On the Bite, by Chris Pitman
Clifton Springs has quickly become a hot spot for anglers chasing a huge variety of species in the one outing.
Anglers drifting slowly in 3m to 4m off Hermsley Road had little difficulty bagging squid over the past week.
Whiting were on the chew a few hundred metres further out, responding well to fresh squid or pippie baits.
Tackleworld Geelong’s Michael Moore launched from Clifton Springs on Monday morning for a nice mixed bag of pinkies, squid and flathead caught near the spoil ground off Sands Caravan Park.
ANSA hosted a competition for the whole of Port Phillip Bay last weekend, with a wide mix of species weighed in. Competitors caught flathead to 2.138kg, snapper to 5.794kg and other species including trevally, gummy shark and Australian salmon.
Barry Wood made another trip to Indented Head where drifting in the deeper water produced several flathead to 44cm.
Corio Bay gave soft plastic anglers the chance to bank pinkies to 50cm along with the odd flathead. Focussing on areas with have heavy structure in at least a few metres of water worked best.
Queenscliff hosted some excellent fishing for silver trevally, although Adam Van Der Lugt encountered a hot bite of salmon instead when he spent a few hours casing soft plastics in the harbour entrance on Sunday.
Anglers who spun from the rock platforms along the Surf Coast also had little difficulty landing salmon. The average size was down but the numbers of fish still made for fast-paced sessions.
Freshwater anglers had a ball at the crater lakes west of Geelong.
Bradley Cox arrived at Lake Bullen Merri early Saturday morning to walk the margins while casting lures. He landed a Chinook salmon of 65cm and 2.28kg that put up an outstanding fight.
Bradley also went on to land some smaller salmon that also took his hard-body lures. Of note were the boils on the surface where salmon were chasing up schools of minnow.
Lake Purrumbete still produced the odd large brown trout for anglers slow-trolling Daiwa Double Clutch lures along the east bank at first and last light.
Lake Elingamite fished well for rainbow trout for anglers trolling shallow-diving hard-body lures like Tassie devils.
Michael Evans put in a few hours casting lures at Wurdee Boluc Reservoir, banking a well-conditioned brown trout of 50cm on an Ecogear Powershad. Michael also managed to land a 42cm redfin on a Norries Wasaby Spoon.
Next week should produce good fishing at Clifton Springs again, while freshwater fishos could do well at Wurdee Boluc and Lake Bullen Merri.
