George Gereige and Lachie Wombell with one of the blue-eye trevalla they extracted from the depths off Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Offshore
Improved weather and calm seas over the weekend saw many anglers fishing offshore:
Among them were Bob McPherson, George Gereige and Lachie Wombell who headed out from Portland into almost 500 metres of water where they caught blue-eye trevalla, and on this occasion, gemfish; both of which make fine table fare.
Heading out through Port Phillip Heads after launching at Queenscliff over the weekend were Naji and Rami Assafiri.
Fishing for two hours in 25 metres of water, they caught a gummy shark and a pinky snapper of 2 kg. However, with encouraging reports coming in over the airwaves, they headed further out still: A good move as it turned out for they added four more snapper from 3 to 4 kg, and another good size pinkie to their tally, all being caught on pilchards and squid.
Sean Crombie of the Maryborough Angling Club with his prize-winning catch from Lake Tullaroop.
Bellarine Peninsula
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that with good weather over the weekend his clients did well, their main catch being flathead. These were mostly taken on the drift in the deeper water. Squid were also taken offshore from Grassy Point, south to St Leonards, said Rod.
Neil Slater and Hugh Hanson fished in 18 metres of water off Indented Head on Saturday, and using soft plastics in glassy calm conditions they found flathead on the go. Unfortunately, most were small, but those they kept were around the 40 cm mark
They also tried for squid in the shallower water, but although they caught several, the squid were fussy, possibly – Neil suggests – due to the neap tide, or perhaps the clear water.
Leonie Jones with the 80 cm Murray Cod she caught from Lake Mulwala at the weekend (Picture: Kevin Wild).
Queenscliff
Fishing the Queenscliff harbour for silver trevally over the weekend were Keith Berry and Tom Robinson who were well prepared with a good supply of bait and berley.
While trevally were scarce, they did catch a couple around the 800 gram mark, along with quite a few salmon to 500 grams or so, both on the lead up to, and following, the afternoon’s high tide.
Amber Stone with a 59 cm Murray Cod she caught from Lake Mulwala (Picture: Kevin Wild).
Freshwater
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that a club outing to Lake Tullaroop at the weekend was won by Sean Crombie with a rainbow trout measuring 49 cm.
However, Kevin – along with Amber Stone, Leonie Jones, and Corey Street – made another journey to Lake Mulwala, where – fishing with chicken for bait at the Yarrawonga end of the lake – they caught and released 34 Murray Cod, the biggest of which measured 80 cm and was taken by Leone, Amber caught the second biggest at 59 cm.
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that brown trout have made a welcome re-appearance with the weekend’s great weather: The “Yakkas,” a group of anglers fishing from Kayaks, took several brown trout, the biggest two measuring 70 and 79 cm.
Bryan Nygaard of Bacchus Marsh took a brown trout of 4.1 kg on a scrubworm while Tim Beusmans picked up another of 3.2 kg while trolling a bibbed lure. Redfin were also active with Les Broughton of Geelong picking up around 40 on soft plastics.
The Greenvale Angling Club fished nearby Lake Bullen Merri where they caught both rainbow and brown trout, along with chinook salmon, both with lures and on baits fished just above the bottom; their biggest fish weighed a kilogram.
Recent rains have benefitted Lake Elingamite near Cobden, something that Steve O’Keefe confirmed on Friday, when he was able to launch his small boat without difficulty. The fishing was good too for he caught four respectable redfin on mudeye, and a 2 kg rainbow trout on Berkley Powerbait.
Lachie Wombell with a school shark that he caught offshore from Portland at the weekend (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Ollie asks:
Geoff, when the term “memory” is applied to fishing line, what does it mean?
Ollie; the term memory applies to nylon and fluorocarbon monofilament lines because their molecular structure will retain some memory of the spool’s shape, onto which the line had been wound. So, if you took a spool of monofilament line, and pulled some off onto the floor, it would display a series of similar sized loops.
However, this does not apply to all fishing lines: Those that have been braided or fused from a polyethylene gelspun base, and which have become popular in recent years, do not exhibit any appreciable memory.