On the Bite, by Chris Pitman
Corio Bay hosted large schools of Australian salmon over the past week.
Lures cast from boats into surface commotion caught fish to 45cm, while land-based anglers also got into the action when the fish pushed right up to the rocks at St Helens on Sunday afternoon.
Corio Bay also produced excellent numbers of garfish at St Helens and Limburner’s Point, although few winter snapper were caught.
Portarlington Pier remained solid for whiting off the rocks and inside the harbour, with salmon also caught.
St Leonard’s was still hot for bag-limit catches of whiting, along with squid to almost 1kg down toward Swan Bay.
Surf Coast beach and rock platforms held big salmon. Lures accounted for fish reaching 2.5kg at Bancoora Beach, while the rocks west of Lorne had similar-sized fish but in greater numbers.
Tackleworld Geelong’s Kevin Hunter fished with Daniel Sparks off Port Fairy where they first encountered tuna in 70m while slow-trolling Rapala X-rap 10s. They caught numerous southern bluefin to 13.62kg, with some of the fish also taking smaller skirted lures.
I ventured to Port Fairy with Michael Moore, Peri Stavropoulos and Josh Whitford. After a bumpy trip out to 70m we connected with our first tuna before the complete spread of rods hit the water.
For the next hour or so we boated and released numerous fish, which took a variety of lures from Rapala X-Rap 20s to small skirted models.
Trent Schiller also fished down the south-west, banking some well-conditioned estuary perch on surface lures.
On the freshwater front, Wurdee Boluc Reservoir entertained Michael Evans with a 45cm redfin that took a Norries Metal Wasaby cast from the rock wall.
West Barwon Reservoir’s east and west arms produced brown trout of 2kg on plastics. Andrew Orchard caught a brown of 55cm and 1.4kg from the rock wall with a Daiwa Double Clutch on Monday afternoon.
Lake Purrumbete began producing quality brown trout on trolled hard-body lures at first and last light.
Tony Hinds travelled up to Copeton Dam for seriously big cod reaching 110cm while casting lures from his boat. Tony said the dam’s water level was down almost 1m.
Next week looks favourable for tuna out of Port Fairy or Portland, while casting lures in the surf closer to home should produce salmon to 2.5kg.
