Patience gets them hooked

Clifton Springs was the pick of locations for anglers seeking snapper last week.
Patient anglers boated snapper to 7kg at the start of the Pt Richards channel using lightly weighted baits on a tide change.
The edge of the channel produced excellent numbers of silver whiting, which made for some of the best snapper bait available.
When the wind increased, the Curlewis Bank provided some shelter for tangling with impressive King George whiting and squid.
Swan Bay’s channel showed no signs of slowing. Sam Pitman spent a few hours casting soft plastics along the channel edges where he had little difficulty boating salmon to 2kg.
When the water cleared out the front of Swan Bay squid were taken in bag-limit captures.
Trelly’s Tackleworld Geelong’s Adam Van Der Lugt and Peri Stravropoulos braved almost gale force winds at Queenscliff Harbour for catches of silver trevally to 40cm on four-inch Gulp Nemies, although small Australian salmon plagued their soft plastics.
Jason Flynn and Daniel Quince launched out of Ocean Grove boat ramp early Saturday but had no luck offshore in 23m. They moved out to 40m and begun berleying, catching three snapper to 78cm and a 5kg gummy shark in the next half hour.
The Barwon River estuary hosted anglers chasing bream, with the run-in tide producing fish to 40cm on live bait. Small salmon kept anglers busy near the entrance of the system, with pippies devoured in quick time.
Surf anglers again enjoyed success on salmon, while fishing into the night with bait accounted for gummy sharks to 10kg.
Estuary systems along the coast started to produce excellent numbers of bream and estuary perch on lures cast around the lower reaches.
Freshwater fishos crossed paths some well-conditioned wild brown trout fishing in the Otways while casting small, shallow-diving, hard-body lures like Cranka Minnows.
The Barwon River in Geelong gave up large carp to 6kg for keen anglers fishing corn on running sinker rigs. The best section of river was from Breakwater through to the Moorabool Street bridge.
Lake Eildon was a go-to location for Murray cod and yellowbelly. Trolling and casting lures along steep, rocky points worked well, with brown trout over 2kg a welcome by-catch.
Next week anglers should consider Queenscliff Harbour for trevally and pinkies, while the spoil grounds in Corio Bay’s inner and outer harbours could be worthwhile for snapper.
Offshore from Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads should also be worth fishing snapper and gummies as well, with anglers advised to watch for any bust-ups of salmon and kingfish.