Lachie Wombell with a sample of the whiting he and his companions caught off Portland last week. (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Corio Bay and the Bellarine Peninsula
On Wednesday evening, Darcy Scott took a respectable catch of squid off Queenscliff before heading over to the grass beds off Swan Island to catch the last two hours of the flood tide as night fell, hopeful getting onto the whiting.
The whiting were well and truly on the bite, and remained so until well after dark with Darcy back at the ramp with a bag limit catch of fish, each measuring 40 cm or better, and all caught on fresh squid.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that flathead remain the main chance and there are some good ones among them as Peter Clark and Des McKieman could relate after catching some prime specimens to 52 cm while fishing offshore from “The Dell.”
After that, the pair headed down toward Curlewis where they caught 34 whiting to 35 cm offshore from the Bayview Estate.
Pinkie snapper have also been present, said Mike, with some of the best catches being taken by local anglers along the southern boundary of the mussel farm.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that fishing has been good with plenty of flathead, the occasional gummy shark and good whiting catch coming in. Squid, however, have been patchy and you have to work for them said Rod; so much so that one of his clients brought in more cuttlefish than squid, and that’s most unusual.
Rod also mentions there are pinkie snapper to be caught out near the Prince George Light (PG1) with local angler Brian Cummings and his son in law, David Beardsley, catching their restrictive bag limits of only three fish over 40 cm, after making a 5.30 am start.
Offshore
On Thursday, Tom Robinson and Keith Berry fished offshore from Barwon Heads in 45 metres of water where they took a good catch of flathead, barracouta and two nice gummy shark.
Their drift eventually took them fairly close to the Black Rock outfall where they caught a seven-gilled shark of about 1.6 metres, and destined for the barbeque.
Freshwater
John Clements of Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that brown and rainbow trout were caught in good numbers last week, with Paul Kovzan among the successful anglers taking fish to 2.3 kg on mudeyes fished beneath a float.
Also successful with the same approach was Tom Hogan of Drysdale with his biggest fish just on 2 kg.
Redfin remain the main catch though said John, with regulars like Jeff Broughton, taking good catches on minnow and scrubworm.
Portland
Down Portland way, Bob McPherson reports that a patch of rough weather kept most ashore, but the inshore fishing has been good. Whiting in particular have been on the bite, something that he, George Gereige and Lachie Wombell took advantage of at Cape Grant, and elsewhere, last week.
Jamie Behrens caught and released this 51 cm estuary perch – which certainly would have weighed well over 2 kg – from the Barwon River estuary at 5.30 pm on Sunday, September 9, 2007. The lure on this occasion being a 50 mm black and gold Squidgy-fish (Picture: Jason Bird).
Estuary perch liberation
In December, Painkalac Reservoir – once supplying water to Fairhaven and Aireys Inlet, and to which there is a walking trail from the Distillery Creek amenities area on Bambra Road – was stocked with 7000 fingerling estuary perch, courtesy of Barwon Water and Fisheries Victoria.
Should they adapt, and survive predation by cormorants and the like over the next few years, we can expect that this slow-growing species will eventually reach a size that will attract recreational fishermen, as have those in Victorian estuaries like that of the Barwon (see file photo).
Jeremy asks:
How do you rig a permanent stopper for a running, or sliding, float for land-based fishing? I’ve followed various presentations on YouTube, but once tied, they all slip.
Jeremy, having determined at what distance up your line your stopper should be, I suggest that you tie a separate length of line there with a nail knot, pulling it up really tight, to form the stopper.
The nail knot is best tied with the aid of a slim metal tube with an inside diameter of perhaps one millimetre. These are available from the hobby section of Tates Toy World in West Geelong, or from Ebay.
Having tied your stopper, you will need to thread a small (5 mm or so) plastic or glass bead onto the line above your float to stop it from riding up over the nail knot when your predetermined dropper fully extends following the cast.