Geoff’s Fishing Report

 

Martinus de Lange headed down to St Leonards on Friday afternoon intending to fish from the pier for snapper.

 

But with the pier crowded, and the wind still howling after Thursday evening’s storm, he decided to try elsewhere and finally settled on the beach just south of the St Leonards Bluff.

 

Not expecting to catch anything here, he was delighted with a snapper of about 3 kg at around 3.00 pm. Encouraged, he stayed on until dark and caught two more, the biggest around the 4.5 kg mark.

 

Also fishing land-based, off the main Portarlington breakwater on this occasion, were Simon Werner and Jake Callahan.

 

Among the first arrivals, they caught three snapper from 2 to 3 kg and some smaller pinkies. That was before a good many others arrived, but the bite had slowed somewhat by then.

 

Andrew Phillips and Tony Greck were on the job early last week and were eventually out in one of their favourite spots north east of Point Henry by 7.00 am.

 

They had their first fish, a snapper of 3 kg, aboard by 7.45, and from then until 9.45, they caught another three, the biggest weighing 5.5 kg.

 

Fishing near the channel junction off Curlewis at daybreak early last week, were John Coe and Peter Wells, both eager to catch a snapper.

 

Well, they did catch one of 5.5 kg soon after their arrival, but no more after that.

 

Paul Rahman was at anchor off Point Wilson when he caught a snapper of 3 kg at around 5.30 pm, but nothing for another hour or so. But then, each of his rods loaded up, reels growling.

 

They weren’t snapper though, but large Australian salmon with a couple around the 3 kg mark.

 

So ferocious was the bite, he was soon persuaded to retrieve his lines to avoid an embarrassing over-catch.

 

Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head was pleased with an increase in trade over the weekend, but squid and whiting – although present – were difficult to come by.

 

However, flathead saved the day as usual with anglers bringing in good catches while fishing on the drift out in the deeper water, mainly off St Leonards.

Off the beach

Fishing Wednesday’s afternoon high tide change at Jan Juc, where he’s caught a good number of salmon to 1.5 kg on 40-gram metal lures lately, Ray Millman set to work with the same approach.

 

But on this occasion, although plentiful, the salmon were much smaller with fish to 30 cm or so being caught on almost every cast.

 

They would have been good bait for bigger prey on a planned trip the following night. However, the storm that moved in put paid to that.

Freshwater

On Sunday, Paul Rahman made an early start on Lake Purrumbete, where – fishing with mudeyes under a float – took a mixed bag of rainbow, cheetah and tiger trout ranging in size from one to 1.5 kg.

 

John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Angling Club reports that a variety of fish are on offer including chinook salmon, some going better than 2 kg with most being caught on pilchard fillets suspended just above the bottom.

 

Among those to catch them were Donna Kneise of Werribee and Jeremy and Michelle Richardson of Colac.

 

Trophy size brown trout were also on offer for patient anglers like Will Farrugia of Roxburgh Park whose catch included a 3.85 kg brown on a mudeye fished under a float.

 

Will’s catch also included chinook salmon caught using the same approach.

 

Oliver asks:

Geoff, when lure fishing for bream, is best to use soft plastics or hard bodied lures?

 

Oliver; lure-fishing exponents seeking bream use a variety of soft plastics and small bibbed minnows, which are somewhat erroneously referred to as “hard-bodied lures.” This is possibly based on the assumption that if a lure is not a soft plastic it is hard-bodied; a complete nonsense in my opinion.

 

However, it is the input from the angler, rather than the type of lure being used, that dictates success or failure with any lure used in the cast and retrieve mode.

 

Having said that though, small bibbed-minnow-type lures like the 70 mm Rapalas have proven efficacious on bream.