Geoff’s Fishing Report

Gladiator: Brian Nolan with the broadbill swordfish he and his companions caught from Bass Strait last week (Picture: Kevin McLoughlin).

Offshore

With a break in the weather last week, Geelong anglers Kevin McLoughlin, Brian Nolan and Andrew Moffat launched from Cape Conran in East Gippsland hoping to coax a broadbill swordfish from Bass Strait.

At the edge of the Continental shelf, they rigged a squid appropriately for a deep water drift, and wasn’t long before they hooked a good one that played up a treat. Unfortunately though, the hook pulled at the surface and the mighty fish swam free.

However, around mid day, their second bait was taken. This time there was no mistake, and – after three gruelling hours on the rod – Brian had a swordfish alongside that eventually weighed 140 kg.

Cod almighty: Brett Harding with the 112 cm Murray Cod that he caught from the Murray River at Cobram on a Bardi grub (Picture: Brett Harding).

Freshwater

Bannockurn angler Brett Harding has caught any amount of Murray cod, and there’ve been some big ones among them, but last week he caught his biggest so far; a beauty measuring 112 cm from the Murray River in the Cobram Regional Park.

Brett, who knows the area well, made an early start in his small boat, casting a bardi grub or two into likely areas, and at 7.30 am he was rewarded with the monster cod, which – after he took a photo or two – was released.

John Clements of Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports two outstanding catches from the lake: One was an 8.22 kg Chinook salmon that Jason Castles of Sunbury caught on a rainbow coloured Pegron trolled behind a downrigger, while the other was a 5.44 kg brown trout caught by Andrew Smith of Warrnambool while trolling a pink Tassie Devil.

John also mentions that he and Mick (one more) Giles from Bannockburn harvested another mind boggling catch of redfin from Purrumbete, and mentions that scrubworms are the best bait for the big ones.

John also mentions that Lake Purrumbete has been producing chinook salmon, both on bait and on lure, the Daiwa Double Clutch being a favourite, with Tom Hogan of Drysdale picking them up to 2 kg and better.

Also fishing Lake Purrumbete, Trevor Holmes of Victorian Inland Charters had no trouble finding chinook salmon to 2.3 kg for his clients using both bait (fillets of pilchard), fished just above the bottom, and by trolling various lures including the Daiwa Double Clutch.

Trevor also reports that Shane Stevens took an outstanding brown trout from Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree while casting an OSP Bent Minnow: It measuring 71 cm, weighed 3.7 kg, and is now in the hands of the local taxidermist.

Chris Mifsud, Darren McMahon and Andrew Scilluna with the 68 kg tuna that they caught offshore from Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).

Gone Fishing Charters client, David Li, with a sample of their day’s tuna catch off Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson.

Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula

Andrew Phillips and George Uranus were out off Point Wilson in their usual snapper spot on Thursday evening when, right on sunset, George – who was using a strip of squid for bait – caught a snapper of 4 kg.

Meanwhile, Andrew who was bitten off by something, re-rigged with a wire trace: A good move as it turned out, for he caught a 14 kg seven-gilled shark that should enhance his supply of flake.

Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that flathead remain the main chance and among those to catch them offshore from the boat ramp were Anthony Matheson and his family; their biggest measuring 42 cm.

After catching several squid, whiting aficionados Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien had a slow start off The Springs, but their luck changed at Curlewis where they caught ten whiting, including two that measured 43 cm apiece. The action stopped on the tide change, but they soon found them again and finished with their respective bag limits.

Other species to be caught said Mike, included an elephant fish measuring 85 cm that was caught by Matt Reid of Ballarat, along with a number of garfish and good size squid taken offshore from The Dell.

Aaron Habgood with one of the Gummy Shark he caught from Bass Strait at the weekend (Picture: Aaron Habgood)

Michael Goldby with a sample of his and Bob McPherson’s blue eye trevalla catch (Picture: Bob McPherson).

Offshore

Aaron Habgood and his companion took a run offshore from Barwon heads over the weekend, and – in around 40 metres of water – caught four gummy sharks, the largest around 20 kg – as well as a 7 kg snapper; an excellent result considering they caught them in a two hour period.

Bob McPherson reports that tuna are still the main attraction offshore from Portland, and lately, some bigger fish have been showing up. To date, the biggest caught so far weighed 68 kg and was caught by Chris Mifsud who was fishing out of Portland in 100 metres of water with Darren McMahon and Andrew Scilluna.

It’s a dog eat dog world out there as revealed by the bite taken from this gemfish by one of its own kind (Picture: Bob McPherson).

George Gereige with a 14.1 kg pink ling that he caught out wide from Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).

Andrew Asks:

Geoff, I use an 80lb monofilament leader for gummy sharks, but keep getting bitten off by what I believe are school sharks. I would use a wire trace except that I’ve been told gummy sharks won’t take the bait on wire. What are your thoughts?