On the Bite, by Chris Pitman
Anglers flocked to the Barwon River estuary for shelter from strong winds last week.
Trelly’s Geelong’s Adam Van Der Lugt, Peri Stavropoulos and I anchored up the Sheepwash area last Thursday evening before setting fresh squid baits for mulloway. We were instead surprised to catch well-conditioned pinkie snapper to just over 40cm, while Adam boated a 40cm while casting soft plastics.
Kingfish kept anglers entertained off Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads during breaks in the wind.
The Rip gave produced exceptional kingfish action, along with some southern bluefin tuna to 20kg. Trolling lures or drifting while jigging knife jigs worked well on the kings.
Away from The Rip, Gone Fishing Charters’ Chris Vasilevski guided his clients onto well-conditioned King George whiting and pinkie snapper.
Clifton Springs produced good numbers whiting out from the old Dell, including bag-limit captures around first or last light.
Australian salmon to 1kg prowled off Clifton Springs and down toward Alcoa Pier.
Snapper were also taken near the pier and in Point Richards’ channel.
Corio Bay rewarded land-based anglers with flathead and pinkies. St Helens boat ramp was productive for anglers using bluebait on paternoster rigs.
Anglers chasing bream down the western district had success in the Hopkins River, with fish to 40cm devouring soft plastic and hard-body lures.
Lake Purrumbete continued giving up cricket-score numbers of redfin. Trevor Holmes guided clients onto some of the hottest redfin fishing he had seen.
Rod Rees mixed it up while fishing with Trevor, catching a 5.86kg Chinook salmon on a Fish Arrow soft plastic.
Next door, anglers casing spoon lures around the margins of Lake Bullen Merri caught rainbow trouts.
Wurdi Boluc Reservoir produced redfin to 25cm and rainbow trout to 1kg.
The Barwon estuary could be worth fishing for mulloway and the elephant fish over the next week, while anglers seeking pelagic action should fish The Rip for kingfish and tuna. Freshwater fishos would do well to take the drive to Lake Purrumbete for some of the country’s best trophy trout fishing.
