On the Bite, by Chris Pitman
Anglers were greeted with mostly calm conditions over the past week, allowing offshore fishing.
The 30m mark out from Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads was loaded with gummy shark to 15kg. Fresh Australian salmon baits fished on flasher rigs worked best.
Plenty of surface commotion was going on too as salmon erupted in surface-feeding frenzies, along with the odd school of bluefin tuna.
Trelly’s Geelong’s Peri Stravropoulos got stuck into any number of pinkie snapper to 50cm out from Barwon Heads last week, along with a blue devil fish that he released.
The beaches from Point Lonsdale to Bancoora also produced salmon. Bluebait fished on paternoster rigs caught fish, along with metal lures cats out on the run-in tides.
The beaches also fished well for gummies after dark, especially for anglers using fresh fish fillets.
Corio Bay’s inner-harbour hosted a wide variety of species including squid, whiting, salmon, pinkies, flathead and even the odd elephant fish.
Soft plastic anglers snagged pinkies, flathead and salmon around the moored yachts along Western Beach. Gulp turtleback worms and 3” minnows fished on 1/8oz jig heads did the trick nicely.
Limeburner’s Point boat ramp was a land-based hot spot for garfish, which were present in excellent numbers and responded well to silverfish under lightly weighted floats.
Clifton Springs was squid central. Size three jigs allowed to sink almost to the bottom resulted in bag-limit captures.
Nearby, whiting held over the Curlewis Bank in 6m of water. Snapper made an appearance too, with anglers finding the odd larger fish along the Point Richards Channel.
Queenscliff was an excellent land-based option for squid. Bell Reef, the Queenscliff Pier and the harbour were all productive on either baited or artificial jigs.
Whiting were difficult to find off Queenscliff, with only small numbers of fish reported.
Elephant fish were on the chew in the Barwon River estuary, where squid rigged on a running sinker rig worked well. Plenty of smaller-model salmon kept anglers busy, while bream were taken on Bass yabbies in the upper reaches of the Sheepwash.
On the freshwater scene, Lake Purrumbete gave up the odd large brown trout to almost 10lb along with big numbers of redfin. Trolling Tassie Devils about 10m during the day was ideal, although flat-lining should work well as the weather cools.
Wurdee Boluc Reservoir was consistent for redfin to 35cm. Trout just over 1kg was at times taken on Pegron tiger minnows cast from the main rock wall.
Next week’s likely fine weather should provide more chances to fish offshore from Barwon Heads for gummies, while Clifton Springs will be worth the time for its incredible numbers of squid. Freshwater fishos should keep casting at Wurdee Boluc for trout and redfin.
