Surf fishing heating up

CLASSIC CATCH: Owen Westwell snares a snapper.

by Peri Stavropoulos

This week saw our saltwater fishing really kick into gear with some great captures all along the coast and inside the bay.

The outer harbour had its first little run of snapper to 4kg with a couple of gummy sharks thrown into the mix.

Although the snapper are few and far between it’s a positive start to the season and with the water temperature rapidly increasing it won’t be long until they really go on the chew.

Owen Westwell and I managed to get out over the weekend and what started as a quick sound to see if any fish were there, quickly turned into a hot little session landing multiple pinkie snapper to just under 2kg on soft plastics.

Whiting continue to be fishing very well along the peninsula right through from Clifton Springs to Queenscliff.

Chris Pitman and Daniel Baden from Trellys Geelong managed to find themselves among a school of feeding whiting during the week.

The pair managed a nice little haul of whiting to 35cm taken on pipis and leading up to the evening.

Squid are still on the go in the same area, 3.0 sized jigs are going to be your best all-round size and natural colours seem to be the stand out jig colours as of late.

The local surf fishing has fired back up over the past few weeks with Australian salmon back on the chew.

Soaking a bit of blue bait is a very effective way to target them as well as casting metal lures between 25 and 50 grams.

Any beach along the Great Ocean Road is worth a crack, however Jan Juc and Bancoora seem to be the more popular locations.

Offshore has still been producing some ripper gummy sharks to over 20kg for lucky anglers fishing that 30m mark with fresh baits such as salmon.

Get down to the beach and catch some!

Heading down west Port MacDonnell and Portland have still been producing a fair amount of barrel tuna to 120kg.

Trolling skirted lures is the most common way of targeting them however a fair chunk of those fish have been caught by boats cubing for them and even casting!

St Augustine’s water hole in Highton has been stocked with Rainbow Trout for the school holidays and is a great spot to take the kids fishing.

Just a light-running sinker rig with a bit of powerbait is all that is needed to get stuck into some great fun.