Garfish made their presence known to anglers fishing from the rocks at St Helens and Limeburner’s Point boat ramp over the past week.
Small baits such as silverfish and pippies suspended under pencil floats accounted for reasonable numbers of fish, with the wind blowing gently from behind a key factor for success.
Anglers who fished Corio Bay from boats encountered pinkie snapper to just over 1kg while casting plastics around the Western Beach moorings and further north near the Grammar School Lagoon. At times, schools of Australian salmon appeared feeding on the surface.
Clifton Springs’ whiting remained on the chew out from the Dell, with plenty of squid still holding in close.
St Leonards attracted plenty of anglers seeking whiting, but anglers had to work harder to locate a decent bag. Anyone who managed to pin down a reasonable school happily found that the average size was better than in recent weeks.
Queenscliff Harbour was ideal for hiding from the Antarctic-like conditions of the past week. Anglers casting soft plastics along the main cut on a tide change bagged silver trevally averaging 35cm.
The odd squid was also taken inside the harbour on small artificial jigs.
Anglers spinning along the Surf Coast caught Australian salmon to 2.5kg, with Bancoora Beach a solid producer. Sea Iron Pelacus lure worked well in conjunction with long casts at the start of a run in tide.
Rock platforms on either side of Lorne allowed anglers to find large numbers of salmon when the wild conditions permitted. Anglers fishing bait off the beaches toward Apollo Bay also caught salmon.
The western district remained productive for southern bluefin tuna. Water around 70m from Port Fairy to Portland returned fish averaging 15kg willing on skirted lures.
The estuary systems down the west fished well for bream in the lower reaches. Vibe-style lures slowly worked along the bottom well.
On the freshwater front, Lake Bullen Merri produced rainbow trout resembling footballs. Anglers noted using down-riggers set at 8m to 10m were successful, while shore-based fishos did best at night on Chinook salmon to 2kg while fishing Powerbait and bluebait fillets.
Hugh Hanson ventured down to the ‘Lake of 1000 Casts’, or Wurdee Boluc Reservoir, last weekend. Casting a Fish Arrow soft plastic Hugh, landed a well-conditioned redfin of 46cm that gave an outstanding account for itself.
The Barwon River in Geelong held reasonable numbers of redfin averaging 30cm. Anglers caught them while casting small deep-diving hard-body lures.
Next week should be worth fishing in the surf with bait or lures for salmon, while Lake Bullen Merri should be an ideal freshwater option for trolling lures in search of trout or Chinook salmon.
