Gustavo Kurten with the 21.87 kg mulloway he caught from the Glenelg River estuary in Western Victoria.
Gustavo Kurten had already made quite a few trips to Nelson on the Glenelg River estuary in Western Victoria where he’d spent many an hour in search of the elusive mulloway.
And he’d been successful; up to a point anyway, with he and wife Alexis catching quite a few respectable fish to 8 or 9 kg, but he badly wanted to catch one over the 20 kg mark, and at the weekend, tried his luck once more.
Successfully, as it turned out; for right on daybreak, and using a live Australian salmon of about 30 cm in length for bait, he tempted a 21.87 kg mulloway that filled the bill nicely.
Jimmy Holland with the battle-scarred snapper he caught from St Helens (Picture: Jefri Klasevski).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Fishing from the rocks at St Helens on Thursday afternoon, Jimmy Holland was delighted to hook a snapper of around 4 kg on the pilchard he was using for bait, which – judging by the partial loss of its tail, and some tissue from its head – had been in the wars.
Jimmy’s friend Jefri Klasevski, who was fishing nearby, photographed his fish and said that he’d seen another snapper on the surface recently, and – by its errant swimming motion – also looked somewhat the worse for wear. So, I guess we’re sometimes reminded that it’s a jungle down there.
Andrew Phillips and Tony Greck were out before dawn on Saturday, and heading north west from Clifton Springs, found a promising signal north of the Wilson Spit Channel between Point Lillias and the Wilson Spit.
They had their first snapper at around 5.30 am, and eventually took their respective bag limit catches from 2 to 4.5 kg, along with two flathead, each nudging a kilogram.
All were caught on either silver whiting or squid before the south easterly came up, making it a bumpy ride back to the ramp.
Michael Bealham, whose snapper catches we’ve featured from time to time, has introduced friends and associates to his snapper spot off Point Wilson. But, as I mentioned last week, there are also sharks to contend with out here, particularly at night.
Michael’s friend, and Geelong fishing identity, John Wesolowski, almost bagged a bronze whaler, probably just shy of two metres, but lost it around the anchor rope. Michael also lost another of similar size that bit him off. So, wire traces are the go now with sharks a new target species.
Andrew Johnson and wife Jenny were out off Curlewis at daybreak on Friday to beat the mid-morning breeze, and fishing in only 3.5 metres of very discoloured water, had their respective bag limits of whiting by 8.00 am with Jenny catching the biggest fish at 44 cm.
Boat Hire services have found the going tough with the weather, but Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that there are squid to be caught off The Dell and pinkie snapper are on offer for most of the time.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire has had little mercy from the unseasonal easterlies we’ve been having lately, but those that got out on Saturday morning caught pinkie snapper and flathead.
One of the local anglers on Wooroonook Lakes with a nice redfin.
Offshore
Simon Werner, who does decking duties aboard Adamas Charters, reports that there are still a few tuna about, having spied birds working outside Port Phillip Heads.
Lures went over the side and they soon had two juvenile southern bluefin below the 10 kg mark, but – as is often the case – they went to ground after that so to speak, and that was that.
Ray Tribe of Bibby Lures with a 3.23 kg tiger trout from Lake Bullen Merri (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters).
Don Rayner of the Maryborough Angling Club with a sample of yabbies from the Wooroonook Lakes.
Freshwater
On Friday afternoon, Michael Evans of Victorian Inland Charters was joined by Adrian Bibby and Ray Tribe of Bibby Lures, eager to put their products to the test on Lake Bullen Merri.
Initially they caught a couple of small rainbow trout on the troll, but half an hour or so later, Mark’s rod buckled over, his reel singing to the tune of what turned out to be a 60 cm female tiger trout weighing 3.23 kg.
But the party wasn’t over, for shortly after that, Adrian hooked what turned out to be a male tiger measuring 58 cm and weighing 2.5 kg, and then, a 50 cm chinook salmon.
Come evening, they still had their version of the bent minnow to try out and not a great deal of time to do so, but a casting session produced a nice brown trout nudging 2 kg.
Kevin Wild and Don Rayner of the Maryborough Angling Club, headed up to the Wooroonook Lakes near Donald with thoughts of a yabby harvest for Christmas, but took no fishing rods.
That was a pity because redfin and yellowbelly were well and truly on the bite as the locals clearly showed.
Yabbies were scarce, but those they caught were of the XOS variety, half-filling their bucket.