Belinda and Tony Brogna with the 145 kg tuna they caught offshore from Port Phillip Heads (Picture: Richard Abela).
Tony Brogna and his crew bring their 145 kg tuna aboard off Port Phillip Heads.
Offshore
With reports of large tuna outside Port Phillip Heads, Tony Brogna and wife Belinda were eager to christen their new craft, an A3000 series Noosa Cat.
So, accompanied with close friends Richard Abela and fiancée Kym Cecil, they departed from Sorrento to try their luck.
Upon leaving Port Phillip Heads, they were encouraged to see dolphins and sea birds. However, it took several hours of trolling before getting a strike from a big tuna, from which – unfortunately – they pulled the hook.
Never the less, they persisted, but by 5.00 pm or so, like others fishing out here, they’d more or less given up hope.
But then, one of Tony’s reels howled off, heralding an adrenalin-fuelled, 90-minute battle with a tuna that greeted the scales back at Sorrento for a verdict of 145 kg.
The fish of a lifetime, some might say, and it was caught just 10 km outside of Port Phillip Heads.
Martinus De Lange with the 5 kg snapper he caught from the St Leonards Pier.
Murray Scott with a 2.85 kg squid from Queenscliff (Picture: Darcy Scott).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Snapper continue to be caught, with land-based anglers in the mix:
On Wednesday evening, Paul and Selin Rahman, and friend James Dildis, fished from the inner Portarlington breakwater, and from 7.00 pm until 8.30, they caught three snapper averaging 4 kg apiece using squid for bait.
Also fishing land-based was Martinus De Lange who caught a 5 kg snapper from the St Leonards pier at 3.15 am, in the rain, on Saturday morning. Martinus was also using squid for bait.
Naturally, anglers in boats – including Andrew Johnson and his son Tim, who were fishing near the channel junction off Curlewis – have also been successful on snapper as well.
Andrew caught a snapper that weighed 5.4 kg.
James Dildis with a snapper he caught from the Portarlington breakwater (Picture: Paul Rahman).
Simon Were, his son Jayden, and Jake Callahan have shown time and gain that the bigger flathead are to be found in the shallow water.
Wading the shallows at Clifton Springs, and casting a variety of soft plastic lures, the most recent venture yielded flathead to 60 cm.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that, apart from flathead – which often save the day – his clients have caught whiting, mainly off the Governor Reefs, along with squid that have been increasing, both in number and size.
Squid are also about off Queenscliff as Murray and Darcy Scott could attest.
After recently fishing the Lonsdale Bight, they caught their respective bag limit catches that included some real beauties over the 2 kg mark; their biggest was an absolute pearler of 2.85 kg.
Jayden Werner with a 60 cm flathead he caught casting lures while wading the shallows off Clifton Springs.
Michael Evans and Rex, (Ruff ruff), with the 2.9 kg brown trout Michael caught from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters).
Freshwater
Michael Evans of Victorian Inland Charters had no trouble finding redfin for clients Nathan Sobko and Rodney Cations, catching them on running sinker rigs with live minnow for bait.
Nathan also caught a 45 cm tiger trout fishing a mudeye on a bubble float rig.
And, just to put the icing on the cake, Michael caught a 2.9 kg brown trout on a Bent Minnow lure that he cast around the weed margins during the last hour of daylight.
Simon Werner made another tip up to the Goulburn River at Thornton, where, using a Rapala F7, he caught three rainbow trout, two quite modest in size, the other, a whopper weighing 6.5 kg.
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that Cairn Curran Reservoir is currently worth a visit with yellowbelly being caught, both from the bank, and by anglers fishing from boats.
Kevin and wife Amber also caught yellowbelly to 44 cm after visiting the Loddon River at Serpentine.
Anthony Connell and several companions visited Apollo Bay at the weekend intending to fish the beach at Skenes Creek.
However, the weather was so atrocious that fishing the beach would have been a non-event. But, while Anthony’s companions persisted, he decided to get his light outfit and fish the creek – that curved behind them, separated from the beach with a sand bar – with a soft plastic.
And, as luck would have it. Anthony caught the only fish for the trip, a 30 cm rainbow trout within spitting distance of the unruly surf.
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club with a 44 cm yellowbelly that he caught from the Loddon River at Serpentine (Picture: Amber Wild).
Scott Cooper with a nice gummy shark he caught offshore from Portland over the weekend.
Fish liberations
Rhiannon Atkinson, of Snobs Creek Hatchery provides the following dates for fish liberations:
- Wednesday 27th October: Lake Bullen Merri, 50,000 brown trout fry.
- Wednesday 3rd November: Lake Purrumbete, 4000 rainbow trout at 50g, and 500 chinook salmon at 70g.
- Tuesday 9th November: Lake Bullen Merri, 60,000 chinook.
- Thursday 11th November: Lake Purrumbete, 40,000 chinook.
Please contact Rhiannon should you wish to attend: M: 0407 987 016
E: rhiannon.atkinson@vfa.vic.gov.au
Martinus asks:
I’ve fished from St Leonards Pier for 40 odd years, along with a good many others, but – unfortunately – the constant deterioration of the pier and breakwater makes this an ongoing challenge.
My campaign back in 1992 had great support from local residents and some politicians, but nothing has been done to restore this iconic fishing structure: What else could be done?
Martinus, given the Labor Party’s $43 million commitment to recreation fishing following its 2014 election win. And, the extension of that commitment with a further $35 million after its 2018 win, there are certainly grounds to articulate your concerns to the relevant ministers of government.