Local anglers travelled far and wide in search of piscatorial action over the long weekend.
Tony Hynds ventured out onto Corio Bay on Sunday morning, marking up some promising signs on his depth sounder. Tony let his three-inch soft plastics sink to bottom and was soon connected to a solid 52cm snapper.
Tony then went on to catch a few more fish around the same size along with some reasonable-sized bream and flathead from around the wharfs.
Anglers fishing off Indented Heads encountered excellent numbers of squid over the reef patches in 3m to 5m of water. Slightly larger jigs bagged the better-sized squid.
Whiting catches were a little more challenging, but anglers who fished deeper waters managed to boat bag-limit captures.
Queenscliff attracted plenty of attention from anglers over the weekend, with all seeking whiting. Tackleworld Geelong’s Michael Moore spent an afternoon on the whiting, eventually boating some excellent condition fish to an impressive 46cm.
Anglers fishing Queenscliff noted that moving to the deeper, faster-flowing water did the trick.
The region’s surf beaches produced plenty of Australian salmon for anglers able to make lengthy casts with metal lures. The start of the incoming tide produced salmon to 2.5kg.
Further down the coast, rock platforms also provided some worthwhile angling for salmon but large swells made things difficult at times.
I fished the Curdies River near Peterborough early Monday. Finding the water level high in the estuary system, I travelled across the lake and into the start of the river where the bream were densely schooled.
Casting vibe-style lures resulted in numerous black bream to 38cm.
Further down the Western District, Adam Van Der Lugt spent a few days over the long weekend fishing the Glenelg River at Nelson. Fishing from a kayak, Adam caught numerous mulloway to 65cm along with chunky estuary perch on hard-body lures.
Justin Burns also recently spent some time fishing the Glenelg, also catching fantastically conditioned estuary perch on artificial lures.
Tuna anglers who found a break in the weather again boated great numbers of fish averaging 10kg to 15kg. Water around 70m deep hosted the greatest number of fish, which took trolled small-skirted lures or Rapala X-Rap 20s.
Freshwater anglers found the going tough, with Wurdee Boluc Reservoir living up to its other name as The Lake of 1000 Casts. Anglers lucky enough were able to hook into fish banked redfin around 40cm.
Lake Purrumbete gave up trophy brown trout for anglers casting lures around the weed banks at first light. Counterparts trolling hard-body lures also took fish, with Daiwa Double Clutches a standout.
Anglers prepared to brave the cold next week should consider fishing Queenscliff for whiting and squid. With the winds forecast to back off, anyone wanting to tangle with tuna should be in for some luck around the 70mm mark off Port Fairy.
Freshwater fishos should stay focused on Wurdee Boluc or make an early start at Lake Purrumbete.
