By BRIAN LONG
THE fishing has certainly hotted up this past week with anglers finding quality fishing to be had from both fresh and saltwater alike.
Some of the best fishing has been on the banks of the Barwon River, where redfin can be readily caught on lure with both soft plastics and hard bodied options working a treat.
Good catches of redfin are being hauled in all the way from Ceres to Breakwater. For the best results, fish the last two hours before dark.
Carp are another species available in numbers and while most of the captures have been by those using baits of bread or corn, keen fly anglers such as James Magoffin have had success on fly.
Carp are a challenging species at the best of times, made even more challenging on light fly tackle and long runs are to be expected resulting in many a break off.
Lake Toolondo has been the stand out fresh water venue for the past few weeks. Trout better than 2.5kg have been taken using all manner of methods.
Freshwater charter operator Trevor Holmes has this lake wired and has had little trouble getting clients onto top fishing. Mudeye has been the bait but Trevor’s expertise with soft plastics has seen him return with a number of magnificent sessions.
Saltwater fishing has been varied with some of the hottest action of the summer coming from the Corio Bay outer harbour. Harrison Reid fished the Hermsley spoil grounds on Saturday morning for a total of 17 snapper – all but two were retuned but those Harrison did keep weighed over 3kg each.
Also finding snapper action was James Arkinstall. Fishing soft plastics he caught and released a dozen fish between 50 and 60cms. Gulp minnows were the lure attracting all the attention.
Craig Forbes fished just off Bird Rock this week and had no trouble attracting garfish into his berley trail, with two hours of fast and furious action had on this quality fighting species. Craig also landed a number of whiting to 34cms and snapper to 45cms.
Kingfish have been sighted by many anglers over the past few weeks from close in to the Geelong waterfront. While proving to be difficult to catch, their presence certainly makes for nervous times, especially when they harass one of your hooked fish.
Fishing soft plastics along the outer edge of the Royal Geelong Yacht Club retaining wall saw Paul Harrison having a ball catching a variety of species including snapper, trevalla, salmon and pike. All fish were caught on Gulp Turtleback Worms in the pumpkin green colour.
Of late I have seen few anglers trolling for snapper but one angler to embrace this method is Garry Malone. Trolling deep diving Rapala lures this week he had little trouble bagging out on fish to 3.5kg. Garry has found the fish are readily available from the edge of the channel between Point Henry and Clifton Springs.
Casting jigs over the shallow grass beds near the Clifton Springs boat ramp Guy Welsh soon had his bag limit of squid to 900 grams. Guy advised all the better fishing has been coming at first light with small natural coloured jigs working best.
With settled conditions Paul Miller made the journey out to the 20-metre line off St Leonards before light hoping for a gummy shark, but no luck until 10am. With only one rod left in the water the reel screamed off and a gummy shark of over 18 kilograms was boated. Deciding to cast the rods back out again over the next hour another two gummies were caught and released all estimated at a similar size to the one kept.
Ben Mclean and Mick Moore worked hard for two dozen whiting just off Queenscliff. Fresh squid was the bait and the boys also mention that they landed plenty of quality tommy rough as well.
Noel Batten fished the entrance to Swan Bay where whiting averaging 33cms were in good numbers. Moving out to deeper water he soon found better fish and returned with a dozen all over 40cms in length, again fresh squid was the bait.
Tye Marshall had the unusual delight of catching the same fish twice. Laying a berley trail near the Swan Bay entrance looking to catch one of the big flathead this area is renowned for he didn’t have long to wait before a rod folded with what was clearly a big fish.
Fifteen minutes later the huge flathead was at the back of the boat, but unfortunately a sudden lunge by the fish saw it caught up in the berley bag and the fish broke free.
Around 20 minutes later another fish was hooked and it was not long before it was boated and turned out to be the same fish as it had the lost hook still in its mouth. It weighed in at 3.75kg.
Trolling the deep water of the Rip Steve and Geoff Clarke had no trouble locating numbers of salmon. While most were around 1kg, by days end they did catch two of just over 3kg. It wasn’t until they returned to the boat ramp that another angler informed them the fish they had caught were in fact small kingfish and not salmon.
Offshore we have seen good numbers of shark, both blue and mako, with the latter the most sought after. Generally you need to fish in 30 to 50 metres of water to find the best results but be aware there are plenty of small couta resulting in many a bite off.
This weekend the tides are perfect late in the afternoon for anyone looking to fish soft plastics on snapper. Look to the outer harbour spoil grounds or close in to the Quarries, you can’t go past gulp minnows and worms at present.
Also we are still seeing great numbers of salmon from the rock platforms between Lorne and Apollo Bay. Lure is the method but do fish a couple of hours either side of the high tides for the best results.
Send reports and photos to info@raylongtackle.com.au or visit Brian at Ray Long’s Fishing World, 105 Shannon Ave, Manifold Heights.
