By Adam Van der Lugt
This week saw Corio Bay’s grammar school lagoon become a hot spot for everything from flathead to snapper.
Fishing the channel while drifting produced flathead to 50cm on both bluebait and soft plastics while one angler reports fishing deeper into the lagoon and catching multiple snapper to about 5kg.
Fishing as light as possible using fresh bait is the key to success with the inner harbour winter snapper.
Geelong’s waterfront still held the odd pinkie snapper and flathead but the last week or so has seen the arrival of snotty nose trevalla.
The best way to target these fish is with a small piece of chicken or prawn suspended under a light waggler float with light line, as they can be very subtle biters.
They can also be targeted using soft plastics like 2 inch grubs with ultra-light jigheads where possible.
Cunningham Pier and Royal Geelong Yacht Club are hot spots for snotty nose trevalla.
Gummy sharks are always a good winter option with reports of them being caught at Jan Juc surf beach and Thirteenth Beach.
One angler also reported catching a number of quality gummy shark off the end of Swan Bay Jetty over a few nights of fishing.
Fishing land-based at the mouth of the Barwon river estuary produced Australian salmon for anglers casting plastics and metal lures.
Fishing around the low tide will allow you to wade right out to the edge of the channel on either side of the river.
Salmon were also caught from surf beaches and rock ledges right along the Great Ocean Road.
School tuna at Portland was big news this week as Shane Jones from Trelly’s Shepparton discovered over the weekend.
Fishing between the lighthouse and Cape Bridgewater, they had a hot session on school tuna where they bagged out, and caught and released many more.
Shane reports there being fish everywhere with fish busting up and birds diving, all their fish were caught on skirted lures around 5 inches with every colour they tried catching fish.
