On the Bite, by Chris Pitman
The edges of Corio Bay hosted plenty of Australian salmon in feeding frenzies over the past week.
Anglers who spotted birds working over the schools had little trouble boating fish just over 1kg after casting into the commotion.
Small three-inch soft plastics such as Gulp minnows worked well on 1/8oz jig heads.
Good numbers of pinkie snapper and flathead were taken under the salmon schools, with fish to 40cm common.
Land-based anglers fishing the rocks at St Helens boat also landed pinkies, especially on bluebait.
Anglers fishing off Clifton Springs crossed paths with snapper reaching 6kg. Key to success was to keep moving until sounding up a school, then deploying lightly weighted baits like pilchard or squid.
Whiting kept anglers along the Curlewis Bank entertained with some bag-limit captures.
Last weekend’s King Of The Rip pitted competitors against tough conditions, with the weigh-in featuring gummy sharks and snapper from around the Bellarine Peninsula.
Swan Bay was ideal for getting out of the weekend’s wintery blast. Silver trevally, whiting, pinkies and the odd gummy shark were boated although strong tides made fishing difficult at times due to excesses of floating weed.
Around the corner, large whiting schooled on the grass beds east of the Queenscliff Harbour.
Tenderised squid on a running sinker rigs produced whiting well over 40cm.
The harbour was worth fishing with soft plastics for silver trevally, which should fire up more as the weather cools.
Surf anglers spinning from the beaches and rock platforms along the Surf Coast beached good numbers and sizes of salmon when conditions allowed.
Last weekend’s little taste of winter really fired up the freshwater fishing.
Wurdee Boluc Reservoir continued living up to its moniker as The Lake of 1000 Casts, although anglers found good numbers of trout and redfin. Michael Evans put in a few hours last weekend casting Norries Wasaby Spoon lures from the margins where he had no trouble banking large redfin to 40cm as well as rainbow trout to 53cm and 2.3kg.
Trelly’s Fishing World Geelong’s Peri Stavropoulos also ventured down to the reservoir on Sunday morning, landing a well-conditioned brown trout of 35cm on a Norries laydown minnow.
Heading down west, Lake Purrumbete continued serving up fast-paced redfin action, including some above-average fish.
Next door, Lake Bullen Merri gave up Chinook salmon to 1.5kg for anglers fishing baits among strong berley trails.
This weekend looks like presenting some windy conditions, so sheltered areas of Wurdee Boluc should be worth fishing with spoon-type lures for trout and redfin. Kids should target the trout stocked in Highton’s St Augustine’s Water Hole, using Powerbait on running sinker rigs.
Saltwater fishos could try the surf beaches for salmon or the Barwon River estuary for elephant fish and mulloway.
