LARGE squid were taken in the Queenscliff area over the past week.
Anglers casting size 3 or 3.5 jigs such as Yamashita Live on a slow drift caught southern calamari to 2kg.
Whiting to 40cm were also taken around Queenscliff during the run-out tide on tenderised squid.
Queenscliff Harbour produced silver trevally to 45cm, particularly on the ever-reliable Gulp Pumpkinseed-colour turtleback worm when fished around the change of tide.
I walked the beach at Collendina while casting 25g lures on Sunday afternoon. Australian salmon to 1kg were on the bite, with the tide change productive.
The Barwon River estuary continued fishing well on bait, with outstanding bream to 44cm taken on Bass yabbies.
The dirty water over the weekend made fishing with soft plastics and hardbody lures difficult. Anglers moving down to the mouth of the river at run-in tide using pippies for bait are finding the best results on salmon to 1kg.
Clifton Springs attracted many anglers seeking squid but strong north winds dirtied the water, limiting captures.
The northerlies were favourable on the other side of the bay off the quarries where numerous boats sought early-season snapper. None reported catching any fish but it’s a spot worth watching in the coming month.
Alex and Dave Haygarth travelled down to the Surf Coast estuaries in search of bream. Casting hard-body lures and soft plastics they landed a 34cm fish that put up an excellent fight in shallow water.
Fishing World Geelong’s Michael Moore ventured down to Lake Purrumbete at daybreak on Saturday to find near-perfect condition for slow trolling. Michael caught brown trout and chinook salmon to 900g on an OSP dunk.
Interestingly, Michael was landing a small salmon when an extremely large trout charged in to take a big bite out of the chinook.
The Barwon River around Queen’s Park produced some beastly carp. Corn cornels and scrubworms fished amid berley worked well.
Marshell Pardee travelled up to Lake Bostock on Sunday after experiencing some success on fly the previous week. This time he tried Powerbait, landing five chinook salmon to 1kg.
Anglers who put in plenty of casts at Moorabool Reservoir were rewarded with redfin to 45cm and brown trout of 1.5kg. The most productive lures were Strike Pro Bob ‘N’ Spoons.
Lake Bullen Merri fished well for chinook salmon on pilchard fillet allowed to drift slowly to the bottom. Noel Porter and Stan Daglas boated fish to 1.8kg using this technique.
Settled weather this weekend could be an opportunity to fish for early-season snapper or chase squid at Queenscliff. Otherwise, spinning for salmon down the coast should be productive.
In freshwater, Lake Bullen Merri should produce chinook salmon and Purrumbete could be worth trying for trophy brown trout.
