Double dip: Dennis and Brodie Bell with Sunday’s snapper from the Corio Bay outer harbour.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
On Sunday, with the smell of snapper in the air, Andrew Johnson, along with Dennis and Brodie Bell, headed out west of Wilson Spit where their sounder readings provided some encouragement.
Despite the cold easterly breeze, things began to warm up when Brodie hooked a snapper that later weighed 5.7 kg on a silver whiting. And they scarcely had time to admire that before Dennis’ rod signalled another hook-up; this time on a snapper of 6.2 kg.
Things went rather quiet before it was Andrew’s turn, but this time it was clear he’d hooked something a lot bigger than a snapper; it was in fact a large seven gilled shark that was cut free prior to hooking a second, even bigger shark, after which they left.
Jeff Richards reports that anglers fishing land based from the Portarlington breakwater have caught pinkie snapper up to around 1.5 kg lately, with most being caught on lines cast into the harbour rather than into the bay. Other species including Australian salmon have been caught here as well.
Aaron Habgood with the massive 36.7 kg school shark that he caught off Barwon Heads recently (Picture: Aaron Habgood)
Offshore
Aaron Habgood of Red’s Fishing Adventures, is not known for catching small fry, but while fishing in 30 metres of water off Barwon Heads recently, he soon realized what had taken the chunk of Australian salmon he was using for bait was bigger than usual, and after a struggle, he boated a massive school shark that eventually weighed 36.7 kg.
Michael Evans with yet another sample of the redfin he has been catching from Wurdiboluc Reservoir lately.
Freshwater
John Clements of Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that occasional large brown are still being taken; including one of 4.5 kg that was caught last week by an angler casting a Rapala bibbed minnow along the weed bed edges. Others browns were taken on the fly by Frank Gadea with the time honoured “woolly bugger.”
John also mentions that a 1.5 kg brook trout captured on a Rapala bibbed minnow in the redfin colouration, on being cleaned, was found to have swallowed a soft plastic lure, also in the redfin colouration; make of that what you may.
Redfin still remain the main catch though said John with Terry Haig and Peter Kelly cleaning up on fish from 600 grams to 1.2 kg over the weekend using scrubworms and minnow for bait.
The weather being as it was last week, there were only two days that permitted fishing on nearby Lake Bullen Merri, and even then, there were only a handful of anglers, the most successful again being fly fishermen taking chinook salmon and brown trout on smelt patterns during those evenings.
Portland
With a reasonable forecast, Bob McPherson and George Gereige headed out into 500 metres of water where they hoped to do well on the bottom fish. Unfortunately though, the weather turned sour, but not before they caught a couple of blue eye trevalla, a pink ling and several blue grenadier.
Heading back in, they found the seas calmer, and in 150 metres of water tried for a Tasmanian trumpeter or two, but a handful of red, or slimy cod, was their only reward.
However, Bob mentions that the Lee Breakwater is now open to the public following recent maintenance, and with recent rough weather, anglers may find good size snapper on offer.
One of the sevengilled sharks caught, and then released, by Andrew Johnson from Corio Bay’s outer harbour.
Roman asks:
Geoff, I fished for snapper in the Corio Bay outer harbour recently, but after dark, sea lice became a problem, taking virtually the whole bait within minutes. Can you suggest a solution?
Roman; considering, that a bait buoyed some 2 metres above the bottom will usually remain lice free, adding floatation to the bait with a short length of 10 mm diameter cell foam gap filler, and secured with a couple of small cable ties so it floats, should do the trick. Naturally, you will need to fix a small sinker two metres or so up your line to prevent the bait from floating back to the surface.
Something I noticed while night fishing for snapper in Shark Bay, West Australia, was that while the lice would eat the eyes, and most of the flesh off the whiting heads we were using for bait, leaving little more than the shell, the snapper would still take such denuded baits; so using fish heads for bait may also be worth considering.