Corio Bay’s silver lining

FLAKE OUT: Sam Pitman with a Gummy Shark off Clifton Springs.

On the Bite, by Peri Stavropoulos

It’s starting to look a lot more like spring now, with some good weather and great fishing.

The inner-harbor of Corio Bay still continues to fish well for local anglers, and without the need to travel far from shore.

Silver trevally and snotty trevalla continued biting well in and around the yacht club over the past week, with small soft plastics cast tight around structure doing the trick. Both species can be targeted land-based or from a boat or kayak.

Anglers casting soft plastics in these areas can also expect a wide variety of other species including pinkie snapper, flathead, salmon, pike and even tailor.

David Le managed to once again find himself enjoying the inner-harbour action recently, getting into some ripper snotty trevalla and trevally.

Clifton Springs was also a hot spot over the past week, with plenty of calamari continuing to be caught all along the Hermsley Bank right through to Portarlington on size 3.0 jigs. Casting over broken ground where the weed meets the sand in 3.5m of water was where to find the majority of fish.

Sam Pitman and Jimmy Syrigos got out off Clifton Springs over the weekend and managed two ripper-sized gummy sharks and a nice haul of calamari.

Along the Bellarine Peninsula, squid continue to go from strength to strength. St Leonards to the mouth of Swan bay held plenty of numbers but the big monsters were again taken in the Queenscliff Bight.

Owen Westwell and I managed to find ourselves amongst some squid action over the weekend. The mouth of Swan Bay in 4m of water was where they seemed to be hiding, and Gan-Craft squid jigs were the standout method of capture.

Whiting remained on the chew in the same areas, with the Queenscliff fish again usually a better average size, sometimes pushing 50cm.

Barrel tuna continued to be all the talk on the offshore scene, with Portland again the go-to location over the past week. Trolling skirted lures in 45m to 55m of water between Cape Bridge Water and Lawrence Rock produced fish over 100kg.

With the weather starting to show some improvement, it’s a great time to get down there and chase a few.

Over the weekend Fez Sepic made the drive up to Lake Eildon in hope to land his first trout, and he was not disappointed. Trolling Tassie Devils along the edge of the lake he managed to not only get his first trout but three browns and a rainbow to 1.5kg.