On the Bite, by Peri Stavropoulos
The Bellarine Peninsula’s fishing went from strength to strength over the past week.
Squid were everywhere from Clifton Springs right through to the bight at Queenscliff. Indented Heads was a standout, with bag-limit captures achieved.
Size 3.0 jigs were the most-popular size and most colours worked great. Nice calamari were taken off Queenscliff on Saturday morning on natural-looking jibs in pilchard or yakka colours.
Whiting continued biting well from St Leonards through to Queenscliff. Fresh pippies or tenderised squid was the bait of choice, with the tide changes fishing best.
Fishing land-based around Geelong’s waterfront was productive on bait and soft plastics. Fisherman’s Pier and the Rippleside Jetty were standout locations, with reports of pinkie snapper to 60cm taken.
Flathead, salmon and whiting are also a chance while fishing these areas.
A window of good weather allowed fishos to finally get offshore. Gummy sharks and snapper were on the menu for most boats between Torquay and The Rip.
Snapper were a standout for anglers fishing with bait in 30m to 50m of water. Snapper Snatcher rigs got the job done nicely.
Micro jigging accounted for a fair share of snapper as well. Jigs of 40g to 60g slowly worked vertically off the bottom works well on the offshore snapper and a whole host of other species.
Barrel tuna were on the chew along the west coast, with Cape Bridgewater and Portland the standout locations for fish well over 100kg. Working that 50m contour was a good place to start, although keeping active and changing depth while trying to find bait always helps.
Salt Guide’s Aaron Habgood and his crew managed two barrels and missed another late last week. Fish were taken on Redbait-coloured skirt, including the Tornado Midnight Passion.
The Barwon River’s Sheepwash area was productive for a wide variety of species. Steve, Mary and Charlie Threlfall got among the action on Wednesday morning under the local guidance of Trellys Geelong’s Chris Pitman, banking Australian salmon, silver trevally and tailor.
On the freshwater front, Lake Bolac continued fishing well for rainbow trout on Powerbait, glassies and pilchard fillets. Trout over 8lb were rumoured to have been caught.
