On the Bite, by Chris Pitman
The arrival of summer has turned local anglers’ attention to one of the region’s classic sport fish options, sharks.
Patrick Eastman and a few mates tried offshore from Queenscliff on Saturday, with a blue shark eventually appearing in their burley trail.
The blue gave an excellent account of itself, with the team managing to boat it in – a great effort for their first shark trip.
Swan Bay’s channel produced Australian salmon to 2kg on soft plastics cast along the edges.
Anglers fishing baits also caught salmon, along with whiting, flathead and pinkies.
Tackleworld Geelong’s Michael Moore made an early start Sunday morning to boat a nice bag of pinkies and quality trevally in the Swan Bay channel before moving out to the entrance for a catch of squid.
Clifton Springs continued receiving serious attention, including from Paul Foot in a kayak.
Paul anchored over sand patches to fish weed bed edges for a catch of 13 whiting to 40cm on an Instinct rig and squid baits.
The spoil grounds out from the Sands Caravan Park came alive with pike to almost 1m and dense schools of pinkies, all of which responded well to soft plastics.
The Barwon River estuary’s banks and jetties produce whiting, silver trevally and mullet.
The fishing from Barwon Heads Bridge to the end of Sheepwash Rd was excellent, especially toward the end of the run-in tide with lightly weighted rigs.
Surf beaches provided anglers with plenty of action on salmon, with metal lures working well.
Freshwater anglers had plenty of options, including large number of small redfin in the Barwon River. Small hard-body lures were a standout.
Carp to 6kg continued giving anglers fishing corn kernels a run for their money.
Peri Stravropoulos banked a 5kg specimen with corn kernels on a jig head.
Wurdee Boluc Reservoir’s main rock wall produced rainbow trout to 1kg on lure or mudeyes suspended under floats.
Lake Bullen Merri remained solid for Chinook salmon and rainbow trout. Trolling lures around the surface commotion worked best, with both species nudging 1.5kg.
Ross Virst travelled up to some isolated water around New South Wales’ Batlow region for last weekend’s Murray cod opening.
Ross landed a 90cm cod using Koas Cods, along with numerous other fish averaging 50cm to 60cm.
Back in Victoria, the Ovens River gave up cod averaging 70cm.
The Broken and Murray rivers also hosted plenty of action, with anglers successful on hard-body lures such as Old Mates.
Next week should provide good fishing at Clifton Springs, while offshore anglers could try bottom bashing for flathead and snapper in 40m offshore Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads.
Freshwater fishos should try the Barwon River around Queen’s Park for redfin.
