Classic catch: Garry Ridgeway with the 4.6 kg brown trout he caught from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Lindsay Robinson).
John Moncrieff with his 43 cm redfin from Lake Toolondo (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters).
Freshwater
On Wednesday, Garry Ridgeway fished Stony Creek Reservoir on the way to Ballan where numerous fish were rising, particularly toward dark. But by then, he’d caught three brown trout, each just shy of a kilogram, using mudeyes he’d gathered previously for bait.
Making an early start on Lake Bullen Merri on Thursday morning, Garry and Lindsay Robinson found chinook salmon on the bite, and – using whitebait suspended just above the bottom – caught fish after fish in 18 metres of water, the only obstacle being the number of small ones.
Never the less, they took bag limit catches of fish to 2 kg before heading over to nearby Lake Purrumbete where the remainder of their mudeye supply paid off; first on several rainbow and brown trout to 1.5 kg before Garry hooked something a good deal bigger that turned out to be a brown trout weighing 4.6 kg and measuring 71 cm.
John Clements of Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that among those to do well on Lake Purrumbete last week were Andy Martin and his sons Jace 10, and Ryan 9, who caught about 50 redfin; Jace also caught a 1.8 kg brook trout.
Fishing nearby Lake Bullen Merri on Thursday and Friday, the Giles family from Bannockburn turned youngsters Marley 10, and Sammy 12, loose on the fish population; their catch included a 2.34 kg chinook for Marley and a 1.44 kg rainbow trout for Sammy.
An early start on Lake Elingamite near Cobden paid off for Steven O’Keefe, Daniel Stranger and Jason Fairbridge who caught six respectable trout and 5 healthy redfin in fairly short order.
Trevor Holmes of Victorian Inland Charters fished Lake Toolondo with 16 year old John Moncrieff from Albury over the weekend taking a respectable bag of redfin that included one of 43 cm; a personal best for John who also caught a 57 cm brown trout on a Nories Laydown Minnow.
Early last month we featured a story on the enormous rainbow trout to be caught in the Twizel Canals on New Zealand’s South Island along with Michael Evans pictured holding one.
Well, the temptation proved too much for Michael and he returned last week to fish with Graham Edridge, with not only another great sample of colossal rainbow trout, but on this occasion, he also caught a 7.7 kg brown trout.
Michael Evans with yet another colossal rainbow trout from the Twizel Canals in New Zealand.
Michael Evans with a 7.7 kg brown trout from the Twizel Canals in New Zealand.
Bellarine Peninsula
After tuning in to recent whiting reports off Clifton Springs, Andrew Johnson, Brodie Bell and Tony Mollenhauer anchored up off The Dell on Sunday afternoon where they caught ten good fish, each around the 40 cm mark.
There must be a few whiting around for Steve O’Keefe and Brad Baker – after first catching several squid for bait – caught 26 prime specimens from the grass beds off Queenscliff’s Swan Island during the flood tide. Aaron Habgood and his crew also took another great catch of whiting from the same area.
Alana and Adam Vasilevski with Aaron Habgood (centre) with their catch of whiting.
Aaron Habgood with his and his crew’s catch of whiting from Queenscliff.
Estuary
On Thursday morning Martin de Lange fished the Anglesea River upstream from the bridge where, using shrimp for bait, he was kept busy with undersize fish stealing his bait. But he persisted, and was eventually rewarded with three decent bream that he estimated to have weighed about 3 kg.
John Moncrieff with his 54 cm brown trout from Lake Toolondo (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters).
Martin De Lange with his bream from the Anglesea River estuary.
Steve asks:
I’m heading down to Lorne mid October and will be boat fishing for the first time down that way. Do you have any suggestions for catching snapper or whiting?
Steve, the boat ramp at Lorne has been closed, but people launch boats on the east side of the pier, Point Grey providing shelter from the prevailing south westerly swells. However, being on the ocean, you do need to take care.
There is usually little doing during the day around Lorne, but toward evening, there are whiting to be caught within the sandy channels intersecting the protruding reefs east of Point Grey, and further south in front of the George River. You also might try offshore from the Rock Ledge in front of Albert Street.
There are pinkie snapper on any of the small reefs to the north and north-west from the pier. However, the bigger fish are reportedly caught offshore from Mount Defiance and Artillery Rocks to the south; that’s an option should fair weather prevail.