On the Bite, by Adam Van der Lugt
This week’s warmer weather triggered some amazing fishing across the region.
Snapper fired on the edge of the channel off Clifton springs and near The Turn for Simon D’Antino who had no issues snagging countless fish to 4kg while casting five to six-inch Gulp soft plastics. Other anglers also reported great fishing with bait during slack tides around sunrise and sunset.
Nearby, Clifton Springs was host to whiting and squid fishing. Squid were taken over the weed beds in 4m to 6m only a few hundred meters from the boat ramp.
Kingfish showed up in great numbers offshore, with the warm, calm days absolutely ideal for targeting them. Bruce Wallace reported fishing for snapper over the weekend with lightly weighted squid strips and doing quite well until kingfish turned up – he caught four fish from 71cm to 76cm and an 81cm model the week before the same way.
Inside The Rip, big salmon to 2.5kg were caught on jigs or trolling white occy skirts. The schools have been present for over a week now and at times can be seen easily from the shore, although anglers chasing salmon in The Rip can also expect to catch kingfish with the right gear.
Queenscliff produced good bags of whiting on mussel, pippie and squid over the weed beds. Big squid were caught in the same are on white jigs in size 3.5.
Bream fishing was on fire, with fish to 37cm taken at a number of creeks along the Great Ocean Road from Torquay to Apollo Bay. Trelly’s Geelong’s Chris Pitman and Peri Stavropoulos fished after work for a catch of some very healthy bream on unweighted scrub worms cast at snags.
Freshwater fishing heated up, especially on the Barwon River for carp and redfin between Queen’s Park Bridge and Fyansford. The river has cleared up so much that sight fishing at carp on hot days is possible.
Sweet corn and bread have been the best baits for the carp, while the redfin respond well to most small minnow or spinner-type lures or a worm fished under a float.
