Lorne sharkers: Mick Kollaris and Bill Athanasselis with the bronze whaler shark they caught from the Lorne Pier in the early hours of Friday morning (Picture: Claire, the shark girl).
On Thursday, Bill Athanasselis and Mick Kollaris made the journey to Lorne, hopeful of catching a shark from the pier, something they’d done in previous years.
It was a long wait however, while sheltering from the intermittent rain as midnight came and went. But in the early hours of Friday morning, a howl from the reel had them at action stations, soon to be rewarded with a bronze whaler of about two metres long.
Michael Evans with a 3.4 kg brown trout from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters, South West).
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that with patchy weather last week, the going was tough for most. However, there were good size pinkie snapper about if you could find them, and among those who did were Noel McMillan and Tom Pool.
For the most part, whiting have been scarce off The Springs said Mike, but true to form on Friday, Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien eventually took their respective bag limit catches; their biggest fish measuring 44 cm.
Also doing well on the whiting early last week was Chris Stamalos who picked up 18 fish to 40 cm off the Swan Bay grass beds in the vicinity of the Coles Beacon at Queenscliff. And, as is usually the case here, they didn’t really come on the bite until around 7.30 pm.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that, while pinkie snapper continue their contribution to angler’s bags, squid have been the main species on offer lately, with the Governor Reefs a good place to begin.
And it was here that Steve and Joey Carr picked up their bag limit catch. However, that was after fruitlessly trying for a gummy shark in the deeper water off the Prince George Bank where they suffered the same fate as others who’ve fished here lately, and that’s being absolutely plagued with banjo sharks,
Michael Evans with two rainbow trout from Lake Purrumbete (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters, South West).
John Jovanovic with his chinook salmon (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters, South West).
Freshwater
Early last week, Michael Evans of Victorian Inland Charters, and client John Jovanovic, visited Lake Bullen Merri where they had a great session on chinook salmon, both down-rigging with lures, and bait fishing with pilchard fillets suspended just above the bottom.
Not only did John catch his best ever chinook of 2.9 kg, he reset the bar twice more; first with a fish of 3.12 kg, and finally with another of 3.51 kg, that – at this stage anyway – is destined to go on the wall.
John Clements of Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that Lake Purrumbete is also fishing well and that Michael, who also fished here, caught a brown trout of 3.4 kg and two rainbow trout, each close to 2 kg.
Other successful anglers included Maz Stolowski of Werribee who caught a brown trout of 1.6 kg and a 1.4 kg rainbow, but redfin are still the main chance at the Lake, said John, with Joe O’Neil of Keilor Downs taking over 50 redfin to 800 grams on Baltic Bobbers.
Lachie Wombell with a blue grenadier that he caught offshore from Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Jordan Portman with his kingfish from Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Portland
Being blessed with better than average weather down Portland way last week, Bob McPherson and Lachie Wombell headed out into almost 500 metres of water where they had no trouble catching blue grenadier, pink ling and several other prized bottom fish.
Mind you, they were not the only folk out on the deep with Keryn Millard and her father Dean taking a great catch of pink ling to more than 13 kg while fishing nearby.
Tuna are still an item in the vicinity of the ship anchorage some 24 kilometres east of the Portland Harbour, said Bob, but as it turned out, and among those fishing for them in 20 metres of water, was Jordan Portman.
However, it wasn’t tuna that took Jordon’s lure, but good size kingfish that greeted the scales for a verdict of 14.2 kg after being cleaned.
Steve asks:
Geoff, I’ve noticed an abundance of large, pale-looking jellyfish in Corio bay. Do you know what they are, and if they are detrimental to the bay’s health.
Steve, the jellyfish you refer to are almost certainly those in the photo I sent you, which – in my youth – were referred to by some as German jellyfish because of the faint cross on their mantle: They’ve always been present to some degree, but probably never in numbers that would be detrimental to the bay’s health.