SPORT: Calm settles on hot fishing for snapper on baits and plastics in bays

CALMER conditions last weekend produced plenty of snapper at local cleaning tables.
Troy Miller fished off Clifton Springs last Saturday night and all was quiet until dark when four rods folded almost simultaneously. Troy lost two but boated a pair of snapper over 5kg each before catching another soon after to complete his bag-limit catch.
Neil Stevens found fish close to the channel near Alcoa. His three snapper weighed over 13kg combined and were all caught on salted bay pilchards.
Garry Harris cast soft plastics along the outer edge of the Hermsley spoil grounds on Monday morning to catch eight snapper. Most were just under 40cm but one stand-out was 75cm, with all fish taken on Gulp turtleback worms in the Pumpkinseed colour.
Daniel Spalding fished soft plastics close in off the quarries for a mixed bag. Pike dominated but he also boated flathead and snapper on turtleback worms.
Most snapper reports were from the bend in the channel off Clifton Springs all the way to Alcoa, with fishing close to the channel’s edge seemingly best.
However, not all the snapper captures were from the outer-harbour – Greg Pullen caught snapper better than 6kg fishing after dark from North Shore rocks with fresh salmon fillets.
Gerry Shorten cast soft plastics along Geelong’s waterfront to find reasonable numbers of pike and flathead late in the evenings.
Squid remained difficult to catch, although George Gallaher has been nabbing bag limits while fishing land-based at Hermsley. Yamashita size 2.5 jigs have been working well after dark, with most of George’s squid around 900g.
I fished Queenscliff’s cut with soft plastics last weekend. Plenty of Tommy rough and the odd trevally were available over the hours but a big flathead made the afternoon memorable.
Guy Welsh found flathead at the entrance to Swan Bay with the help of a little berley to bring the fish to the boat. By day’s end he had a dozen fish 800g to 1.8kg, all caught on blue bait suspended under a small float.
The best surf reports were from Black Rock near Breamlea, where snapper and whiting have been taken.
Around two dozen boats plied Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree last Sunday. Most anglers in the boats were fly fishing and captures were only fair, although Stanley Forbes enjoyed plenty of action while fishing mudeye under a bubble float to catch trout reaching 1.5kg.
I also saw many shore-based anglers but few were using mudeye, so most only had average captures.
Stuart Petterson fished Moorabool Reservoir for the first time with modest expectations until his first cast of a Daiwa Double Clutch caught a 1.5kg lure a brown trout. He caught another two of a similar size over the next three hours.
Lismore’s Lake Tooliorook remained one of the best local freshwater prospects, with trout over 2.5kg caught in the past fortnight. Mudeye baits and trolled Tassie Devils in any of the gold colours have worked.
Harrison Green returned from two days at Lake Toolondo where mudeye fished close to the submerged trees produced nine fish averaging 1.5kg. Harrison saw another angler with a brown trout estimated at 2.5kg and also caught on mudeye.
About 200 kids fished in the Ron Nelson Junior Fishing Clinic at North Geelong’s Seagull Lake last Sunday. Rainbow trout were liberated into the lake for the event but were elusive, with participants instead landing eels and carp in ideal conditions.
Snapper will again be a priority this weekend, with soft plastics likely to be productive during the afternoon tides on the outer-harbour spoil grounds. Anglers should be prepared to spend time looking for surface action caused by the salmon, which can betray snapper feeding below.
Freshwater anglers should try Lake Wendouree with mudeye baits.
Send reports and photos to info@raylongtackle.com.au or visit Brian at Ray Long’s Fishing World, 105 Shannon Ave, Manifold Heights.