On The Bite: Peri Stavropoulos
The inner harbour of Geelong is still offering some reasonable quality snapper with anglers continuing to land good fish.
The north shore area has definitely seemed to be the main spot worth looking with fish reaching upwards of 6kg cruising about with more than enough fish to 40cm amongst them to keep busy and put a feed on the table.
When fishing this time of year for snapper it is important to have as much going for you as possible, so fishing with freshly-caught baits is definitely an odds-booster.
Squid, garfish, snook or salmon all make great bait and fishing a tide change after dark is the key to most anglers’ success.
Garfish have unfortunately slowed down a bit during the last week or so, we wouldn’t be surprised if they were all caught.
There are still a few anglers getting around in search of them with some success and some big garfish amongst the buckets of fish.
Owen Westwell fished off St Helens during the week and managed plenty of yellow eye mullet as bi-catch whilst chasing the gars.
The fish were reaching around 35cm in length – plenty of burley was the trick to get them around and silverfish made the best bait.
They’re a very underrated target species as they’re fun to catch, make great bait and, when bled and put on ice, they make a good feed.
As with most weeks the squid and whiting fishing remains pretty good and steady with anglers managing to secure their bags of fish most outings.
St Leonards, Queenscliff and between have been the best locations for both species.
The squid have been responding well to solid black and natural coloured jigs, and the whiting have been biting best whilst fishing the stronger tide changes.
The surf beaches have been a great option to get your fishing fix during the crazy windy conditions with Australian salmon running riot along the coast.
Bombing out long casts into the schools of fish and ripping metal lures through the school should produce plenty of bites with 30-60 grams being the ideal weight.
Lake Purrumbete is still giving up some very good quality trout in the shallows to anglers casting hard-body lures during the week with fish to 4kg being caught.
Mudeye under a bubble float is another great option to use when chasing trout in there also.
