Andrew Johnson with one of the 9 snapper taken by he and wife Jenny from Corio Bay last week.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Heading due north from the junction of the Wilson Spit and Point Richards channels at very first light on Thursday, Andrew Johnson and wife Jenny had the sounder running, and in 9.5 metres of water pulled up over a promising mark.
Unfortunately, they lost the only snapper they hooked there, and with nothing else on offer, they were on the hunt once more with the sounder lighting up like a Christmas within a hundred metres or so.
The snapper they caught here weren’t all big fish by any means, and they returned quite a few pinkies. Nevertheless, they finished with nine keepers, the biggest of which weighed 5.1 kg.
That wasn’t the end of their day as it turned out, for on the way back to the ramp, they broke out the squid jigs, and – just out from The Dell – they caught nine squid, and there were some good ones among them.
Also on the hunt for snapper early week were Andrew Phillips and Mark Sesar who anchored up in around 7 metres of water off Avalon where they caught their legal bag of six snapper from one to 4 kg using pilchards and squid for bait.
Whiting aficionado Denis O’Brien was out after his favourite quarry on Thursday afternoon but found them hard to find.
Nevertheless, he persisted in the Curlewis area, eventually taking 14 good size whiting up to 40 cm in length.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that with improved weather his clients have been catching whiting flathead and squid.
Australian salmon have been about as well, said Mike, but banjo sharks remain a nuisance moving in on angler’s baits.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that clients have been bringing in good catches of whiting and squid, some taking their bag limit, while land-based anglers fishing from the nearby Portarlington breakwaters have been catching any amount of snapper.
Jordan Matthews demonstrates his ongoing success from his Kayak in the relatively shallow waters of Campbell’s Cove.
Campbells Cove
Last week we had a report from Jordan Matthews who was catching snapper to 60 cm from his Kayak in Campbell’s Cove with is just northeast of Werribee South.
Using a variety of soft plastics, Jordan continues to catch any number of snapper in relatively shallow water from the cove and has sent me his GoPro footage of what looks like an aquarium down there.
Frank Bluch with the 8.69 kg brown trout that he caught from the Pukaki Canal, NZ, on a size 12 muskrat fly: A potential tippet-class world record capture.
New Zealand
Visiting Twizel Country in New Zealand’s South Island, Geelong fly fisherman Frank Bluch was hoping to pluck yet another potential tippet class record from the great population of salmonids on offer.
Fishing the Pukaki Canal, Frank caught several species of note including a 4.6 kg Kokanee salmon, two rainbow trout of 10.5 apiece, and – using a 1 kg tippet – he eventually grassed an 8.69 kg brown trout for which he is claiming a world record for that class of tippet.
Rod Butcher with his catch of European carp with one mirror carp in the mix.
Freshwater
My neighbour, Rod Butcher takes a stroll down to the Barwon River at Breakwater every so often and catches a lot of European carp and shows me those captures on his mobile phone.
He caught 34 on his last trip to the Barwon and fitting them all into the picture was a challenge.
Lockie Wombell with a gemfish, part of a catch by he and Bob McPherson caught out wide from Portland last week (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Lockie Wombell with a sample of the blue eye trevalla that he and Bob McPherson caught out wide from Portland last week (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Portland
With a break in the weather early last week, Bob McPherson and Lockie Wombell headed out wide from Portland where they found blue eye trevalla and gemfish well and truly on the bite, taking their bag limit catch by lunchtime.
Heading back to the ramp, in 135 metres of water they had a huge blue whale surface within close proximity to their boat, almost certainly feeding on a patch of krill, an event for which this area is noted.