On the Bite, by Chris Pitman
Wild weather spurred anglers on to some impressive captures over the past week.
Most boats had no trouble securing a feed of whiting at St Leonards in the lead up to Easter.
Picking a break in the weather was the only challenge but when the winds eased anchoring up along the well know area Bourke St was ideal. Fishing baits of pippies or tenderised squid along with timing trips around sunrise or sunset worked a treat.
St Leonards also held some impressive squid, with land-based anglers having a ball landing numerous specimens of impressive size. The key was decent water clarity and using a size-three artificial jig.
Heading around the corner, Queenscliff still caught the attention of anglers chasing kingfish, which should still hang around for another month or so. The fishing was tough due to the challenging weather but fish to 10kg were on offer.
Inside the shelter of Queenscliff Harbour, silver trevally and Australian salmon devoured soft plastics worked on a slack tide.
The Barwon River estuary, which fishes well at this time of year, produced some mulloway over 1m in length. Fishing fresh squid on the last hour of the incoming tide worked best, with the lower reaches of the system a great place to chuck out a bait.
Black bream over 40cm were also on the chew, again with fresh baits ideal. Smaller-model whiting and salmon were banked by fishing small amounts of pippie on a running sinker rig.
Surf anglers who timed trips with north winds beached excellent-conditioned salmon over 2kg on lures. Fishing pilchards on a paternoster rig also produced results, too.
The smaller estuary systems along the Surf Coast were ideal for bream, as Trelly’s Geelong Peri Stravropoulos discovered. Both bait and lures caught fish.
Corio Bay’s inner-harbour fished well again for pinkie snapper. Soft plastics like Gulp turtleback worms worked well when rigged on 1/6oz, 1/0 jig heads. The pinkies reached 50cm, with a few snapper among them along with some flathead bycatch.
Freshwater fishos found Lake Purrumbete giving up brown trout along with large numbers of redfin, which were mostly located on sounders and caught with soft plastics.
Wurdee Boluc Reservoir remained a solid option for redfin but reports of trout were thin, which should change as the weather cools.
Trelly’s Geelong’s Adam Van Der Lugt ventured up to Bright last weekend, catching plenty of brown and rainbow trout from the streams. Adam chose to fly fish, which worked a treat in the small waters.
Over the Easter break anglers should have a look at St Leonards for whiting, while Clifton Springs could be a great location just a short trip from the boat ramp for mixed bags also including squid, flathead and pinkies.
