Al Castro with the southern saw shark he caught from the beach at Anglesea.
Off the Beach
Fishing late at night from a beach at Anglesea, Al Castro was hoping for a snapper, gummy shark, or perhaps even a mulloway, but the fish he’d hooked didn’t appear to be any of those.
What he caught was actually a southern saw shark which bears some characteristics of the tropical species, which grows to approximately 6 metres in length.
Although much smaller than its tropical cousin there is no doubting the similarities between to two species.
Stephen Eales and son Mason 5, with a sample of their redfin to 41 cm from Tullaroop Reservoir, all caught on soft plastics (Picture: Kevin Wild).
Freshwater
With good reports from Camperdown’s Lake Bullen Merri, Scott Hamilton and Wes Brewer made an early start last week, initially trolling lures, one behind a paravane at some depth, the others along the surface.
As it turned out, both presentations took tiger trout, the biggest around the 1.2 kg mark, along with a couple of slightly larger chinook salmon before the action tapered off.
A change of tactics that involved fishing pilchard fillets a metre or so above the bottom in around 20 metres of water in a berley trail, produced several chinook salmon to 1.5 kg. However, a change in wind direction did them no favours, probably though losing contact with their berley trail.
Fishing Lake Bullen Merri on Friday was Simon Werner who caught both tiger and rainbow trout while fishing pilchard fillets just above the bottom.
VFA Fish Stocking Coordinator, Rhiannon Atkinson expects the first lot of tiger trout for release this year, to be ready for stocking on Thursday, July 18.
These will be released into lake Bullen Merri, and the truck – which will be carrying approximately 4000 tiger trout at an average weight of 100 grams – is scheduled to arrive at the boat ramp at 3.00 pm
Should you wish to attend the stocking please let Rhiannon know so she can pass your contact details for any upgrades.
Another release of tiger trout, into Lake Purrumbete this time, is scheduled for the end of July, which is planned may be followed by yet another stocking of tigers into the crater lakes to reach the allocated 6000.
In the meantime, should you have any concerns regarding the stocking, feel free contact Rhiannon, either by mobile: 0407 987 016 or by email: rhiannon.atkinson@vfa.vic.gov.au
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that Tullaroop Reservoir is still producing redfin for club members including Stephen Eales, who – along with five-year-old son Mason, have had a couple of good sessions on the redfin.
Mina Sivyer with a 2 kg brown trout taken from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: John Clements).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Andrew Johnson took another solo run down to Leopold on Friday where he was so successful on the whiting last week, but fishing for half an hour from his arrival, he didn’t get a bite.
Heading back east toward The Springs, he eventually came across a good school of fish, and – using squid strips and mussel for bait – finished up with a bag limit catch of keepers.
Launching at Queenscliff on Saturday at around mid-day, Andrew Phillips and Mark Sesar first fished on the drift for squid off the mouth of Swan Bay catching several good-sized specimens.
And, in anticipation of the flood tide at around 1.30, moved further out into an area, that they’ve fished for whiting on an almost weekly basis, eventually taking bag limit catches of prime specimens despite the strengthening southerly, which – fortunately- followed the direction of the tide.
Trevor asks:
Geoff, I would like to know when low tide occurs at the Barwon Heads Bridge. Since I live at Reservoir, I can’t check this easily. Is it the same as Port Phillip Heads?
Trevor, I suspect what you really want to know is the time that low slack water occurs at the bridge; the time at which the current stops running out before coming back in. This is not the same time as low tide, which occurs earlier.
With the present volume of fresh water coming down the Barwon, low slack water at the bridge occurs about two hours later than the time given for low water at Port Phillip Heads and another hour later at the Sheepwash.
However, should the volume of fresh water coming down the river increase, then low slack water would be even later.