On the Bite, by Chris Pitman
Arriving at St Leonards Sunday afternoon, Peri Stavropoulos and Josh Whitford fished for squid and whiting.
After boating a few squid, they began chasing the whiting, making up some excellent arches on the sounder. They sent down a pilchard and soon hooked up a 6.5kg snapper, boated after a hard fight on whiting tackle.
Queenscliff continued providing whiting around the grass beds, particularly in the faster-flowing water. Tenderised squid and pippie worked well around tide changes, with the channel edges also producing gummy sharks.
The Barwon River estuary continued to hold great numbers of silver trevally, mullet and whiting the Ozone Jetty and Sheepwash. Small baits such as prawn and pippie caught plenty of fish on run-in tides.
Anglers caught plenty of squid while drifting over shallow weed beds at Clifton Springs with small 2.5-size jigs. Ian Bolster took a nice bag from the Curlewis Bank late Saturday afternoon, while whiting were on the bite in 6m off the Dell for anglers using lightly weighted pippies.
Spinning from the surf worked well along the coast, with anglers beaching Australian Salmon to 2kg. Wading out on incoming tides to casting 25g metal lures was a popular tactic, while anglers fishing rock platforms also had success when the swell subsided.
Trent Schiller cast hard-body lures around one of the small estuary systems down the Surf Coast, taking a chucky black bream of 43cm.
Anglers trolling Rapala X-Rap lures in 70m between Port Fairy and Portland boated southern bluefin tuna to 15kg.
Adam Van Der Lugt and I headed down to the Hopkins River on Monday morning. Marking plenty of schooled fish toward the bottom reaches of the river, we caught bream and estuary perch to 43cm on vibe-style lures.
Freshwater fishos looked to West Barwon Reservoir where casting soft plastics along the upper arms accounted for well-conditioned brown trout. With the lake still low, it’s worth the walk amid some of the best scenery in the Otway Ranges.
Duane Tribe fished Hepburn Lagoon where he took 1kg rainbow trout on fly and had some interest from a few others. Duane said his mate dropped a larger specimen, also on fly.
Charter operator Trevor Holmes fished Lake Toolondo for trophy brown trout with Alan Greig, who is battling a serious illness. After casting an OSP bent minnow for some time Allan came up tight on a hard-fighting brown of 2.9kg.
Anglers wanting to wet a line over the next week should keep the Barwon estuary in mind for whiting and mullet, with live baits also offering the potential for bream and mulloway. Other saltwater options include squid around the whole Bellarine Peninsula, while freshwater anglers should try trolling Lakes Purrumbete and Bullen Merri at first light for trout and Chinook salmon.
