were submitted with 2 mm plastic tubing that I bought from Spotlight in Geelong. It’s still available, and in a range of colours.