On the Bite, by Peri Stavropoulos
The weather was wet ‘n’ wild over the past week but some great fishing was still available for anglers who braved the elements.
Corio Bay produced great land-based fishing on Cunningham Pier for snotty trevalla. Light running-sinker rigs baited with pilchard fillet, pippies or chicken caught great numbers up around 45cm.
David Le found a break in the weather to wrangle some great pinkie snapper from tight structure around Geelong’s yacht club. Also fishing land-based, David cast unweighted pilchards near structure where the fish usually hide in wild weather.
The Barwon River’s estuary continued fishing reliably. Barwon Heads’ boat ramp to the Sheepwash was a hot spot in the lead-up to high tide for silver trevally, salmon, mullet and bream, with mulloway caught on rubber vibes.
Over the other side of Port Phillip Bay, Patterson Lakes produced great bream for Trellys Laverton’s Dylan Pace, who honed his fishing craft on the Surf Coast. Dylan found great numbers of bream and few estuary perch over 35cm while casting Z-man Slim Swims and stick minnows at any structure he could get his lures near.
The west coast continued producing barrel tuna in any available window of good weather. Anglers caught fish from Apollo Bay all the way to Port MacDonnell, with Portland and Cape Bridgewater the chosen locations for the majority of boats.
Trolling skirted lures in a redbait pattern, such as the Tornado Midnight Passion, was still a hot pick for a lot of boats. Jordan Watts and his crew managed to boat a barrel of 144kg.
Lake Bolac continued fishing well from the bank with Powerbait or pilchard fillets on light running-sinker rigs. Craig Varker, from the Petrel Angling Club, managed a cracking rainbow trout of 4.5lbs on a pilchard fillet.
