Chris Stamalos with the 3.6 kg snapper he caught from Point Richards (Picture: Daniel Stamalos).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Fishing out toward the No 6 beacon of the Point Richards Channel on Thursday evening, Chris Stamalos and brother Daniel were hoping for a snapper.
They weren’t having much luck, in fact all they’d caught were a couple of banjo sharks. But just on sunset, a line baited with a whole silver whiting signalled the unmistakeable bite of what turned out to be a 3.6 kg snapper.
On Friday afternoon, Andrew Johnson and wife Jenny tried for whiting in one of their usually productive spots off Leopold’s Pelican Shores caravan park, but with only two fish, they decided to move back to Curlewis.
They had better luck there with 18 more fish in the boat within half an hour; well on their way to bag limit catches they thought, the only impediment being a freshening north-westerly that had them retreat to the boat ramp.
Simon Werner has often picked up a good size flathead or two wading the shallows and casting lures off Beacon Point, a technique he tried again on Sunday afternoon.
With the flathead more abundant than usual, he caught ten measuring from 45 to 50 cm casting a Mr Twister orange grub.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that squid fishing is on the improve with some good catches coming in, anywhere between Grassy Point and St Leonards. However, flathead still remain the most abundant catch.
Darcy Scott reports fishing for squid in the Lonsdale Bight with father Murray and Trent Budinski last week, but with the water discoloured, and the bite being shut down by a seal on one occasion, it wasn’t easy fishing.
Never the less, they eventually brought home the goods, their biggest squid nudging the 2 kg mark.
Off the beach
Fishing off the beach at Torquay early last week, Ray Millman was again plagued by what were almost certainly seven-gilled sharks as he was on his previous visit, being bitten off a number of times.
However, things settled down around midnight with the tide running out. There were no more sharks, and by around 2.30 am, the only other bite he had turned out to be a 2 kg snapper.
Michael Korbut with his 8.1 kg brown trout from Eildon Pondage.
Amber Wild with a redfin from Lake Hume (Picture Kevin Wild).
Freshwater
Fly-fishing the rock wall at Wurdiboluc Reservoir last week were Mark Richards and his friend Paddy Donovan, both of whom had fish follow the fly, but it was Mark who caught their only fish for the day, a brown trout weighing 1.56 kilograms.
Kevin Wild and wife Amber, both members of the Maryborough Angling Club – along with other club members – made the journey to Lake Hume where they had no trouble catching any amount of redfin to 800 grams or so using both soft plastics and worms.
Club member Stephen Eales tried his luck trolling lures and was rewarded with a beautiful 65 cm brown trout from the same water.
John Clements of Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that chinook salmon, the biggest weighing 3 kg, have been taken from the lake, the most productive methods include suspending baits, mainly pilchard fillets, just above the bottom in depths up to 25 metres.
Brown trout, also to 3 kg have also been taken by a number of anglers. These have included Darren Busfield, Dan Mackerel and Jason Bongart, all from Colac, Shane and Rylan Hogan from Moolap, and Mark Gerkovich from Warrnambool. The most productive method being mudeyes suspended from floats, but some were taken on lures.
Redfin remain the main catch though with live minnow and soft plastics among the most effective approaches.
Stephen Eales of the Maryborough Angling Club with the 65 cm brown trout he caught from Lake Hume (Picture: Amber Wild).
Mark Gerkovich with a sample of his catch from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: John Clements).
Fishing Eildon Pondage throughout the night last week, Michael Korbut, who – berleying with saltwater pilchards and using the fillets of same for bait – finished up catching 13 of the brood-stock rainbows that have been liberated into this water.
He kept two, one of 5 kg, the other a massive fish – of which he sent in a photo – that weighed 8.1 kg.
Lachie Wombell with one of the whiting that he and Bob McPherson caught at Cape Nelson over the weekend (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Portland
Taking a run down to Cape Nelson, Bob McPherson and Lachie Wombell whose main catch was sweep. However, they also managed to catch a few good size whiting.
Conrad asks:
Geoff, when surf-casting I’ve occasionally snapped off sinkers. Casting with lures has been even worse because of their cost. Trying to solve the problem by using a heavier shock leader made the problem even worse with the shock leader knot snapping off going through the guides: Do you have any suggestions?
Conrad, knots are a liability when passing through the guides at speed after making a cast. They are likely to snap as close to the reel as the first guide.
The only solution when surf fishing, is to use an extended shock leader of 10-15 metres in length. This gives the rod time to straighten allowing the join to pass through the guides with less friction.
Tapered shock leaders in various weights are available from a good many sources; the slender end is attached to the line on your spool while the stout end is affixed to your rig, providing sufficient strength to withstand the force of your cast.
I don’t recommend you use a shock leader when casting lures though because repetitive casting will shorten the life of any join travelling through the guides at speed, even when using progressive splices like the so-called FG knot.