By CHRIS PITMAN
WILD weather was challenging over the past week but anglers who braved the elements were rewarded for their effort.
Freshwater destinations offered some shelter, with anglers who trekked to the upper reaches of the Moorabool River encountering wild brown trout to 35cm. Small hard-body lures like Rapala F5s and Eco Gear MX-48s caught numerous fish.
The most popular areas for stream trout were the Moorabool, Leigh and Barwon rivers, all relatively close to Geelong.
Brown trout were also caught at Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree. Casting soft plastics achieved the best results, with anglers targeting the rowing lanes for the extra depth and less weed.
A medium-paced retrieve was the way to go, with paddle-tail black-and-gold colourations most effective. On some of the wilder days even fishing out of a boat was counterproductive, so anglers fished mudeye under a float from the bank, discovering trout moving in close to feed in the rough water.
Bradley Cox put in a few hours casting lures from the shoreline of Wurdee Boluc Reservoir during a break in the weather. He had no trouble banking a bag of redfin, with some impressive sized fish to 50cm among his catch.
Reece Pitt and I fished West Barwon Reservoir on Saturday. After casting lures from the rock wall for some time, Reece finally hooked a well-conditioned rainbow trout of 1.5kg that took a Berkley T-Tail minnow in black and gold.
We both noted that the fish started to move in close to the wall as the sun went down, with both of us able to cast to fish we had sighted.
On the saltwater scene, tuna reports slowed as angler’s sought shelter from rough seas. When conditions did allow boats out from Portland, anglers reported bluefin tuna of 20kg in 50m.
Anglers in the area also had fun chasing big winter salmon on lures trolled behind the surf, while the harbour held whiting, squid and snapper.
St Leonards was consistent for squid and whiting. The biggest whiting were caught further down toward the mouth of Swan Bay.
Queenscliff Harbour fished well for silver trevally and Australian salmon on bait and lure. The entrance to the harbour was hot for trevally on the slack tide, with baits such as pilchard accounting for fish to 40cm while salmon to 1kg were a welcome by-catch.
Improving weather over the next week should allow anglers to head back out on the tuna. The trout fishing should only go from strength to strength as the region moves toward winter, with lakes such as Purrumbete normally producing trophy browns from the east bank.
