ON THE BITE: Peri Stavropoulos
What a fantastic week it was to have fishing back on the cards.
We were completely spoilt with brilliant weather and some great fishing on offer too.
Inside Corio Bay, Royal Geelong Yacht Club had fishos from boat and land hauling in some ripper captures with pinkie snapper, flathead, salmon and snotty trevalla keeping anglers entertained.
Soaking baits such as bluebait and squid are ideal, however small three-inch soft plastics proved deadly and more successful than bait.
Clifton Springs was a hot spot this week with large numbers of boats flocking to the squid grounds in hope of a feed of calamari, and let’s just say they were not disappointed with lots of boats finding their bag limit in no time.
Drifting over the weed beds in 3.5 metres of water with size 3.0 artificial jigs worked best.
St Leonards and Queenscliff have also been producing plenty of squid and a slightly better average size too, with some fantastic whiting on offer.
Fishing a tide change is essential when targeting whiting in these areas and it’s very hard to go past fresh squid for bait.
The offshore fishing this week has been pretty good with a report of mahi-mahi getting caught just off Barwon Heads.
The depth, lures and exact location are unknown but it’s great to see these fish in our local waters.
There are also plenty of nice-sized snapper and gummy sharks on offer out there, dropping baits between 35-50 metres of water is where majority of the fish are holding.
If you can get some fresh salmon or squid on your hook then you’re in with a great chance.
Down the west coast towards Portland the tuna are chewing well, with plenty of school fish between 60-80 metres of water more-than-willing to eat a large variety of lures, with trolling skirted lures being a stand out.
There has also been a fair share of barrels being landed out the front of Cape Bridgewater in about 55 metres of water with 10-inch skirts working best.
Metro Melbourne has been fishing very well for bream this week with most systems holding some nice fish.
Soft plastics and small hardody lures have been the preferred technique to chase them, however they do struggle to resist an unweighted live scrubworm when the bite is tough.
