By CHRIS PITMAN
AFTER hearing about record-size southern bluefin tuna on their doorstep, Tim King and Andrew Hopper headed out of Queenscliff on Saturday morning to get into the action.
They began trolling a spread of lures in 70m south-southeast of Port Phillip Heads.
Tim’s rod started screaming off line mid-morning, leading to an extended fight that ended with them boating a 119kg tuna.
Plenty of anglers fished Bass Strait for tuna over the weekend but they were hard to tempt.
Apollo Bay was still the number-one destination for ‘barrel’ tuna with several fish taken each day around Long Reef.
Inside the bay, Queenscliff had an incredible run of southern calamari.
The bight producing the best squid with large jigs fished in the deeper taking the biggest numbers, especially for anglers on the water early.
Just around the corner, the mouth of Swan Bay also produced squid but in smaller sizes. Bag-limit captures were achieved, though.
Snapper continued dominating reports from Clifton Springs, with numerous fish taken from the Point Richards channel over the weekend.
Bait anglers fared best, with fresh squid or pilchards doing the trick.
The Barwon River estuary held large numbers of smaller-model Australian salmon, with the Sheepwash yielding the biggest hauls.
As has been the case for the past few months, the odd mulloway was taken by anglers with fresh or live bait.
Down the coast, anglers banked salmon reaching 2kg, especially when spinning lures from the rock platforms and beaches surrounding Lorne.
The most effective lure was the Sea Iron Pelecus.
Numerous small estuaries down the coast fished well for bream, which proved a back-up plan while waiting for the salmon to come on the bite.
Freshwater anglers fared better over the past week.
Bradley Cox returned to Wurdee Boluc Reservoir, finding the recent run of warm weather had brought large redfin on the chew.
He banked a 48cm fish that devoured a soft plastic.
The Barwon River around Queen’s Park produced better numbers of redfin, with small hard-body lures doing the job.
Moving around until locating a school was the key to success.
Kevin Hunter and ANSA members fished the crater lakes Purrumbete, Bullen Merri and Elyngamite on the weekend.
They managed brown trout, Chinook and Atlantic with a mix of tactics such as trolling and bait-fishing with mudeye suspended under a float.
The Chinook averaged 1.9kg, with Tyler Sparks boating the biggest at 2.6kg.
Darren Dyson caught the best Atlantic salmon, 2.547kg, while Frank Naylor took the largest brown trout, 2.596kg, from Lake Elyngamite.
Ken Worland boated three Chinkook salmon on Powerbait while fishing Lake Bullen Merri from the bank on Monday morning.
Eric Box recently returned from Lake Toolondo where he fished mudeye under a float to boat 12 trout over three days. Eric released most, with his biggest trout a brown weighing 3.03kg.
This weekend should be good for chasing snapper off Clifton Springs, with the area known as The Turn being an ideal starting point.
Plenty of salmon should be holding in close around Lorne, so spinning from the rock platforms should be worthwhile, although boat anglers might like to try for bluefin tuna off Ocean Grove.
