Estuary shelter provides goods

Local anglers have had another week of harsh winter conditions, with land-based opportunities producing the goods.
The Barwon River estuary offers shelter from the weather for anglers to bank reasonable numbers of salmon, trevally and mulloway.
The lower section of the estuary around the mouth held large schools of Australian salmon on the run-in tide. Anglers who cast soft plastics or small metal lures banked salmon to 1.5kg and trevally to 40cm as a by-catch.
Mulloway were targeted further up the system, with fresh bait landing the most fish. As was the case with the salmon, the run-in tide was the most productive, especially at night.
Bancoora Beach produced salmon to 1kg on Saturday afternoon, with Asari Mahi lures working well. Tackleworld Geelong’s Kevin Hunter walked the beach, failing to land a salmon but noting that other anglers present at the beginning of the run-in tide generally caught five or more fish from deeper gutters with cleaner water.
Queenscliff Bight and Bell Reef fished well for good-sized squid when the weather allowed. Larger jigs did the trick when cast over thick weed and reef areas.
Trevally were schooling up nearby in Queenscliff Harbour, with soft plastics such as a Z-Man grubs catching fish when cast down the main channel.
Some big yellow-eye mullet also gathered in the harbour but were difficult to hook. Lightly weighted soft plastic or pieces of chicken can sometimes entice a strike from these wary fish, which then usually go hard for any nearby structure.
Scott Oakly fished the Richards Channel off Clifton Springs last weekend, boating a well-conditioned gummy shark of 85cm. He also caught a Port Jackson shark before catching a nice bag of flathead.
On the freshwater scene, anglers kept fishing Lake Purrumbete for trophy brown trout while trolling down deep with a downrigger. Trophy fish failed to materialise but plenty of 2kg fish were boated on lures such as Daiwa Double Clutch 75s or F-11 Rapalas.
Anglers casting shallow-diving lures over the weed banks near the windmill also caught trout to 2kg.
St Augustine’s Waterhole at Highton continued producing rainbow trout of 30cm. Pink Powerbait on a lightly weighted running sinker rig did the job for anglers who used the newly built jetty to get you out past the weeds.
The Barwon estuary should be worth fishing if the weather remains unfavourable over the next week, along with Queenscliff Harbour for silver trevally. Freshwater anglers should try Lake Purrumbete, with all the cold weather firing up the trout.