On the Bite, by Chris Pitman
Corio Bay proved worthwhile fishing for soft-plastic anglers over the past week with mixed bags on offer.
Fishing from Limburner’s Point gave anglers access to numerous garfish, which had a liking for small amounts of silverfish baited under a float.
The spoil grounds just out from the point held pinkie snapper, pike and flathead, with three or four-inch Gulp minnows working well.
Of note, anglers even managed a few King George whiting on plastics over the past few weeks, especially on worm styles.
Nathan Wright cast plastics from his kayak around the boats moored on the grammar school lagoon. He landed a number of nice-sized black bream along with something more solid that ended up being a large estuary perch, a rare catch for Corio Bay.
St Leonards’ whiting captures only increased, with the Bourke Street area a safe bet on the run-in tide. Anyone wanting to beat the Christmas break crowds on the whiting should fish any area in around 4m to 6m with sand and weed patches, moving only 50m or so until finding the fish.
Squid were taken over the weed beds between St Leonards Yacht Club and the mouth of Swan Bay. Size three jigs in white colours or a King George whiting pattern did the trick.
Fishing the deeper water out from St Leonard’s resulted in gummy sharks around 6kg.
Queenscliff held larger whiting on the grass beds, but they were more temperamental.
Queenscliff Harbour was productive for silver trevally and squid around a slack tide. Soft plastics worked well on the trevally.
The Rip hosted Australian salmon, which at times erupted on the surface in feeding frenzies.
Offshore reports began to mention kingfish, with some respectable fish to 8kg taken on knife jigs or well-presented squid baits.
Trelly’s Geelong Kevin Hunter took a run off shore last week and boated a healthy bag of tiger flathead. Plenty of snapper and gummy shark have also been taken at the 30m mark.
Down west, the western estuaries fished well for bream, perch and even mulloway, while Portland had a few kingfish on the go.
Lake Purrumbete continued producing trophy brown trout. A variety of methods worked but trolling Tassie Devils at first light along the east bank was hard to beat.
Just up the road, Lake Toolirook still had rainbow trout snapping up trolled Tassie Devils as well.
The Barwon River around Queen’s Park saw redfin devouring small hard-body lures. Fishos wanting to try something different could use a Megabass Siglet, which is a surface lure that’s great for avoiding snags.
The Christmas break should present lots of options but boating a kingfish from the Rip or offshore from Barwon Heads could provide some seriously fast-paced action. Otherwise, whiting will bite all summer long off St Leornards and the Barwon River estuary will remain a great location to take kids fishing with pippies on a running sinker for a variety of species.
