Danny Skene with the 91 cm mulloway he caught from the Barwon estuary on Thursday.
Barwon estuary
Taking a run upstream from the Sheepwash boat ramp on Thursday’s high tide, Danny Skene and Ian Gullock went to the trouble of catching some mullet for live bait, hopeful of tempting a mulloway.
However, it wasn’t until the afternoon ebb tide that they hooked a good size fish, that on this occasion, fancied a pilchard.
Once aboard, it stretched the tape out to 91 cm and weighed 8.5 kg.
Roderick Lachlan and Johnny Mazurek with their snapper from the Port Campbell pier.
Matt Simpson caught this southern saw shark off Warrnambool using a barracouta fillet for bait (Picture: Cranbourne Fishing World).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Early last week, Darcy Scott was out in the pre-dawn darkness at one of his favourite snapper spots near the Wilson Spit with the sounder running, but with nothing coming up on the screen.
Putting the anchor down anyway, he hacked the larger tentacles off a frozen squid he’d brought for bait, and cast a line before returning to dissect the squid, a task interrupted with the rod buckling over almost immediately.
That fish weighed 8 kg, and was the first of two he caught before daybreak.
But then a seal showed up, and there was nothing doing for a while after that, and – with the wind gusting up – he was persuaded to retreat, but not before adding a third snapper to his tally.
Tim Johnson with one of his Murray Cod from Gunbower.
Kevin Wild and Ingi with a 43 cm redfin from Tullaroop Reservoir (Picture: Amber Wild).
Darcy wasted no time in telling his father Murray about his catch, and early on Sunday morning, he also headed out, returning with two nice
snapper of 3 and 4 kg.
On Friday afternoon, the 18-20 knot nor-easterly had ensured that Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien had plenty of room at the Clifton Springs ramp, which is rarely the case in calm weather.
They battled wind against tide as they had in similar conditions to the week previous, and had to move a number of times until they found a good pod of whiting off Curlewis in 3.5 metres that yielded 23 keepers to 40 cm.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire also reports that the main catch has been whiting, with a few squid being caught out from The Dell.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire reports that the weather has been a stumbling block of late with those able to get out, particularly on the flathead in the deeper water, doing well with a by-catch of gummy shark and pinkie snapper to 35 cm.
Although whiting have been scarce, said Rod, squid are still on offer with those getting out of an early morning doing alright, something to which Andrew Phillips and Tony Greck could attest after picking up a bag limit catch after a daybreak start on Friday.
Port Campbell
The jetty at Port Campbell produces a variety of species from barracouta to crayfish, but most of the crew that fish from here are somewhat tight-lipped about how good a spot this really is.
However, among last week’s visitors were Johnny Mazurek and Roderick Lachlan whose catch included a snapper of about 3 kg, and who were only too happy to send me a photo of it.
Michael Goldby and Lachie Wombell with a sample of their blue eye trevalla catch offshore from Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Ding-a-ling: Michael Goldby and Lachie Wombell show the size of the biggest pink ling that they caught offshore from Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Portland
Picking a break in the weather last week, Lachie Wombell and Bob McPherson headed out wide for what turned out to be a productive bottom-bouncing exercise off Portland.
On the drift in 500 metres of water, it wasn’t long before they made contact with pink ling, some of which were very large indeed, and blue eye trevalla.
Bob also reports that kingfish are on the go along the north shore, particularly off the abalone farm, and there are fish to well over a metre in length to be caught here,
And, it was here that Jamie Peel, an old hand at the game, coached daughter Samara and son Jayden in the noble art of tempting kingfish, mostly with fresh squid, but Jayden opened his account casting a Sluggo at a pod of kingies on the surface.
Samara Peel with one of the kingfish she caught from Portland at the weekend (Picture: Jamie Peel).
Jayden Peel with one of the kingfish he caught from Portland at the weekend; abalone farm in the background. (Picture: Jamie Peel).
Freshwater
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that Tullaroop Reservoir is still producing redfin, and that he and fellow club member John Gray both took fish to 43 cm on their most recent visit.
Kevin also reports that Cairn Curran Reservoir is fishing well for yellowbelly, of which he took a good sample.
Others, those specifically targeting Murray cod from this water, said Kevin, have taken fish to 70 cm on deep-running, bibbed minnow-type lures like the larger Stump-jumpers.
Speaking of Murray cod, Tim Johnson and his friend Jack fished the Murray River at Gunbower for 2 days last week.
Darcy Scott took this, and a good many other pictures of the Lake Bolac fish kill last week.
They caught and released 23 cod in total; nothing huge, but there were plenty of fish on offer, the best baits being cheese and local shrimp.
On a recent visit to Lake Bolac, along the Glenelg Highway, Darcy Scott was amazed to see dozens of dead fish, that looked like galaxiids or minnow, in the shallows where he was fishing.
He didn’t get a bite from the trout he was seeking and moved to another location, which – unfortunately – was likewise littered with a variety of dead fish.
Inquiring locally, he was told that the general consensus is that chemical run-off from nearby farms was to blame, obviously something that warrants further investigation.