Victorian Inland Charters’ client Mohammed with his 63 cm brown trout from Lake Purrumbete.
Freshwater
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that while redfin have been the main catch from the lake, trophy size brown trout have also been on offer with Xavier Ellul picking up a nice one of 4 kg last week.
On Friday afternoon, Victorian Inland Charters’ new skipper, Ken Carman, was joined by client Mohammed and two of his mates, eager to catch a good size trout or chinook salmon, also from Lake Purrumbete, but – after a couple of hours on the troll – they became tired of catching nothing but floating weed in the choppy conditions.
So, moving on to calmer water at the sheltered side of the lake, they began a lure-casting session along the margins taking 20 nice redfin, but Mohammed took the catch of the day, a 62 cm brown trout that fell to a 3” paddle-tail soft plastic in midnight oil.
John Rivett’s catch of redfin from Green Hill Lake near Ararat.
Xavier Ellul with the brown trout he caught from Lake Purrumbete last week (Picture: John Clements).
On the weekend, clients Nathan and Dave joined Ken in a lure-casting session around the lake’s margins, hopeful of catching a good size trout, but redfin, and small chinook salmon were the only takers, so a change of tactics was in order.
Moving to an historically productive redfin spot, using scrubworms and soft plastics, they found plenty of action on redfin, taking 36 keepers, the two biggest of which measured 40 and 44 cm. They also released a dozen or so small chinook salmon in the process.
Making the trip to Lake Mulwala at the weekend were Maryborough Angling Club members Kevin and Amber Wild, more to attend to the maintenance of their cabin rather than to go fishing, considering the vast quantity of water being presently drained from the lake.
This is something that usually puts the Murray cod and other fish off the bite. Nevertheless, they journeyed around speaking to anglers trying their luck from the bank, one of whom, hooked what turned out to be a 62 cm cod, mid conversation: Good enough reason they thought, to return to the cabin to collect some fishing gear.
Well, despite the somewhat difficult conditions, Amber caught what turned out to be a 58 cm cod, but – between them – they missed quite a few timid nibblers.
While the weather has put a good many anglers off, Kevin reports that some members, like John Rivett fished Green Hill Lake near Ararat where he took a respectable catch of good size redfin, and Mark Wilde who caught several rainbow trout from Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree using Berkley Powerbait.
Barwon estuary
On Sunday, Simon Werner and Michael Dean fished Sunday afternoon’s incoming tide in The Sheepwash and were rewarded for their efforts with a number of silver trevally to a kilogram or so, along with some large yellow-eye mullet.
Earlier in the week, before the storm front came through, Jason Treloar and Harley Griffiths also tried their luck in The Sheepwash and were rewarded with an assorted catch that included some really good size silver trevally before the bite shut down. However, they stayed on until the incoming tide slackened off on evening for no additional benefit.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Among those fishing for whiting from Corio Bay’s outer harbour early last week were Gordon and Carol Williams who were out to catch the low tide change predicted to occur between 8.30 and 9.00 but initially, pickings were pretty lean.
However, once the tide picked up they caught a few nice fish off their mark at Curlewis before they were obliged to move to avoid the number of small fish moving in on their baits. And that was the pattern for the rest of the morning, having well and truly earned the dozen or so really good size fish they caught.
Ernie asks:
Geoff, I notice you sometimes refer to aero squid. Is that the same species as arrow squid?
Ernie, Gould’s squid (Nototodarus gouldi) is also known as the flying or aero squid. It is also called “arra squid” by many of those who harvest them commercially, which is probably why it is referred to as arrow squid in some literature; arrow being the nearest word to fit that pronunciation.