Isaiah Elgueta 8, with his redfin from Lake Tooliorook (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters).
Clockwise: Angler Nello Sorgiovanni with Ashton Ardiri 11, and Kane Ardiri with Wednesday’s thresher shark.
Offshore
Kane Ardiri, son Ashton 11, and Nello Sorgiovanni headed out off Barwon Heads on Wednesday morning hoping to catch a thresher shark, there having been some about lately.
Their first strategy was to troll deep-running lures, but – apart from an occasional strike from the usual suspects – that created little interest.
However, soaking a fresh barracouta fillet in 25 metres of water off the old Black Rocks’ sewer outfall was more successful; first producing a strike from a small hammerhead –which was something of a surprise – then, signalling action stations on what turned out to be a lively thresher shark of about 65 kg.
Danny Miller with the 110 cm Murray Cod from the Murray River.
Stephen Eales with the 110 cm Murray Cod from Lake Mulwala.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Heading over to Point Wilson around 10.30 on Sunday morning, Kirt Behan’s sounder displayed a promising signal off nearby Arthur the Great. He began berleying with pilchard pieces and caught a snapper of 4 kg after about half an hour: It was actions stations after that, but only on smaller fish.
Interestingly, Kirt found his largest snapper to be in roe, a somewhat puzzling observation for this time of year, March usually being the last month to find snapper in gravid condition.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that there are good size flathead about, and among those to catch them was Brett York who was fishing out toward the No 7 Point Richards channel marker. Brett also caught a 60 cm gummy shark.
Whiting are still about said Mike but you may have to do some prospecting to find the bigger fish, as Dennis O Brien could relate after taking ten keepers to 40 cm or so on Friday. Dennis also caught 7 really good size squid.
Lachie Wombell and Michael Goldby with a sample of their catch of pink ling from the wide grounds off Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Darcy Watts with a pink ling taken offshore from Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Freshwater
Trevor Holmes of Victorian Inland Charters reports a successful weekend on Lake Tooliorook for clients Luis Elgueta and sons Luis and Isaiah 8. In fact, Isaiah caught his first ever redfin, a beauty of 43 cm on a Daiwa Double Clutch minnow. It certainly put a smile on the lad’s face and was one of several redfin that they caught that day.
John Clements of Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that redfin are still the main catch from Lake Purrumbete with Darryn Busfield picking up ten fish on scrubworms, and soft plastics.
Brown trout are also on offer, said John, with Tom Templeton taking a beauty of 3.8 kg while trolling a lure. However, fish around the 1.5 kg mark are more common with Mick Cunningham of Altona picking several of these over the weekend, also on lures.
Chinook salmon are on the bite at nearby Lake Bullen Merri, with Maz Stowalowski picking up fish to 2 kg or so trolling lures, while Les Broughton from Geelong also took several while bait fishing.
Neil Slater fished Lake Mulwala on ANZAC Day and over the weekend, camping at Kyffins Reserve with Roger Dark, Jason Betson and Greg Ainsworth. Their catch included 12 Murrray cod but none of legal length.
Neil goes on to say that, with the infestation of the invasive weed Egeria densa, the lake will be drawn down 3.5 metres to help kill off the weed and provide an opportunity for engaging in foreshore works. More information may be obtained from the website: https://www.mdba.gov.au/media/mr/lowering-lake-mulwala-winter-works-weed-control
Also fishing Lake Mulwala over the weekend were Danny Miller and Stephen Eales of the Maryborough Angling Club, where – on Friday night – they caught a Murray Cod that measured 110 cm, but that wasn’t their entire lot.
On the way home, they decided to launch on the Murray River (whether at the Yarrawonga or Bundalong end of the lake they don’t say, and with the deliberate blurring of the background in the photo, I guess that is to remain a secret) to drown some bait – a generous piece of chicken in this case – an exercise that, around lunch time, resulted in the capture of another Murray Cod measuring 117 cm.
Tom Robley and Adrian Seccombe with the 127.5 kg tuna they caught offshore from Portland.
George Gereige with a frost fish taken offshore from Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Portland
Bob McPherson reports that, on Saturday, a number of large tuna were caught; among the captors was Paul Hourmouzis who has now taken the lead in the “Hooked on Tuna” competition with a fish of 105.9 kg.
As it turned out, bigger fish were taken by anglers not in the competition including two of 124 kg, 113 kg by Mason and Michael Shultze along with another of 98 kg. The biggest was taken by Tom Robley and Adrian Seccombe and weighed 127.5 kg.
As for Bob, he’s made several trips out to the wider grounds variously fishing with Darryl Watts, George Gereige, Lachie Wombell and Michael Goldby, catching blue-eye trevalla, pink ling, ghost cod, eels, various sharks, frost fish and nannygai.
Some of the tuna caught offshore from Portland on Saturday; sorry no names were supplied.
Ben asks:
I have heard that when using threadline reels you should have the handle on the left side of the reel if right-handed: Is that correct?
Ben, threadline or spinning reels were initially developed for casting small metal lures like Devons, on shallow streams in the UK. These reels were small in size and spooled with light line. Changing hands after the cast was made usually allowed the lure to sink to the bottom and become snagged.
So, right-handed anglers using such reels cast with their right hand and wound with their left hand to retrieve the lure and left-handed anglers vice versa. However, very little attention is paid to such finesse in light tackle fishing nowadays, and the larger threadline reels now the market, require no such protocol.