Danny Skene with a sample from last week’s snapper catch off Point Richards.
First order of business for Danny Skene last week was to catch some squid, which he did in spades off Clifton Springs with some big ones among them. Then, with the weather holding toward evening, he headed out toward the channel off Point Richards where he took a bag limit catch of three good size snapper in short order.
On Thursday morning, Andrew Phillips and George Uranus also fished off Point Richards from around 9.00 am for whiting, but getting past the small ones was a challenge. They made a couple moves in the hope of finding some bigger fish, a strategy that paid off with 25 keepers; mostly between 28 and 33 cm, but they also caught several larger fish to 42 cm.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that squid are about and among those to catch them last week were Adam Niko and Alex Surdich who caught 15 using red and white jigs just out from the boat harbour. Simon Werner and Jake Callahan did likewise here on Thursday with their biggest specimen weighing just over 2 kg.
Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien were out off Curlewis by 8.30 am on Thursday, but – despite their best efforts – neither squid nor whiting came to the party, not initially anyway. Eventually though, they made contact with some large squid and concentrated their efforts on those.
But then, a call from Andrew’s friend Peter Dawson, who’d found a good patch of whiting off The Springs, had them change tactics once more, resulting in their respective bag limit catches of whiting to 38 cm during the early afternoon ebb tide.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that whiting have become scarce, but squid remain plentiful, along with flathead which are the main catch.
Freshwater
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that fishing has slowed up at both crater lakes, Bullen Merri in particular, where very few fish have been taken. John blames the weather, but also suggests it might have something to do with some 20,000 juvenile chinook salmon being released into these waters last week.
Doug Lucas of Colac took the only recent large fish; a 5.2 kg brown trout that took a Lofty’s No 60 on Lake Purrumbete at around 4.00 pm on Thursday. However, while rainbow and brown trout to a kilogram or so have also been taken on bait and lures, redfin still remain the main catch from this water.
Chris Rigg with a 2 kg redfin from Lake Toolondo (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters).
Trevor Holmes of Victorian Inland Charters reports that last Wednesday, Tim Chamberlain, Wayne Rigg, and Wayne’s dad Chris, had a great day out on Lake Toolondo catching 24 good size redfin, the biggest of which measured 46.5cm and weighed a touch over 2 kg. They also caught several brown and rainbow trout to 1.3 kg.
11 year old Dana Worthy with her first brown trout (Picture: Victorian Inland Charters).
Among Trevor’s Sunday clients was 11 year old Dana Worthy who hooked and landed her first brown trout at Toolondo on Sunday while casting and retrieving a Pegron tiger minnow.
Portland
Steve Garner, John Grey and Matt Garner of Keppel Prince Engineering at Portland, along with Bob McPherson and some of the firm’s clients who were visiting from Western Australia, boarded Red Hot Charters.
Matt Garner hooked up to a “barrel” in 70 metres of water off Portland (Picture: Bob McPherson).
While trolling lures in 70 metres of water, their first five tuna were soon brought alongside. However, number six didn’t come in quite so easily; in fact it took two and a half hours before Matt Garner managed to bring a real “barrel” alongside, but – with the double on the reel – the hook on the lure pulled free.
Rowan asks:
Geoff, if you remember we recently discussed Stony Creek Reservoir, No 1 being opened to fishing by Barwon Water. Well, during a web search I found the following: “Management arrangements in relation to this water have changed. Now managed by Parks Victoria and the future of recreational fishing activity is under review.”
Rowan; my reading that awkwardly worded document suggests that Stony Creek Reservoirs 2 and 3 – which are on the opposite side of the road to Reservoir 1 – are also being considered as recreational fishing venues: Fairly logical, I would have thought, considering the State government’s $46 million commitment to have one million anglers fishing in Victoria by 2020.