Geoff’s Fishing Report

 

Freshwater

Carmel and Robert Thompson were delighted to snag their favorite spot on the eastern side of Eildon Pondage where, after a long drive, they wasted no time in baiting up with Berkley Powerbait.

 

They also spent quite a bit of time casting lures, but after three hours without a touch, they decided to pack up their gear and try somewhere else: That’s when the shadowy shape of very large fish caught their attention.

 

Carmel wasted no time picking up her spinning rod, and – after making half a dozen or so casts with a pink Tassie Devil – hooked one hell of a fish. It took most of the line from her reel, but her patience prevailed, eventually enabling her to lead what turned out to be 14 kg brown trout into the landing net.

 

John Clements of Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that the Lake has been fishing well, particularly for redfin, which seems to be what most are after. They included Jarryd Tyler with son Archie and daughter Phoebe who came all the way from Birchip for the reddies.

 

Chinook salmon are also on offer, and – should you know what you’re about – catching a bag limit on pilchard pieces, or whitebait, fished just above the bottom does the trick on these beauties; some exceeding 4 kg. However, lure fishing enthusiasts are also taking their share as Max and Shane Stevens of Ballarat can attest after taking several on Bent Minnow. Shane also picked up a nice tiger trout with the same approach.

 

Maryborough Fishing Club member Kevin Wild reports that Tullaroop Reservoir is fishing well with he and other club members taking good size redfin with a variety of methods, among them John Gray who caught one of 40 cm.

Kevin reports presently being at Lake Mulwala where he has taken a number of Murray cod to 60 cm while fishing lures around the weed beds.

 

 

Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula

Last week I mentioned that Darcy Scott’s faith in using snook (formerly called pike) for bait, hopefully to catch a snapper, proved less than successful on his first attempt. However, another try for snook produced just one, but that persuaded yet another snapper fishing session.

Making a daybreak start on Good Friday, Darcy was mooching along just west of the Wilson Spit, when the screen on his sounder lit up with the all too familiar snapper signature. His first cast with a fillet from the snook produced the first of five fish under 40 cm, and a couple a good deal larger. But by then, the snook had been used up.

However, there were some partially thawed King George whiting heads in the cooler, and the first of these to hit the water paid off big time; the fish he’d hooked eventually greeting the scales for a verdict of 8.3 kg, nicely rounding off his trip.

 

Heading out from Point Richards at around 4.00 o’clock on Friday afternoon, Andrew Phillips and Tony Greck were soon onto a reasonable whiting bite just east of the mussel farm.

 

Although slow to begin with, the bite quickened as the sun went down yielding some bigger fish, and by dark they had bag limit catches of whiting from 34 to 43 cm, along with a couple of nice flathead, each around the kilogram mark.

 

Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that on Saturday there were good catches of whiting taken by anglers launching off Clifton Springs. Among those to catch them; on one occasion with Pete Dawson, and on another with Dennis O’Brien, was Andrew Johnson. Both trips were in 5 to 5.5 metres of water off Curlewis and resulted in bag limit catches of fish to 40 cm.

 

Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Heads reports that with benign weather last week, and over the weekend, his clients were well rewarded with catches of good size whiting, squid of mixed sizes, and quite a few cuttlefish that have shown up in significant numbers of late.

 

And for those venturing out into the deeper water, there was any amount of flathead to be taken on the drift.

 

With the northerly wind stirring up the bottom on Sunday, Simon Werner tried his luck from the Portarlington breakwater, being well aware that such conditions are productive for snapper. And, his efforts were not in vain either for he caught three, the biggest 2.5 kg.

 

Simon also works as a deckhand aboard Adamas fishing charters, and last week they snared a good many large flathead off Port Phillip Heads, mainly of the toothy variety, However, client Jed Ferguson snared a 74 cm, southern blue spotted flathead, which was something of a surprise considering they are most usually found in shallower water.

 

Monty asks

Geoff, I want to try for a thresher shark. I’ve heard you’ve caught them: So, what’s the best approach?

 

Monty, a properly set-up 24 kg game fishing outfit is adequate on thresher sharks of the sizes (up to possibly 100 kg) usually caught locally, and – of an early morning – often fairly close to shore.

 

A 200 lb nylon-covered wire trace and wind-on nylon monofilament leader, of that weight, or perhaps a little heavier, attached to a heavy gauge 8/0-9/0 hook, when baited with a live – or dead – fish suspended under a partially inflated balloon, should put you in the strike zone.

 

Another approach that works very well – again – especially early in the morning, is to troll a large, good-quality bibbed lure like the Rapala CD18. Be aware though, when using this approach, threshers are usually hooked in the tail, the lure sometimes disengaging boat-side and becoming a missile.