By CHRIS PITMAN
LIGHT north winds made Sunday ideal for spinning up Australian salmon to just over 2kg along the coast.
Rock platforms and beaches surrounding Lorne produced fish on 25g slugs, with anglers finding that the larger fish usually took lures within the first few metres of their retrieve.
The Barwon River Estuary had huge tidal movement last weekend, making angling challenging but salmon and silver trevally were still landed. Pippies baited on a running sinker rig did the trick during the run-in tide.
The Thunderbolt section produced mulloway on fresh squid baits or live mullet. Some of the mulloway reached 85cm, giving anglers a run for their money.
Reasonable numbers of squid were taken around Queenscliff’s Bell Reef in a good sign of things to come. August traditionally has a run of large squid gather over the nearby reef and grass patches ahead of spawning.
Port Fairy hosted an influx of anglers on Sunday as they made the most of the fading tuna season. Casting stick baits such as Storm So Run Minnows in 48m to 52m caught southern bluefin to 15kg.
Among the fleet were Mat and Ray Alsop and Dylan Pace, who had little trouble locating and boating tuna. They said the fish responded extremely well to stick bait lures cast into surface commotion, with Dylan noting that the tuna seemed still focused on chasing small bait, which can make them hard to tempt.
Also down the western district, Trent Schiller fished the Hopkins River for bream again. Trent walked the banks high up the estuary casting soft plastics for fish to 37cm.
Lake Purrumbete was a hot spot for brown trout, with anglers taking 2kg fish on trolled lures or mudeyes suspend under floats. Trolling the east bank weed beds at first light resulted in browns and rainbow trout along with the odd Chinook salmon to 1.2kg
Lake Wendouree remained a standout for trout, with numerous browns over 2kg taking a wide range of bait, lure and fly. Different to other local lakes, Wendouree has fished best mid-afternoon on cold, overcast days.
The Queen’s Park section of the Barwon River produced carp to 6kg. Ever-reliable corn kernels on a lightly weighted running sinker rig got the job done. Next week should be good for salmon along local surf beaches. The rock platforms either side of Lorne will also be worth fishing on the run-in tide.
Freshwater anglers should consider a trip to Lake Wendouree or trying for carp in the Barwon River.
