Stuart Scott with the 7.2 kg snapper he caught from Corio Bay last week.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
With last week’s strong north westerlies and choppy seas, Stuart Scott fished offshore from the Mountain View Quarries alone, and it wasn’t long before he hooked a good size snapper. Unfortunately though, it escaped when the hook pulled free.
Come nightfall, with a rear anchor over the side to stop his boat swinging on the main anchor rope and tangling his lines, Stuart hadn’t long to wait before hooking a second snapper, which – as luck would have it – became entangled with said rear anchor line.
Eventually though, the complex task of retrieving the rear anchor line with the snapper attached, along with the judicious use of a landing net, was accomplished with Stuart boating a snapper that weighed 7.2 kg.
Taking a run along the west side of the Wilson Spit on Sunday, Andrew Johnson and Brodie Bell picked up some promising readings on the sounder before anchoring up.
While they did catch several unwanted species, at around 10.45 am, Andrew caught a 5 kg snapper that took a fillet taken from a mullet that Brodie had previously caught from the Sheepwash. They would have stayed longer save for the strengthening breeze.
Frank Galea with the 31 kg gummy shark that he caught offshore from Torquay on Sunday (Picture: Kevin McLoughlin).
Offshore
Welcoming a break in the weather on Sunday, Kevin McLoughlin, along with Brian Nolan and Frank Galea fished on around 30 metres of water off Torquay where their catch included a southern calamari that weighed 3 kg and a school shark of 31 kg.
There are also good numbers of small barracouta offshore as Simon Werner could attest after being plagued by these toothy critters offshore from Ocean Grove at the weekend.
Michael Evans with a 61 cm brown trout that he caught from Wurdiboluc Reservoir on a bibbed minnow (Picture: Michael Evans).
Michael Evans with a redfin that he caught from Wurdiboluc Reservoir on Sunday (Picture: Michael Evans).
Freshwater
Fishing Wurdiboluc Reservoir – one of his favourite haunts – over the weekend, Michael Evans’ catch included a 61 cm brown trout that weighed exactly 3kg on a bibbed minnow. Also using spoons, Michael caught several respectable redfin and two smaller brown trout.
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that a number of brown trout were caught last week and there were some good ones among them.
Fishing with soft plastics from Hoses Rocks was Ken Carmen of Camperdown whose catch included a brown trout weighing 4.5 kg.
Others to catch good size browns include Frank Gadea who caught one of 2.7 kg on the fly while fishing land based, releasing several others, and Kurt Rundle who caught one of 1.8 kg on a mudeye fished under a bubble float. However, redfin are still the main chance from Purrumbete said John, and among those to catch them were James and Kathy Reid who caught 30 or so from 800 grams to 1.2 kg.
Chris Hateley of the Keysborough Angling Club reports that the club had a competition at the Werribee River estuary on Sunday where members were surprised to see several large fish feeding at the surface. The mystery was solved when Club President Dave Jacobsen’s bass yabby was taken by a mulloway measuring 95 cm and weighing 7.5 kg, and which won the competition.
Lake Elingamite near Cobden, a notoriously difficult place from which to launch a boat has benefitted from recent rain t the point where small shallow draft boats can be launched by those not adverse negotiating the mud.
Among those to fish here over the weekend was Rod Shepherd who caught both brown and rainbow trout, along with a couple of redfin using both Damiki Saemi and Pontoon 21 Cablistas, but still mourning a big one that got away.
Alex Mordaunt (left) with the 72.5 kg tuna he caught aboard Sharkman Charters (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Portland
Bob McPherson reports that while patchy weather has kept most offshore enthusiasts ashore, there are still a few tuna off Portland with a 72.5 kg specimen being taken by Alex Mordaunt, a client of Sharkman Charters: “The hardest fighting fish I’ve caught” said Alex: No surprises there I’d say.
Keysborough Angling Club President Dave Jacobsen with his competition winning fish from the Werribee River on Sunday; a mulloway that measured 95 cm and weighed 7.5 kg (Picture: Chris Hateley).
Norm asks:
Geoff, you mentioned an angler catching a tailor from the surf last week: I didn’t know we had tailor in our waters: How common are they?
Norm, while tailor are by no means plentiful in our waters, they are more common than most folk realize with the larger specimens being present in winter. Very few are caught by anglers though because their sharp teeth usually sever nylon traces, something for which barracouta and other toothy critters are usually blamed.
While most anglers fishing for salmon are not disturbed about losing a fish or two, attaching a flight of ganged hooks in sizes 3/0 or 4/0 – preferably with a twisted dropper loop to avoid them entangling the main line – will take both salmon and tailor. You can buy these already made up; if not from local tackle shops, then certainly from Ebay.