The offshore fishing as of late has been nothing short of sensational over the past week or so with pelagics on the chew.
Between Barwon Heads bluff and the Rip has offered some sensational fishing options for kingfish, southern bluefin tuna and mako sharks.
Anglers chasing kingfish have found their best success fishing in closer from 20 metres and under whilst slow trolling. Livebaits, squid strips and rigged garfish all make great baits to troll around.
The Rip has also been fishing sensationally and probably the standout location for kings at the moment. The only struggle is anglers are struggling to catch live bait. A great tactic and by far the most effective way is to sound around with a sabiki rig ready to drop and the second a school is sounded up drop a bait right on their head and use the boat to hold on top of them.
Wrecks are a great area to spend time sounding. Bluefin tuna have been holding a little deeper than the kingfish, more so from 35 metres to 50 metres. Quite often the schools of fish can be sighted on the surface just cruising around, opening an opportunity to cast topwater lures such as poppers and stickbaits at them.
The fish are usually very timid when behaving like this so a slow, stealth approach is key. Try to avoid going in hard or driving through the school as this will increase your chances hugely. When they can’t be sighted, trolling has been working very well with divers and skirted lures getting plenty of bites.
Corio Bay inner harbour has offered some great family fishing options for the school holidays and when the weather is a bit wild. Along the edge of the channel near Alcoa pier has been holding a good mixture of species including pinky snapper, whiting and flathead. Soft plastics work great and of course bait is always a great tactic to secure a feed.
The outer harbour and around the Bellarine Peninsula has been producing some good reports on King George whiting and calamari. Artificial jigs in bright and funky colours have been a standout for the calamari in size 3.0 and 3.5 jigs working best. When fishing further back into the bay it does pay to even run some size 2.5 jigs.
The whiting have been fishing well on the stronger tides and if you can time that at the end or start of the day your chances will increase. Squid strips and pipis make for the best baits with some chopped up pilchards in the pot just off the bottom makes for great burley to get them in and hold them at the back of the boat.
