Adrian Cole with a sample of his, and Mark Sesar’s snapper catch (Picture: Mark Sesar).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Heading out wide from Clifton Springs early last week, Mark Sesar and Adrian Cole were no sooner at anchor toward evening when Adrian initiated proceedings with a nice snapper of around 4 kg on a bait of silver whiting.
A number of pinkies to 2 kg followed before Mark hooked their second good size snapper, also on silver whiting.
Later on, noticeable bird activity indicated the approach of a large shoal of Australian salmon, which resulted in a mixed bag, for – as well as the snapper – their final catch included half a dozen salmon to a kilogram or so.
Early Saturday morning, Mark headed off again, this time with wife Tina and friend Andrew Phillips, and soon after anchoring up just to the east of the Nine Foot Bank pile at around 5.00 am, were at action stations.
They’d caught a total of 7 snapper from 2.5 to 4.6 kg, all on silver whiting. before the bite shut down around sunrise, but then Mark was on once more.
Not a snapper this time though, for he was almost spooled of line before –what was obviously a shark – bit through his heavy trace. So, content with their catch, they called it quits.
Gustavo Kurten and his friends Wally and Goran, tried for whiting off Curlewis, but after making several moves, they finished with only 20 – all good fish though, the biggest 40 odd cm – but they were a little hard to find.
Fishing services, including Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire and Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head, also report that you do need to put a bit of effort into the quest for both whiting and squid, which is usual for this time of year with all of the activity on the water.
Charlie Farrugia with a 4.2 kg chinook salmon from Lake Purrumbete.
Kevin Wild with grandson Hayden, and a nice cod from Lake Mulwala.
Offshore
Michael Bealham picked up some nice pinkies from the bottom in 40 metres of water off the Barwon Heads Bluff after an unsuccessful hunt for tuna.
He was also able to present a bait to a 2 metre mako shark that managed to steal it without becoming hooked.
Additional attempts to catch it were in vain. So, he returned to the prolific pinkie ground where he also caught numerous slimy mackerel and two good size gummy shark, biggest weighing 12 kg.
Simon Werner, Jake Callahan and Michael Dean spent a fruitless afternoon trying to catch tuna off Barwon Heads, which were plentiful but uncooperative. However, the day wasn’t completely fruitless.
Kevin Wild with another nice cod from Lake Mulwala.
Moving closer into shore, and trolling strips of squid dressed on small rubber skirts they picked up three kingfish, which saved the day.
On Sunday, Chris Stamalos fished offshore from Barwon Heads in 30 metres, but there was nothing doing until he was about to pack up, and that’s when he caught his only fish, a seven-gilled shark.
Moving into the river estuary to catch the incoming tide at around 4.30 pm, he had much better luck with a mixed bag of King George whiting, some good size silver trevally, salmon and mullet, all taken on pipis.
Lachie Wombell with a good sample of whiting taken off Portland’s north shore (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Lachie Wombell with a pink ling. One of a variety of fish that he and Bob McPherson caught offshore from Portland on Sunday (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Portland
Fishing at Portland has been good lately with whiting currently plentiful along Portland’s north share, and that’s where Bob McPherson and Lachie Wombell found them last week, catching several over 40 cm.
And, with good weather on Sunday, the pair headed out to the wide grounds, where – in around 500 metres of water – they caught a variety of fish including blue grenadier, pink ling, gemfish and blue-eye trevalla.
Lachie Wombell with a nice gemfish taken offshore from Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Damon Sherriff with a nice snapper of 10.1 kgs, taken on fresh calamari from 9 metres of water off Bridport in northern Tasmania.
Freshwater
From all accounts, chinook salmon from the crater lakes are growing in size with the biggest fish nudging the 5 kg mark.
Among those to catch them last week were Chris and Charlie Farrugia, with young Charlie taking the biggest fish at 4.2 kg on a Tassie Devil from Lake Purrumbete
Gustavo Kurten and his friend Mick had no trouble catching any number of chinook salmon from Lake Bullen Merri, fishing with pilchard fillets suspended just above the bottom, along with a bycatch of tiger and rainbow trout.
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that he took his grandchild Hayden out on Lake Mulwala over the weekend where they had no trouble catching any number of cod to 60 cm or so using chicken for bait.
Club member Stephen Eales, along with daughters Amelia 8, Lily 7, and son Mason 3, fished Cairn Curran Reservoir where they had no trouble at all in taking any number of redfin on worms.