On the Bite, by Adam Van Der Lugt
Corio Bay give up a number of quality snapper over the past week, with whispers of fish to 10kg caught.
Knowing that persistence and fishing light is the key coming into winter, successful anglers opted for baits such as unweighted pilchard and garfish.
Pinkies remained the drawcard around the inner-harbour, though, with the average size around 35cm. Soft plastics and bait both caught fish.
Geelong’s waterfront was again productive for land-based anglers targeting pinkies. Flathead, red mullet and black bream were taken as bycatch.
The Alcoa spoil grounds were worth visiting. Anglers reported catching pinkies, although the area can also produce snapper around 3kg to 4kg at this time of year.
Squid were present in good numbers from Clifton Springs right around to Queenscliff. Fishing over the weed beds in 2.5m to 4m resulted in bag-limit captures within an hour.
The Barwon River estuary hosted some fantastic mulloway fishing when tides permitted. Nathan Wright went to the effort of collecting fresh squid over the weekend for bait but in the end it was a live mullet that had his rod buckled over and his reel singing with a fish too big for his 1m-wide net and estimated at 110cm in length.
Nathan’s mulloway was one of a number reported as caught in the past week from the Barwon.
Tuna remained the target species for anglers heading offshore further west. Apollo Bay, Port Fairy and Portland were all worth visiting, with reports suggesting the school fish had moved further out towards the shelf in 120m to 200m of water.
Small skirted lures have accounted for a majority of tuna, although anglers who found fish busting up were able to catch them by casting small stick bait lures or seven-inch Gulp jerk shads.
A few anglers reported catching barrels, especially on the Tornado T7 lure.
On the freshwater scene, anglers chasing trout and redfin needed look no further than Lake Purrumbete. In fact, some of the successful anglers did incredibly well on brown trout in excess of 10lb.
Tim Beusmans fished mid-week for two trout of 11lb and 10lb 2oz along with a 46cm redfin nudging 4lb. A Rapala F11 lure in the Spotted Dog colour did the damage while flat-line trolling the lake margins of a morning.
Next door, Lake Bullen Merri produced rainbow trout and Chinook salmon on pilchard fillets and Powerbait. Anglers fishing for the salmon did best when using a burley of diced pilchard scraps
