Big catch in great weather

Corio Bay continued providing with healthy bags of pinkie snapper and flathead over the past week.
The spoil grounds in Stingaree Bay, north of Limeburner’s Point boat ramp, produced pinkies to 45cm and flathead averaging the same size. Casting soft plastics ahead of the drift was ideal.
In the outer-harbour, Wilson Spit again produced snapper to 5kg on fresh squid.
Queenscliff fished well for whiting to 45cm, with the fish spread from the harbour entrance through to Point Lonsdale Bite. A few moves required to locate numbers of fish, which were usually found on sand patches surrounded by grass beds in 5m to 7m of water.
Anglers who fished offshore from Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads had to cover plenty of water to find kingfish and tempting to bite was no easy task. Live-baiting or trolling lures caught kings to 75cm.
Surf Coast rock platforms produced Australian salmon to 2.5kg on metal lures, especially when allowed to sink before the retrieve when the fish shut down.
The Western District turned on some of the state’s best fishing, both in the salt and freshwater.
Portland fished well for salmon to 3.5kg and southern bluefin tuna in as little as 8 metres. East of the harbour was the best ground, with anglers casting stick bait lures into surface commotion boating tuna to 30kg and salmon as well.
Kevin McCloughan ventured out from Warrnambool on Saturday in search of sharks. Kevin caught a mako of 161kg on 24kg tackle, which took some serious angling skill to subdue.
I travelled to Lake Bullen Merri last Friday, trolling about 10m of water with downriggers around Potter’s Point. I found numerous rainbow trout to 2kg and shaped like footballs.
The most productive lures were pink 13.5g Tassie Devils and Rapala Spotted Dog F7s. I also witnessed other anglers boat Chinook salmon over 2kg with similar tactics.
Wurdee Boluc Reservoir produced reasonable numbers of large redfin and the odd rainbow trout. Anglers casting over weed beds in shallow water at first light reported the best results, with Trent Schiller putting a few hours last week for a chunky redfin of 45cm.
Next week should be good for a mixed bag on Corio Bay, while a trip to Lake Bullen Merri for trout to Portland for kingfish and tuna could also be worthwhile.