On the Bite, by Chris Pitman
Wintery conditions slowed anglers down over the past week, but those who braved the elements found the fish more than willing to have a chew.
Sheltered locations around Corio Bay again hosted some superb angling on soft plastics cast hard up against structure in deep water. Three-inch Gulp minnows worked well on 1/8oz jig heads and allowed to fall to the bottom before a slow retrieve.
Pinkie snapper, flathead and Australian salmon all snapped up soft plastics around the bayfront.
Anglers who cast out bait from the rocks at St Helens or Limeburners Point continued to catch garfish, while fishing bluebait on the bottom caught pinkies and flathead to 45cm.
Keen anglers prepared to put in long, cold hours snagged the odd winter snapper to 6kg.
The outer-harbour fished well for squid when calmer weather returned. Drifting in 3m to 4m over weed beds with size-three jigs suspended just above the bottom produced excellent results.
St Leonards still gave anglers the opportunity to tangle with a few King George whiting. Pippie and tenderised squid were the baits of choice, with whiting to just over 40cm taken.
Fishing at sunrise or sunset helped angler’s boat better numbers of fish.
Queenscliff Harbour was a hot spot for squid, again with some shelter from the strong winds. The trick to getting numbers of squid was to fish the slack tides.
Spinning from beaches along the Surf Coast provided the hottest fishing. Casting lures on a rising tide resulted in outstanding numbers of salmon to 2.5kg.
Bream to 45cm still took baits along the numerous Surf Coast estuary systems but proved fickle at times.
Portland remained the ideal location for southern bluefin tuna, with school-sized fish taken on the troll with skirted lures.
Freshwater fishos enjoyed the action down west, with Lakes Bolac and Tooliorook and Deep Lake all giving rainbow trout to 1.5kg for anglers casting shallow-diving hard bodies or fishing Powerbait on running sinker rigs.
The Barwon River around Queen’s Park was another location for a quick fish out of the weather. Pest species carp to 8kg were a target for anglers fishing corn kernels on light running sinker rigs.
Next week’s forecast north winds should be excellent for surf fishing, either casting lures or soaking pilchards at Bancoora or Jan Juc beaches on run-in tides. Drifting for squid over shallow grass beds in the outer-harbour could also be worth the time, while freshwater options extend to Stony Creek Reservoir’s brown trout to 1kg on spoon-type lures.
