On the Bite, by Chris Pitman
Local surf was again an excellent choice over the past week, with anglers finding worthy numbers of quality Australian salmon.
Casting lures out from the beach on the incoming tide accounted for fish to 2.5kg.
Productive locations included 13th, Bancoora and Jan Juc beaches, with lures of 25g to 30g working well on 5kg leaders.
Clifton Springs tempted anglers with good numbers of squid in 3m to 5m of water.
Whiting were taken a little further out on pippies, although a few moves were sometimes needed to locate good numbers of fish.
Corio Bay remained popular for its protection from strong winds. Anglers fishing land-based at both St Helens and Limeburner’s Point landed reasonable numbers of garfish and pinkies, with the odd larger snapper taken by dedicated types.
Swan Bay provided a mixed bag inside the channel, with whiting, salmon and squid on the chew for anglers fishing at the right time.
Jason Andrew and mates made the most of excellent conditions on Saturday, heading out to 40m straight out from The Rip. Fishing squid baits on the bottom, they boated three gummy shark to 12kg, releasing one, and a surprise legal-size kingfish.
Peri Stavropoulos, Micheal Stavropoulos, Daniel Baden and I ventured down to Port Fairy on Saturday for southern bluefin tuna. After covering some distance on the water, we located tuna willing to take diving hard-body lures in 63m.
After catching a few while trolling we found a school feeding on the surface and caught more on lures such as a Bass Day Bungy Cast and a Sea Iron Pelacus cast into the commotion.
Notably, we observed kingfish follow tuna to the boat on one occasion, along with some much larger tuna.
Tackleworld Geelong’s Michael Moore and Adam Van Der Lugt travelled down south to one of the sea-run trout systems on Monday. Fishing though gale-force wind, Michael banked a well-conditioned brown trout of 54cm on a Rapala Spotted Dog lure.
A little further down west, Tony Hynds cast soft plastics in Lake Yambuk where he banked several bream to 33cm.
Lakes Purrumbete and Bullen Merri continued challenging anglers with temperamental trout. Trolling deep with downriggers produced a few Bullen Merri Rainbows and Chinook salmon.
Next week’s likely return of strong winds should make Queenscliff Harbour worth fishing for silver trevally and squid, while Corio Bay could also be an option for pinkie snapper. Gummy shark should remain on the chew in 40m off Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads, while freshwater anglers could try Wurdee Boluc Reservoir or Lake Bullen Merri, which is due to improve.
