By BRIAN LONG
PERFECT conditions last weekend lured plenty of anglers onto the water, with some awesome fish caught.
Darren Doyle boated a 9.6kg snapper as the first of three fish taken after dark near the wreck of the Anneaura on Saturday night.
Nearby, Nathan O’Connor caught two snapper over than 5kg on fresh squid.
Garry Sharp was, to my knowledge, the first to catch a snapper on a trolled lure this season. He caught a 3.2kg fish and three under 40cm with Rapala Taildancers on the edge of the channel between Point Henry and Point Wilson.
Adam Van Der Lugt, John Didge and Paul Maher spent time sounding around the inner-harbour to find a nice patch of fish. They used soft plastics to land a dozen up to 78cm.
Jason Hunt also caught snapper o 72cm on soft plastics while working the reefy ground near Point Wilson. Turtleback worms in the Pumpkinseed colour worked best.
Grant Forbes fished the inner-harbour just off the silos pier where the action was quiet until he moved close to North Shore rocks. Five minutes later both rods folded with two snapper around 3kg.
Guy Farnsworth fished the grass beds off Hermsley with pink Yamashita 2.5 squid jigs for little trouble landing a bag-limit of squid to 1.5kg.
Squid were patchy, with the best action off Clifton Springs and Hermsley.
Trent Hawkins tried the 20m line off St Leonards for snapper, instead boating two magnificent gummy shark of more than 10kg each cleaned. Both fish took fresh squid caught earlier in the day.
Trevally were caught in Queenscliff’s cut. Harrison Green fished the slack water after dark for a catch of six and a 2.3kg snapper, all taken on Squidgy Wrigglers in the Bloodworm colour.
I spun the rocks just past Lorne last weekend, landing and releasing dozens of mostly small fish. A move to Cinema Point was successful, with my catch of around 50 salmon including fish over 2kg.
Freshwater captures were also impressive, with Lake Purrumbete again producing some awesome brown trout over 3kg. The best method was trolling, especially deep-diving Daiwa Double Clutch lures as well as Tassie Devils when trolled with either a downrigger or drop weight.
Lake Bullen Merri continued producing plenty of small fish both and just the odd larger specimen.
Sunshine Fly Fishing Club’s Stephen Varga nailed quality brown trout at Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree. Stephen used a size 16 black spider pattern fly.
Craig Moss was successful at the lake with Laydown minnow lures on brown trout and redfin.
West Barwon Reservoir was still quiet, although Colin Bennet landed a pair of nice trout while spinning the right hand corner of the wall with a 5cm Rapala rainbow trout pattern lure. Both fish the lure right at his feet.
Troy Deville fished Moorabool Reservoir where late Monday afternoon the fish started to rise. A well-presented Dun pattern fly caught a brown trout of just over 2kg, with a second around 1.5kg caught and released soon after.
Lismore’s Lake Tooliorook welcomed camping anglers for school holidays. The fish were a little less prolific, with mudeye and Pegron tiger minnows working best.
Wurdee Boluc Reservoir – the lake of 1000 casts – taunted Terry O’Neill last weekend over seven hours. His arms were almost spent when just on dark a big fish engulfed his lure, leading to a 15-minute fight to successfully land the 3.9kg brown trout.
North Geelong’s Seagull Paddock Lake and Highton’s St Augustine’s Lake produced stocked rainbow trout for young anglers at the start of school holidays, with Powerbait and worms fished on the bottom working well.
Send reports and photos to info@raylongtackle.com.au or visit Brian at Ray Long’s Fishing World, 105 Shannon Ave, Manifold Heights.
