Snapper loving the big chill

The onset of cold weather encouraged anglers to seek elusive winter snapper on Corio Bay over the past week.
Andrew Whitford anchored on the bay after locating a few promising marks on his sounder. Hearing the drag on a reel scream to life, Andrew’s pilchard bait was devoured by an 8.76kg snapper that gave him a run for his money on 4kg line.
Brenton Gregory spent a few hours fishing the bay land-based with squid baits, eventually landing snapper of 82cm.
Tackleworld Geelong’s Michael Moore chased the whiting on the grass beds at Queenscliff again, boating a bag-limit capture of fish to more than 40cm. Michael then restocked his supply of squid, catching 10 over at the mouth of Swan Bay.
St Leonards hosted large schools of whiting in the Bourke Street area. Anglers who found clear patches of sand surrounded by grass beds had the best results, especially when fishing with pippie baits.
The pier continued producing good numbers of whiting, with anglers fishing into the night landing better numbers of both species.
The Barwon River estuary kept fishing well for silver trevally to 40cm on pilchard fillets. Small whiting and salmon were also taken, while anglers with Bass yabbies caught black bream.
Large Australian salmon were taken along the Surf Coast, with fish reaching 2.5kg landed half way through the run-in tide. The best beaches were 13th and Bancoora, although anglers pushing further west were also successful.
The Western District hosted excellent tuna fishing when the weather allowed. Apollo Bay produced both school and barrel-size tuna on the reefs out from Cape Otway.
Port Fairy and Portland were also productive, some of the school tuna devouring large 10-inch skirted lures some days.
Trent Schiller and Brenno Edwards fished one of the area’s estuary systems, with the latter catching 85cm mulloway on a soft plastic.
Trevor Homes, Michael Evans and Ben Young spent time casting lures around Lake Toolondo for a catch of solid brown trout along with the odd rainbow trout and a redfin. Both soft plastics and hard-body lures worked a treat.
Andrew Orchard fished the Thredbo River for some of the most impressive brook trout Australia has to offer, with fish reaching 50cm and 2.5kg. Casting hard-body lures worked well for Andrew.
The next week promises more-settled weather, so Port Fairy should be a viable option for school-sized tuna. Whiting should be available from Queenscliff to St Leonards, while freshwater anglers might like to keep Lake Purrumbete and Bullen Merri in mind because they’re due to switch on any time now.