Renato Spadoni with a sample of his and Michael Reichler’s catch of whiting off Queenscliff last week.
Corio Bay/Bellarine Peninsula
Casting various lures from the North Shore rocks near Moorpanyal Park on Saturday morning’s daybreak low tide proved fruitful for Jason Treloar.
Hopeful of catching a snook, a species we once referred to as pike during the early days of sport-fishing in Geelong, he hooked a beauty of just on 80 cm after a couple of half-hearted strikes.
Encouraged by that, he persisted for another hour or so, but his only additional catch was a couple of small, but legal size, Australian salmon.
Catching snook, or pike as we knew them then, played a large part in my early fishing education as a youngster when introduced to the approach by a Mr Page on the now demolished Parkside pool below the eastern gardens from Hearne Parade.
On Friday morning, Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien went prospecting for whiting, initially without much success. However, after making several moves, they found a good patch in 7 metres of water between Hermsley Road Curlewis and the Sands Caravan Park Leopold where they came on the bite in the early afternoon as the high tide began running off.
Finishing up with their respective bag limits, mainly of fish from 34 to 38 cm, along with several bigger fish that included one of 42 cm, they planned another trip for the following day. But, as sometimes happens, Saturday’s catch resulted in a meagre six fish; three whiting and three flathead.
Lachie Wombell with a couple of the gemfish he caught offshore from Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
Offshore
Recent good weather has seen a good many anglers fishing offshore and usually well rewarded for their efforts. Among them, Naji Assafiri who launched at Queenscliff on Friday afternoon.
Fishing on the drift in 25 to 50 metres of water, Naji’s catch included several pinkies and a snapper of 4.5 kg that took a pilchard, and just on sunset, a gummy shark of 7 kg that took a trevally fillet.
Also taking advantage of last week’s good weather, Chris Stamalos and his companion Brendan, fished in 30 metres of water off Barwon Heads where their catch included a snapper of 3 kg. And, because Chris always has a berley trail going, they attracted a number of seven-gilled sharks of which they caught 5, two of which they kept, releasing the other three.
Lachie Wombell with a sweep from Cape Nelson (Picture: Bob McPherson)
Freshwater
Trevor Holmes of Victorian Inland Charters reports that redfin remain a good chance on Lake Toolondo at the moment, and over the weekend, he and Aaron Habgood caught several to 1.13 kg on trolled lures.
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that brown trout are still on offer, and the best taken over the weekend was a 3.5 kg specimen taken by Brian Nygaard of Bacchus Marsh. Brian also caught several smaller fish, all being taken on mudeye.
The Knox Fishing Club also fished Purrumbete over the weekend where chinook salmon around the kilogram mark were the main catch. However, their biggest fish weighed 2 kg.
Speaking of chinook salmon, Terry Shepherd – who spends a good deal of time on the Camperdown lakes – reported that that one of his customers at Regal Marine had recently taken a number of chinook to 1.5 kg from Lake Bullen Merri.
Paul asks:
Geoff, looking up low water for Port Phillip Heads on Saturday I’ve went down to Point Lonsdale Pier to fish the incoming tide at 3.00, but I found the tide still running out as strongly as ever, and it kept doing so for some time: How come?
Paul, given the tidal range inside Port Phillip Bay is less than half that of Bass Strait, neither low nor high slack water at Port Phillip Heads can occur at the bottom or top of the Bass Strait tide cycle. Slack water at Port Phillip Heads occurs about mid tide when the levels outside Port Phillip Heads and inside Port Phillip Bay in equilibrium.
This is because the narrow passage of Port Phillip Heads does not allow the water to empty, or fill, at anything like the rate that would be required to have parity with Bass Strait: Just as well, otherwise all of the low-lying land inside Port Phillip Bay would be flooded at high tide; especially so during periods of sustained westerly winds or storm surge.