On the Bite, by Peri Stavropoulos
Since the weather appears has cleared up we have seen the Snapper fishing take a good step in the right direction from lots of parts along the Bellarine Peninsula.
Starting inside Corio Bay, anglers have given good reports of pinkie snapper getting caught by the guys fishing land-based. Cunningham Pier has been one of the hot spots for anglers catching pinkies to 60cm on baits such as blue bait and squid.
Further along in the outer harbour and around Clifton Springs there has been a wide variety of species getting caught.
Whiting continue to bite well along the Curlewis Bank right through to Indented Heads, as Michael and Owen Westwell found out Tuesday morning. Fishing the outgoing tide with fresh squid, the pair managed a great bag of fish to 40cm while also finding plenty of calamari in closer to shore on #2.5-size jigs.
While on the topic of squid, they are still going well along the Bellarine Peninsula. The average size at the moment is a bit smaller compared to previous weeks but they are still in great numbers.
The snapper fishing lately has been very interesting to say the least, with a whole mix of reports coming in from local anglers. Most of the successful boats have been, dropping anchor and fishing bait in a burley trail, with some fish to 5kg getting caught.
Baits such as pilchard and squid have been the most popular but it’s always worth having a variety out and ideally fresh baits.
Although they have been quite fickle on baits, the local snapper have been responding really well to soft plastics, as Liam Leith and I found when we snuck out after work during the week in hope to catch a few on plastics. Drifting in 6m of water with Gulp Crazy Leg Jerkshads and Turtleback worms, we boated numerous snapper to about 4.5kg on almost every cast.
With the weather starting to get warmer, we should see this style of fishing really improve over the coming months.
Over the weekend Bryce Nurnaitis took his kayak into the Queenscliff Harbour and had no trouble in landing plenty of pinkie snapper and silver trevally all on soft plastics.
Stony Creek Reservoir has come back on the radar, with redfin well on the chew. Trelly’s Fishing World’s Chris Pitman got out to the reservoir on Sunday and found himself plenty of Redfin to 35cm while casting Z-man 3” Slim Swimz in Motor Oil.
