Corey Schwarzkopf with the 61 cm snapper he caught from St Helens early last week.
Roger Lewry with a nice pair of reds that he caught from the rocks at St Helens.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
With an ongoing rise in local water temperatures, snapper are now active, and among those to take advantage was Corey Schwarzkopf.
Corey was soaking half a squid head from the rocks at St Helens early last week when one of his rods signalled the unmistakeable bite of a snapper, one that measured 61 cm on this occasion.
Mind you, Corey was not the only successful piscatorial protagonist at St Helens, for Roger Lewry, who was also fishing here, caught two similar sized snapper while also using squid for bait.
Of course, other land-based platforms have produced snapper as well with a number of good-sized fish reportedly being caught from the St Leonards Pier and the Portarlington breakwaters.
Two of the snapper photos Rod Lawn of Adamas charters sent me. The anglers are Rickie Keen
Nathaniel Plant. Both are from Ballarat and members of a buck’s party trip.
Mind you, snapper are on the bite offshore as well, Rod Lawn, Skipper of Adamas Charters sending me several photos of good size snapper taken offshore from Port Phillip Heads during a rare break in the weather.
Launching at Point Richards early last week, Gordon and Carol Williams anchored up just to the east of the mussel farm at around 8.30 to catch the incoming tide.
A good move as it turned out, for they were soon on their way to bag limit catches of whiting.
This they undoubtedly would have achieved had it not been for the unwelcome appearance of a greedy seal, eager to share their good fortune.
With a break in the weather on Thursday, Simon Werner headed down to Indented Head where he tried both for whiting, of which he caught 8 to 41 cm, and squid, of which he caught three.
But with the weather threatening to revert to its former disagreeability, Simon was taking no chances and kept within easy reach of the ramp.
Tyler Kenny with a bass that he recently caught from the Werribee River (Picture: Frank Benvenuto).
Four year old Eli and father, Kevin McLoughlin, with a sample from their weekend’s carp catch from the Barwon.
Freshwater
Headed down to the Barwon River just downstream from Breakwater at the weekend were Kevin McLoughlin and his four-year-old son Eli who was champing at the bit for some action.
Fishing with corn kernels and bread for bait, and a bit of berley tossed in from the bank, the first rod to signal a bite had Eli seizing the day before you could say “carp.”
And carp they were, quite a few of them on that occasion, with their biggest fish – one caught by Eli – providing little or no change from 7 kg.
Werribee River specialist, Frank Benvenuto has had a few distractions of late that have kept him from fishing more than he would have liked, and when invited to go fishing one evening with his mate Tyler Kenny last week, he felt a bit tired and declined.
However, Tyler headed down to the river, and – while casting a 2.75-inch paddle tail soft plastic on a 1/16th of an ounce jighead – picked up a 33 and a 40 cm bass that had Frank admitting that he wished he’d gone after all.
Selin Rahman with her 16.38 kg rainbow trout – a pending women’s record catch – that she caught from New Zealand’s Ohau Canal.
New Zealand
Paul Rahman, his father Horan, and wife Selin, journeyed from Geelong to New Zealand’s South Island where they fished the Ohau Canal in Twizel Country for the extra-large trout for which this district is famous.
They weren’t disappointed as it turned out, catching any number of trout – mostly rainbows – with quite a few from 4.5 to 11.5 kg. However, Selin caught the fish of the trip, a rainbow trout of 16.38 kg, which is a pending women’s world record on 6-pound tackle.
Crime doesn’t pay
A Melbourne fisherman copped a hefty penalty after using an illegal method to catch golden perch from Lake Hume; a further search of his home revealed the flesh of 200 illegally harvested abalone.
In addition to the $20,000 fine imposed, the man was banned from fishing for five years, had his ute, boat and fishing gear all confiscated along with his illegally caught fish.