Learning the trade: Michael Redpath with his 18 month old grandson Jaxon, fishing for carp in Seagull Paddock, North Geelong (Picture: Liffy Jennings).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Jeff Richards, whose usual fishing partners have been indisposed of late, has taken to early morning walks out onto the new Portarlington breakwater where a variety of fish have been caught including snapper, whiting and silver trevally. Some the snapper, mostly those around the 2.5 kg mark, have been taken on the inside of the breakwater in the vicinity of the green starboard piles at the harbour entrance.
Rod Ludlow of the Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Heads also recommends Portarlington pier as a great place to fish, adding several mores species, including barracouta to the list of fish being caught here, but – as is often the case – it is the early birds who are getting the metaphorical worm.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that while squid and flathead have been the main catch, whiting have been hard to find for the average angler. However, those dedicated to putting in the time and effort have been catching them.
On Friday, Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien made another early start off Clifton Springs, covering a lot of ground between The Springs and Curlewis to find only small fish on offer.
However, their luck changed around 4.00 pm when fellow anglers, Brodie Bell and Damien Aquilina, called them over to a really good bite off The Springs: Their biggest fish measured 45 cm and they were only too happy to share their good fortune. Also, fishing in much the same area was Stuart O’Brien whose biggest fish also measured 45 cm.
Freshwater
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that the Lake continues to produce some great fish for those prepared to put in the time and effort. Among them was Dan Mackerel of Colac who caught a 4.1 kg brown trout on Wednesday evening casting a Daiwa Double Clutch into a likely area, and – on Friday evening – Lee Ryan caught another brown of 3.8 kg trolling a Tassie Devil.
Anthony Webb with the chinook salmon he caught from Lake Purrumbete
Chinook are still to be caught from the lake as demonstrated by Anthony Webb’s who caught a 3.7 kg specimen on a pink Tassie Devil.
Small to medium size rainbow trout, along with redfin, are still the main catch said John, as he and eleven year old Josh Fraser from Norlane demonstrated. They caught several rainbows from 1.2 to 1.7 kg downrigging at nine metres with a Tillen King Cobra, as did Mick Giles of Bannockburn using the same approach with a 450 pattern Tassie Devil.
Catches in Lake Bullen Merri have dropped off though, with many of the chinook salmon now in their darker spawning colours as witnessed by Simon Werner, who – along with his son Jayden, and his friend Jemma Thorpe – spied quite a few of them from the South Beach jetty. They tried various methods to tempt them, but as is usually the case when they’re in this condition, showed no interest. However, their luck changed after taking a run out onto the lake with the capture of two rainbow trout and three chinook salmon using both bait and lures.
Justin Burns with a 76 cm Murray Cod from Lake Mulwala (Picture: Katryna Burns)
Justin Burns with one of his golden perch from Lake Mulwala (Picture: Katryna Burns).
Justin Burns, along with wife Katryna, daughter Aisha 13 and son Jai 10, took a run up to Lake Mulwala near Yarrawonga over the weekend, catching, and then releasing, several Murray Cod to 76 cm and seven golden perch to 2 kg or so trolling Jackall lures.
There are still plenty of school tuna to 12 kg or so to be caught off Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Kelvin asks:
Geoff, I’ve noticed that the autumn tides fell much lower than normal this year; can you provide any explanation?
Kelvin, they have been lower than usual and you are not the only one to notice that. The low tide on April 6 was the lowest I’d ever seen in Corio Bay, well below the predicted level of 0.3 metres at Port Phillip Heads would suggest.
My enquiry to the Tide Centre in South Australia was answered by assistant manager, James Chittleborough, who said that while he had no definitive explanation, he did look into this issue and discussed it with a colleague who, in turn, alluded to a similar enquiry from Stony Port on Western Port. It was further suggested that the negative residuals for both April 6 and May 11 this year were probably due to increased barometric pressure.