On the Bite, by Chris Pitman
Corio Bay offered shelter from strong winds last week to target pinkies, salmon and flathead.
Tackleworld Geelong’s Adam Van Der Lugt fished soft plastics for pinkies on Monday afternoon, boating fish to 50cm on ever-reliable Gulp turtleback worms.
Western Beach’s moorings hosted the odd school of Australian salmon, also taken on soft plastic.
The outer-harbour from Indented Heads through to St Leonards produced whiting and squid, the latter caught over reefs in 4m on size 3 jigs. Successful anglers said water clarity was essential to solid catch rates on the squid, which reached 1kg.
Whiting were also caught off St Leonards yacht club, including bag-limit results. Mixed in with the whiting were some impressively sized flathead.
Swan Bay’s channel continued hosting large schools of salmon. Drifting slowly with the tide and casting soft plastics on 1/4oz jig heads worked well, although anglers fishing pilchard fillets also boated plenty of fish.
A few gummy sharks were caught from the channel during the evenings as well.
Queenscliff Harbour produced some impressively sized silver trevally and pinkies.
The entrance gave up both species, commonly around 40cm and especially on the run-in tide for bait and lure anglers.
Tackleworld Geelong’s Michael Moore spent a few hours fishing Queenscliff early on Tuesday morning, boating to over 50cm along with some chunky whiting.
Anglers who picked breaks in the weather caught snapper and gummy sharks in 30m to 4om off Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads.
Estuaries down the western district continued fishing well for black bream to 45cm. Recent rains appear to have given most systems much-needed flushes.
Lake Bullen Merri served up some football-shaped rainbow trout for anglers casting from the bank or trolling deep-diving hard-body lures.
The odd Chinook salmon was also caught while at times pushing schools of baitfish to the surface.
Travis Inness and daughter Alana spotted a boil-up of minnows from the floating pontoon at Lake Bullen Merri. Casting an OSP bent minnow lure, they hooked a well-conditioned Chinook from among the surface action.
Lake Purrumbete still holds the odd trophy brown trout on the chew for anglers casting or trolling Daiwa Double Clutch lures along the weed beds of the east bank at first or last light. New-release brook trout also made an appearance.
Justin Burns and Simon Williams recently fished Lake Eildon where they had no trouble boating yellowbelly and Murry cod all on lures.
Next week might be worth fishing off Clifton Springs for snapper on the spoil grounds, while offshore form Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads should also produce snapper along with gummy but any surface action might signal salmon or even kingfish holding bellow. Freshwater anglers up for a drive could try Lake Eildon for yellowbelly and cod while casting the banks.
