Justin Burns with his 95 cm Murray cod from the Murray River near Echuca. (Picture: Simon Williams).
Freshwater
Justin Burns and Simon Williams, fished the Murray River near Echuca over the weekend, patiently casting lures into likely looking areas as they drifted downstream, a productive exercise as it turned out, for their catch included a 95 cm Murray cod that took Justin’s Custom Crafted lure, that was photographed and then released.
John Clements of Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park, reports that Chris Farrugia’s weekend catch included a 1.8 kg brown trout and a number of smaller rainbows, all being caught on a Tassie Devil down-rigged to 12 metres. Also successful was James Clark of Benalla with brown trout to 2 kg, also on Tassie Devils.
On Lake Bullen Merri, Purrumbete Angling Club was successful in competition with their Bullen Merri counterparts, the Broughton brigade; Les, Jeff and Kane, leading the Purrumbete club’s charge with their catch of chinook salmon to 1.7 kg, along with John Clements’ bag of rainbow trout that were taken both on lures and various baits.
Jeremy McLoughlin with a gummy shark of about 19 kg that he caught offshore from Torquay over the weekend (Picture: Kevin McLoughlin).
Offshore
With good weather on Saturday, Andrew Phillips, Keith Fry and Ken Spokes made an early start of Barwon Heads, and were anchored up in 33 metres of water by 7.30 am.
Initially they caught a number of pinkie snapper better than 30 cm, but that bite slowed and was followed by a variety of unwanted species. Never the less, they continued berleying in the hope of attracting something more desirable, but that didn’t occur until 3.00 in the afternoon.
Unsure of what they’d hooked, they retrieved all of their other lines to avoid tangling with the hooked fish, which eventually turned out to be a seven-gilled shark of 60 kg that should keep the trio in fresh flake for some time.
Kevin McLoughlin and his brother Jeremy fished off Torquay on Saturday where they too had a good day, catching three gummy sharks, of which they kept one of about 10 kg. Of the other two, one was about half that size, but the other was a real beauty that would have been 18 or 19 kg.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that Australian salmon are still about in good numbers, and – with the calm weather we’ve experienced lately – they’ve been relatively easy to find. While they vary in size from shoal to shoal, some fish have been better than a kilogram and eager to take a variety of lures.
Flathead too, have been plentiful said Mike, and there’ve been some good ones among them with Alan Wilson, Fred Jones and Jeff Hardy taking fish to 44 cm out toward the No 2 Wilson Spit channel marker.
Fishing off Hermsley Road Curlewis, Mick and Mip Pugh took a mixed bag of fish that included 20 flathead, two elephant fish and the occasional banjo shark, all on bluebait.
Whiting remain scarce, sometimes requiring many moves to find a patch of good fish as Andrew Johnson readily admitted after fishing with Dennis O’Brien on Friday. However, they eventually found a good patch fish off The Springs at around 3.00 pm that yielded six fish to 42 cm before it shut down.
Fishing for squid on Sunday, this time with Kirt Brehan, was more successful with a catch of twelve really good size specimens, but again, only after making a good many moves to find them.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that flathead and squid have been the main catch, with some really big ones among the latter.
Among those to catch them in around 5 metres of water off Indented Head on Thursday were Jeff Richards and Ken Shae whose respective bag limit catches included five or six that would have weighed better than a kilogram. Their biggest squid weighed just over 2.5 kg.
Portland
Bob McPherson reports that tuna remain the focus for most offshore anglers, but among those to do well fishing the bottom include Jack Oliver whose mixed bag of fish included a 20 kg Samson fish, which came from 120 metres of water off Cape Nelson.
Ali asks:
Geoff I heard that bream are being caught at Laker’s Cutting, can you please tell me where it is?
Ali, Lakers cutting may be reached by taking the Bellarine Hwy as far as Fellows Road, which is just after the Queenscliff-Portarlington Road turn-off. Turning left here you will take you to the head of Laker’s shellgrit cutting just past the railway line. You can fish either side of the big drain, which runs under Fellows Road, or you can walk further down the beach toward Swan Bay to fish. However, I suggest you keep seaward of the fence line to avoid encroaching on private property, particularly since some of the holders of which have been confrontational with anglers in the past.
To access the lower half of Laker’s Cutting, you will have to continue down Fellows Road around to the right where it becomes McDonald Road. Parking your car at the end, you can walk down through the swamp to the water’s edge, but be aware that the north east side promontory adjoins a marine park, in which you are not permitted to fish.