Peri Stavropolous
Unfortunately us fisherman have copped some pretty average weather over the last week, however for the dedicated anglers they are still managing to tangle themselves with some nice fish.
Inside Corio Bay and in particular the Royal Geelong Yacht Club is on fire with snotty trevalla and they just seem to be everywhere, with Fisherman’s Pier being the number 1 hot spot.
A lightly-weighted running sinker rig with a piece of chicken is going to be your best setup when targeting them, casting small 2-inch soft plastics.
Casting soft plastics has also been very effective for some other species such as pinkie snapper, flathead and salmon.
Pinkie snapper still remain in great numbers in the similar areas but tighter on the structure you can get your lures the better with lightly weighted Gulp sandworms slaying fish.
Along the Bellarine Peninsula and the King George whiting have proved to be quite difficult from Leopold to Clifton Springs.
However there are some fish holding towards Portarlington through to Indented Heads and as expected, St Leonards has had its fair share of whiting reports too.
There has been plenty of garfish in similar areas to the whiting but just in a bit closer to shore and making sure you have a solid burley trail out is the key to get them around your baits.
Off the surf coast beaches there have been a few reports of gummy sharks starting to roll through, fishing fresh baits such as calamari and salmon is your best bet with a panernoster rig to keep your bait off the bottom and away from the crabs.
Fishing the tide changes are the ideal time for when to go down and wet a line.
Wurdiboluc Reservoir has still had some reasonable trout fishing on the go as of late in particular the rainbow trout.
The rainbows have been in respectable numbers and have been quite keen on eating shallow running divers. Andrew Orchard made the drive down landing trout to 40cm on shallow running minnow lures with trout patterns working best.
Lake Bullen Merri is continuing to produce plenty of rainbow trout and chinook salmon.
Trolling tassie devils and rapala F7 hardbodies along the edge of the lake in first light is ideal and as the day goes on getting deeper with your lures will have better results.
Fishing during the afternoon has been very productive for chinook salmon whilst bait fishing, using pilchard fillets and glassies.
