The hot local news at the moment would have to be the barrel tuna bite out the front of Barwon Heads – there seems to be fish everywhere.
They are hanging a fair way out, about 40km straight south of the bluff in 75m of water seems to be where the majority of them are holding. Anglers trolling skirted lures have been having great success with 8 and 10 inch skirts working best.
A wide variety of colours are all working well with Marlin Magic skirts proving to be the standout. The fish seem to be feeding hard on pilchards so would pay to definitely be running an 8 inch in a blue pattern.
Queenscliff remains to be the go to calamari and whiting location around the peninsula with plenty of reports coming from right across the area.
The Queenscliff bight is still producing some fantastic reports of calamari and by the sounds of it things are really starting to heat up, especially if you’re chasing some of the bigger specimens that this zone is famous for.
The whiting are still chewing well in the fast water on the grass beds with reports of anglers finding fish to over 40cm and plenty of them, fishing the tides is an important factor when chasing the fish in this area.
Inside the bay is slowly starting to heat up as we approach snapper season and a few keen anglers are already getting stuck into the action with land based fishos pulling in the goods. The rocks off North Shore are starting to produce some nice snapper to around 5kg. Bait fishing with pilchards, squid and silver whiting have all been doing the damage. This time of year the inner harbour around North Shore, Shell and St Helens would all be fantastic locations either by boat or from the shore.
The Surf Coast beaches have been fishing quite well as of late with plenty of reports from anglers fishing in the evening and into the dark crossing paths with fantastic numbers of gummy sharks to over 10kg. Fishing with fresh blood baits like salmon (if you’re keen, get there early and catch some) has been accounting for a large percentage of the fish down the coast at the moment.
Solid snapper have also been caught over the past week and a bit with fish to 4kg being caught.
