Bay anglers land pinkies, flathead

UPSTATE: Michael Evans with his Lake Toolondo trout.

Corio Bay produced flathead and pinkie snapper for anglers over the past week.
Dylan Pace fished the sheltered waters of the grammar school lagoon on Saturday, catching flathead to 45cm on four-inch Turtleback worms in the channel entrance.
I ventured out at day break, finding numerous pinkies to 40cm around the old Yarra St pier. Casting Turtleback worms, allowing them to reach the bottom then beginning a slow retrieve was deadly.
John Mole and Brian Long saw Australian salmon busting up in football-field sized patches along the Surf Coast on the weekend. Brian landed multiple fish to 2kg on ever-reliable Sluk lures.
Ben McLean travelled to Port Fairy where he spent most of Sunday chasing tuna. He found them quickly and spent almost all day casting and trolling every lure only to find the fish unwilling to bite.
The Barwon River estuary hosted great numbers of small whiting, trevally and Australian salmon. Fishing pippies and small pieces of salted bluebait caught plenty of fish.
Queenscliff Harbour produced silver trevally on the slack tide for anglers using soft-plastic Atomic grubs in the Motor Oil colour.
Adam Vander Lught travelled to Mallacoota where he caught a massive black bream of 1.37kg and 46cm while tournament-fishing. A TT switch blade did the damage when fished in the deep water during the afternoon.
Back home, fresh water action continued firing, with Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree a clear standout.
George Dagg fished the north side of the lake with mudeyes suspended under a bubble float, catching 15 rainbow and brown trout in one session, eight of them over the 2kg mark.
Steve Hotez and David Nicholson also fished Wendouree but with mudeyes drifted out from kayaks. David boated a rainbow of about 2kg, while Steve landed a whooper brown of almost 3kg.
Lake Toolondo produced fantastic brown trout. Michael Evans gave Wurdee Boluc Reservoir a rest, travelling instead upstate to Lake Toolondo where he found the fish holding down in the weed. The different conditions forced a change of tactics, with Michael casting Tassie Devils in pink #55 and retrieving as slow as possible to catch two fat trout and a larger fish he estimated to be over 3kg.
Michael also saw other anglers experience success on shallow-diving Rapala X-Rap lures in natural colours.
Bellarine Light Game Sport Fishing Club had a day out on Lake Bullen Merri where members caught Chinook salmon to 1.4kg on pilchard fillet suspended just above the bottom.
West Barwon Reservoir produced rainbow trout around 1kg for anglers fishing the rock wall with mudeye under floats or scrub worms on the bottom.

Send reports and photos to info@raylongtackle.com.au or facebook.com/raylongfishingworld or visit Chris at Fishing World Geelong, 105 Shannon Ave, Manifold Heights.