Red alert: Eleven year old Jordan with his 6.5 kg snapper from Corio Bay.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Danny Morgan, whom we see little of these days with work commitments at King Island, was a renowned Corio Bay snapper fisherman, and his son Jordan, who’d just turned eleven, wanted to catch one himself; so they gave it a try off Western Beach.
All was quiet for a start, but approaching 5.00 pm, the lad’s rod buckled over to the growl of the reel and he was on; and – with a little coaching from Dad – it wasn’t long before he had a 6.5 kg snapper aboard.
Anthony D’Agostino with the brown trout he caught from Lake Bullen Merri and then released (Picture: Tony D’Agostino).
Freshwater
Members of the Geelong and District Angler’s Club recently fished the Victorian Piscatorial Council Competition at Lake Bolac for a total of 26 rainbow trout, the biggest, a fish of 1.52 kg, was taken by junior member Thomas Coleman. Andrew Coleman took out the men’s section with a 5 kg bag of fish.
Lauren Chapman took the heaviest ladies bag of fish at 2.6 kg, and said that most were caught from the rocks adjacent to the South Beach boat ramp using running sinker rigs baited with Berkley Powerbait.
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that there are still trophy size brown trout to be caught from the lake, something Anthony D’Agostino demonstrated over the weekend with a 4.5 kg beauty that he caught on a Tassie Devil.
The Lake Purrumbete Angling Club held a redfin competition on the lake at the weekend, the biggest, a fish of 1.2, was taken by Brian Nygaard.
John also mentions thatLake Bullen Merri is still producing chinook salmon and rainbow trout to 1.5 kg, both for land based anglers like Ken Carmen of Camperdown, who has been catching them from the bank with soft plastics, and for those fishing from boats.
And as those who fish Lake Bullen Merri know, the closure of the road around the Lake has been a bone of contention for some time now. Russell Pickett of the Lake Bullen Merri Angling Club advises that the club is holding a public meeting at 10.00am on Sunday 30/07/17, seeking a resolution to this issue, hopefully, with the media present.
A rainbow trout from Lake Bolac (Picture: Lauren Chapman).
Surf
Fishing the late afternoon high tides at Jan Juc over the weekend, surf fishing enthusiast Tony Ingram caught several Australian salmon to a kilogram or so, both on cut pilchards and surf poppers.
He also sacrificed one of his salmon for bait, hoping to catch a mulloway – several of which have been caught from local beaches recently – but his only reward was a skate, and couple of draughtboard sharks before the cold weather persuaded his retreat.
Barwon estuary
After acquiring a good supply of sandworm last week, Derrick Hargreaves and Ben Dallimore launched from the Sheepwash to fish the incoming tide, hopeful of catching a bream or two.
They had no luck there, and with toadies and other small fish threatening their bait supply, it looked like a wasted trip. However, just as the tide slackened off on dark, one of their rods wrapped over heralding a tussle, not with a bream as they expected, but with a luderick of about 1.5 kg. And not a loner as it turned out, for they caught another of about the same size a few minutes later.
Comparing their catch at the boat ramp that evening, another angler had a mulloway of about 6 kg that was caught on a mullet.
Cal asks:
We are trying to find a good spot to take the kids fishing; would Cunningham Pier be the best place?
Cal, Cunningham Pier has no safety barriers and it’s fairly high off the water, so you might be better off fishing from Griffin’s Gully jetty off the Esplanade at Western Beach, which you can park alongside.
The Sheepwash at Barwon Heads is also worth a try, particularly during the first three hours of the incoming tide when mullet and a variety of other fish may be caught. Any of the three jetties between the bottom of Sheepwash Road and the Sheepwash boat ramp should be worth a try during the late afternoons and evenings of this week.