By BRIAN LONG
CASEY Greet headed out into 70m of water directly out from Port Phillip Heads on Saturday hoping for a shark.
After only five minutes of laying berley his 24kg game outfit screamed off with a big fish. Nearly an hour later Casey had alongside a mako shark estimated at 250kg, which, given it was way too big, he let loose.
Large numbers of stripey tuna offshore from Lorne to Phillip Island could explain the build-up of sharks. However, the stripies can be extremely fussy feeders, often taking only tiny baitfish lures and plastics.
Saturday night was ideal for the rocks at Black Rock, with Garry Welsh cathcing his bag limit of fish to 1.3kg on squid strips.
Salmon remained a prime target in and around The Rip. Surface action became more consistent over the past week, with trolling working well but casting small soft plastics into the action even better.
Dane Veldhuis was among anglers laying berley around the entrance to Swan Bay. He was rewarded with four flathead to 3.5kg along with tailor, gummy shark and whiting.
Neil Croker also caught quality flatties at Swan Bay, catching six between 50cm and 65cm in a three-hour session along with a nice bag of garfish.
Gordon Menzies fished the deep water off St Leonards where gummy sharks were on the bite. Gordon’s catch included a magnificent 12.4kg gummy, with all his fish taking fresh squid earlier in the day off Edwards Point.
Troy Farnsworth drifted the inshore grass beds off Portarlington for a catch of a dozen flathead to 58cm on soft plastics.
Chris Pitman had success on snapper while casting soft plastics in the shallow water near Point Wilson. The water was so shallow he could see the fish as they hit his lure, with most of the snapper between 35cm and 45cm.
Some of the best whiting action was in the area between Bird Rock and the quarries. Pippies were the preferred bait, with the fishing generally best close to sunset.
The same area also hosted plenty of salmon action on the surface.
Drifting the Hermsley spoil grounds produced plenty of small snapper and a few around 40cm. Blue bait worked but soft plastics accounted for bigger numbers of fish.
St Helens hosted an influx of extremely small bait-picking snapper that drove anglers crazy. The few who fished well after dark caught bigger specimens, some nudging 1.5kg.
Terry Holt spun the rocks at North Shore for catches of pike to 90cm. His best lures were small bibbed models, such as Rapala XRaps and Zerek Minnows, especially when fished in the two hours leading up to dark.
Troy Cunningham fished soft plastics from the sandbar inside the grammar school lagoon where he caught a variety of species including flathead, pike, salmon and snapper. Troy said the best fishing was on the run-off from high tide.
The Barwon River continued producing carp on corn and bread baits between Fyan’s and Queen’s parks. Late afternoons have been best.
Good numbers of redfin were grassed from the Barwon River from Queen’s Park all the way to Ceres. Lures have worked best, with bait anglers needing to catch either minnow or shrimp for good results.
Daniel Cooper has been spending plenty of time at Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree where redfin over 1kg and trout close to 2kg have been biting. Daniel used shallow-running bibbed lures, with his favourite a Nories Laydown Minnow.
Few anglers fished West Barwon Reservoir where Kevin Martin said the fishing has been good. He used gold-coloured Tassie Devils for catches of trout up to 1.5kg late in the evenings.
Kevin said the right-hand end of the main wall was best but anglers should be wary of snakes.
This weekend’s late afternoon tides will be ideal for snapper on soft plastics on the outer-harbour spoil grounds. Expect a feed of flathead as well.
Surf anglers targeting salmon should hit the rock platforms between Lorne and Wye River from 11am to mid-afternoon.
Send reports and photos to info@raylongtackle.com.au or visit Brian at Ray Long’s Fishing World, 105 Shannon Ave, Manifold Heights.
