On the Bite, by Chris Pitman
St Leonards was the whiting capital of the Bellarine Peninsula over the past week as anglers tangled with bag-limit captures of fish to 40cm.
Peak times were first or last light, but many whiting continued biting for most of the day. Pippie and tenderised squid worked well on running sinker rigs with enough weight to hold bottom during the stronger- running tides.
The Bourke Street section just out from St Leonards’ yacht club was a solid producer, but anglers who ventured further afield also managed excellent bags while escaping the crowds.
Around the corner, Queenscliff kept anglers busy with squid and whiting on the grass beds and kingfish in The Rip.
The weather restricted fishing in The Rip, but anglers who found an opportunity kings to 6kg while jigging 150g knife jigs.
Gone Fishing Charters’ Chris Vasilevski found large numbers of chucky whiting around Queenscliff, along with a 25kg mako shark offshore.
Anglers fishing from Queenscliff Pier caught reasonable numbers of squid on artificial jigs in size 3 and on baited jigs suspended under floats.
Offshore from Barwon Heads to Torquay hosted sensational southern bluefin tuna fishing. Numerous fish to 30kg were boated on lures either trolled or cast to surface commotion.
Back inside the bays, the spoil ground out Sands Caravan Park was a hot spot for soft plastic anglers chasing a mixed bag. Pike to almost 1m, pinkie snapper and flathead were all boated, especially on Gulp Turtleback worms in the Pumpkinseed colour.
Australian salmon were spotted busting up on the surface between Alcoa Pier and Point Henry. Anglers lucky enough to come across the action found that casting small metal slugs and soft plastics or trolling small occy skirts caught fish to almost 2kg.
The Barwon River estuary again produced black bream for anglers who went to the effort of sourcing live bait. Anglers fishing from the banks of the entrance system landed whiting to 35cm on pippie.
On the freshwater front, Trelly’s Geelong’s Adam Van Der Lugt and Peri Stavropoulos made the trip down to Lake Purrumbete. Motoring over to the east side, the pair quickly got stuck into large numbers of redfin on Fish Arrow soft plastics and also twice saw massive Chinook salmon follow their lures almost to the boat.
Wurdee Boluc Reservoir continued fishing well for redfin, although its big fish remained elusive.
Carp continued keeping anglers busy along the whole Barwon River. Corn kernels rigged on light running sinker rigs worked well, while lure anglers caught redfin along the river edges and around snags.
Next week should be worth fishing the spoil grounds for mixed bags on soft plastics, while tuna anglers could try offshore between Barwon Heads and Torquay. The best freshwater action should again be at Lake Purrumbete, with huge numbers of redfin devouring most lures.
