Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club with a sample of the redfin to be caught at Tullaroop Reservoir.
Freshwater
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that Tullaroop Reservoir is still producing good catches of redfin, and that he and Ken Hinks took any amount on their most recent trip, both on bait and on various lures.
Kevin also reports that club members have also been successful on Lake Fyans near Stawell where redfin have also been the main catch. And, being something of a fishing celebrity, Kevin was approached by a gentleman who was only too eager to show him his catch of a Murray cod just over a metre in length, and several yellowbelly that he’d caught from the Murray River directly below the Torrumbarry weir, upstream from Echuca, using Old Mate lures in the green colouration.
With a break in the weather on Thursday, Jack Paasse fished Lake Bullen Merri again, as he did last week. While the action was somewhat slower than during his previous trip, he managed to catch three fish; one, a well-conditioned rainbow trout of around 1.8 kg, and a couple of slightly smaller chinook salmon, all of which were released.
All three fish were caught trolling lures from his kayak; the rainbow taking a green and gold Tassie Devil while the salmon took a bibbed, minnow-type lure.
Chinook salmon have also been on offer at nearby Lake Purrumbete where Ken Stokes had no trouble taking a bag limit catch of fish to 2 kg while fishing pilchard fillets just above the bottom, along with an occasional eel; hard to avoid when fishing at this depth.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
With Thursday’s weather looking halfway decent, and the incoming tide pushing up against a light westerly breeze, Andrew Johnson headed down toward Curlewis, hopeful of catching a few whiting. Initially at least, there wasn’t much doing, so a series of moves was initiated before he found a good bite in 5 metres of water.
By then though, the westerly breeze had picked up quite a bit, chopping up against the incoming tide. But. with a good bite going – and despite the deteriorating conditions – Andrew stuck it out for a tally of sixteen keepers from 34 to 41 cm before heading back to the ramp.
Fishing in much the same area, Carol and Gordon Williams also took a respectable catch of whiting, and they probably would have taken a bag-limit catch had it not been for the darkening skies that persuaded their return to the ramp.
Jason Treloar and Harley Griffiths had snapper on their mind putting in a lengthy night vigil off North Shore, but while they picked what were almost certainly positive soundings for snapper along the Corio Channel, they had no luck in tempting one, as often is the case with cooling water temperatures.
They thought their luck had changed when, out of the blue – so to speak – one of their reels screamed off, and that felt like a decent snapper. That was until they got it alongside, when it turned out to be a gummy shark of possibly 6 kg: A good catch certainly, but not what they were after.
Anglers prepared to brave the less than friendly weather we’ve experienced over the past week or so, have been rewarded with good catches of Australian salmon, from the wave moderator and other nearby structures at the Geelong waterfront, with metal lures of sufficient weight to make a good cast, preferred.
Archie asks:
Geoff, I have heard that red and pink fishing line is the best to use for fishing leaders because red disappears under the water. Is that true?
Archie, red is the first colour of the spectrum to be lost under water but it does not disappear, it just goes grey, and as such remains visible. Similarly, pink also goes grey and is still visible.
However, I was aware of the increased promotion of red and pink leaders some years ago, and the claims made for them that included the erroneous claim that red disappears under water making the line invisible. So, you may have been reading old literature, otherwise that old furphy has made a comeback.
Least visible under water are clear nylon monofilament leaders, followed by those tinted pale blue or green.