By CHRIS PITMAN
MICHAEL Evans noticed a disturbance on the water as he walked the shore of Wurdee Boluc Reservoir in wet, wild weather last week.
The commotion turned out to be a patch of smelting trout. Michael quickly cast a Fish Arrow soft plastic, hooking a 2kg, 56cm hen brown trout. Michael noted that lure-fishing the reservoir was best on a rising barometer.
Steve Hotez spent a few hours casting lures around Wurdee Boluc’s margins on Saturday morning, banking a chucky redfin of 42cm and 1.5kg and a brown trout of 2.5 kg and 55cm. Steve also used a Fish Arrow soft plastic lure.
Bradley Cox fished the reservoir on Sunday morning, catching two redfin over 40cm.
Further down the western district, the trout fishing really improved at Lakes Purrumbete and Bullen Merri.
Purrumbete produced good numbers of Chinook salmon to 1.2kg for anglers fishing deep with either bait or lure. Trolling lures deep with downriggers or anchoring up to fish lightly weighted baits in a liberal berley trail worked well.
Jake Smith from the Petrel Angling Club caught a nice 1.56kg rainbow trout at Lake Bullen Merri on Saturday morning. Trolling or casting lures close in to shore or on the deep drop offs at first or last light has been successful at the lake.
Eric Box travelled back up to Lake Toolondo early last week to find strong gusting wind and over 30mm of rain. But perseverance paid off when Eric boated five brown trout from 1.6kg to 2.05kg, all taken on mudeye suspended under a float.
Hordes of anglers descended on tuna hot spots during a break in the weather last week. Port Fairy was popular, with the exceptional numbers of tuna holding in close.
Portland continued producing tuna but anglers had to work a bit harder, with fish holding out wide.
Fishing World Geelong’s Michael Moore and Ben McLean ventured down to Port Fairy on Monday, encountering tuna just south of Lady Julia Percy Island. The first lure devoured was a Samaki Pacemaker.
The next few hours of trolling was quiet until the fish started firing up in the afternoon, taking stick bait lures cast into surface commotion. At the end of the day Michael and Ben had caught and released four tuna to 15kg.
Paul Blackborrow was out the same day, boating four tuna in 52m south-south-east of Port Fairy. Paul also had success on smaller lures.
Down at Portland Phil Nelson boated his first southern bluefin tuna after quite a few attempts. Phil caught his fish on a Rapala X-Rap 20.
Other anglers fishing Portland enjoyed excellent bottom-bouncing for flathead, snapper and gummy shark.
Locally, Corio Bay held good numbers of pinkie snapper to 45cm over the past week for anglers casting soft plastics in close around structure. The Western Beach moorings were a great place to start looking.
The tuna down the western district should be hard to go past if the weather holds up over the next week, while Corio Bay should also be worth fishing for pinkies and flathead.
Freshwater anglers could try Lakes Purrumbete and Bullen Merri for Chinook salmon to 2kg on bait or lure.
