Mick Zsargo with the snook he caught from the Point Lonsdale Pier on Thursday afternoon.
Thursday’s sunshine bought a good many folk outdoors, including fishermen. Among them Mick Zsargo, a regular attendee at the Point Lonsdale Pier.
The tide was coming in; a good omen, but for most, there wasn’t much doing. Never the less, casting a 28 gram, Daiwa bibbed minnow proved a fruitful exercise for Mick for he caught two good size snook (formerly known as pike); a highlight catch on the day.
Alby Dawson with his tuna taken offshore from Lorne (Picture: Wayne Griffiths).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Making an early start on Thursday morning, Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien found a good patch of whiting in 4.5 metres of water off Curlewis and picked up 25 on the last of the outgoing tide. But, as usual, as the tide slackened of around 9.00 am, so did the whiting bite.
Hopeful of another go at them, they waited out slack water; quite some time as it turned out, but as the incoming tide came on apace, their wait paid off, and – as strange as it sounds – although they didn’t move, the average size of the fish they caught on the incoming tide was a lot bigger than those they caught on the ebb, the biggest measuring 41 cm.
With bag limit catches of whiting, and the day still young, they moved into around 3.5 metres where they picked up a respectable bag of squid on the drift.
There’s whiting to be caught in the inner harbour as well, to which Paul Rahman can attest having taken a bag limit catch of fish in Stingaree Bay on Friday evening. These were all well and truly legal size and taken on baits of pipi and squid.
Launching from St Leonards on Friday morning, Andrew Phillips and Tony Greck headed down toward the entrance of Swan Bay, initially hoping to catch a few squid on the rising tide, but the murky water put paid to that. So, at around 11.00 am, they anchored up near Coles Beacon hopeful of getting onto the whiting, which as it happened, proved to be a fruitful exercise.
They caught their respective bag limits – some of them real beauties, the biggest measuring 44 cm – the last of which were taken in worsening weather with the wind picking up from the south east in the early afternoon, making for a bumpy ride back to the ramp.
Adamas’ clients on charter with a sample of their warehou catch taken offshore from Ocean Grove.
Offshore
Simon Werner of Adamas Fishing Charters reports finding a school of Warehou (snotty trevalla) for their clients in 30 metres of water off Ocean Grove. They caught at least forty as it turned out and there were some good ones among them.
We’ve seen a few snotties recently, some being caught from the Lorne Pier, but they’ve mainly been less than a kilogram apiece. However, those that Simon referred to, ranged in size from one to 3.5 kg. Hopefully, we’ll see more of those.
Lorne fishing regular, Wayne Griffiths reports that both those fishing from the pier, and offshore have been doing well on a variety of species including tuna, of which Wayne sent in a photo of Alby Dawson, a junior Lorne Angling Club member with a tuna of 10 kg that he caught out from Lorne.
At Port MacDonnell, just over the South Australian border, large bluefin tuna have been rounding up schools of redbait (Emmelichthys nitidus), resulting in large surface boils of these fodder species with anglers quick to take advantage with dip-nets, and returning same as live-baits. Among those to do so include Paul and Callum Ritchie and Lewis Hamer who have made the conversion of live redbait to large tuna, and who – on a recent trip – made it a family affair taking Courtney, Jacob and Cody Ritchie 6, along for an exciting ride.
Callum Ritchie and Lewis Hamer with one of the tuna they’ve caught recently from Port MacDonnell in South Australia; this one weighed 90 kg.
Hopkins River
In April last year we featured Ash Reece and his ten-year-old son Billy, who – while fishing with Andrew Johnson off Curlewis – took a good catch of whiting, Billy catching the biggest.
Well, Billy – now 11 – spent a few days with his granddad Gary at Allansford, and – after digging a few worms – Billy again took the prize catch, a 44 cm estuary perch that fell to a lowly worm.
That was just on dark, so they fished on into the night hopeful of catching more of the same, but all they caught after that were several very large eels; slippery customers that they released.
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club with a nice brown trout from Tullaroop Reservoir (Picture: Don Rayner).
Kevin Wild with a sample of the redfin currently on offer from Tullaroop Reservoir (Picture: Don Rayner).
Freshwater
On Friday afternoon, Frank Benvenuto fished Wurdiboluc Reservoir, and initially – casting a Strike Pro Bob N Spoon from the main wall – caught two rainbow trout around the kilogram mark and missed a couple of other strikes.
All was quiet after that, so – believing a change of lure might help – he tried again, this time with a Daiwa Double Clutch that accounted for one more rainbow, but that was his lot for the day.
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that Tullaroop Reservoir is still producing redfin, and that he and Don Rayner, on their trip early last week, caught any number to 1.5 kg using a variety of methods.
Brown trout are also on offer says Kevin, both as a target species for those seeking them, and as a by-catch for those targeting redfin.
Kevin also mentions that club member Greg Streets, who lives in Stawell, has been catching any number of good size redfin from nearby Lake Fyans fishing with soft plastics from his boat along the edges of the weed beds.