On the Bite: Persistence pays off with gummy

JASON Andrew was about to call it quits at the back of Mud Island on Saturday but daughter Chloe, 8, insisted they stay a little longer.
Chloe’s persistence paid off when she managed to boat a 7kg gummy shark on a fillet from a salmon she caught a week earlier at Queenscliff Harbour.
Other anglers searched for trophy winter snapper in Corio Bay over the past week. Channel edges along North Shore rocks produced limited numbers of fish to 8kg, with small, fresh squid baits accounting for most catches.
Soft plastic anglers boated pinkie snapper to 45cm, with all structure around Geelong’s waterfront producing plenty of fish.
Clifton Springs fished well for squid over the shallow grass beds in 3m to 5m of water. Small jigs in natural-looking colours worked well.
Surf Coast beaches continued producing quality salmon. Bancoora and Jan Juc were standouts, with lure anglers beaching fish to 2.5kg.
Bait also got the job done, with bluebait and pippies attracting salmon and the odd mullet.
Ben Stephenson fished for bream in the coast’s numerous small estuary systems. While casting a lightly weighted soft plastic intended for bream, Ben hooked and eventually landed something much larger – a 76cm mulloway that he photographed and released.
Apollo Bay was worth the drive for Aaron Dillion, Ryan Medley and Shane Monaghan, who berleyed on the drift in 75m out from the Cape Otway lighthouse. They soon caught a 12kg gummy then boated a feisty mako shark that made several spectacular leaps.
Fishing World Geelong’s Kevin Hunter travelled to Portland where he used electric reels to drop baits down to some impressive depths, catching a 3kg Tassie trumpeter.
Other anglers who fished Portland reported large numbers of bluefin tuna holding in close and responding well to small skirted lures.
On the freshwater front, Wurdi Boluc Reservoir continued giving up large redfin. Ben Azman was casting soft plastics from the main rock wall when he hooked and landed a reddie of 1.86kg and 48cm.
Smaller rainbow trout to 1.5kg were also being caught along the main rock wall, especially around last light as fish moved in on the lake margins.
Lake Bullen Merri coughed up Chinook salmon reaching 2kg on trolled lures. Using a sounder to locate and mark schools of fish was key to boating salmon in numbers, with 3km/h an ideal trolling speed for winged-style and hard-body lures.
Corio Bay should be worth fishing for pinkies over the next week, while the St Leonards area should produce gummy sharks. Freshwater anglers should try lakes Purrumbete or Bullen Merri for trout and salmon.