Corio Bay’s inner-harbor around Geelong continued to produce some great fishing for land-based anglers over the past week.
The strip of waterfront from Cunningham Pier to Fisherman’s Pier continued holding good numbers of pinkie snapper, salmon, trevally and flathead. Bait-fishing with either squid or pilchards was the method of choice, although casting soft plastics is also a great way to target these fish and allows anglers to cover lots of ground while searching for fish.
The same area also produced reports of crazy amounts of mullet being caught. Just using a tiny piece of pipi under a pencil float should find the action when it comes to mullet.
The squid around the Bellarine Peninsula also continued biting quite well, all the way from the Queenscliff Bight right through to Clifton Springs. Fishing in 2.5m to 4m of water over the weed patches was handy in finding the squid.
Casting artificial jigs is the most-common way of targeting squid around the peninsula but anglers fishing the Queenscliff Bight should find that baited spikes are the best way to target the big specimens.
Brad Apps was among anglers getting into the local squid action over the weekend, wasting no time in scoring himself a ripper feed.
Offshore, Barwon Heads continued returning plenty of reports of gummy sharks to 15kg. Fishing in 30m of water was the preferred depth, with either running sinker, paternoster or Gummy Snatcher rigs producing fish when used in conjunction with fresh bait.
Speaking of fresh bait, some reports began rolling in this week of Australian salmon being caught around southern Port Phillip Bay. Trolling small white skirts is an effective and efficient way to target these fish.
On the other side of the bay, Patterson Lakes continued fishing very well for black bream and estuary perch. Trellys Geelong’s Peri Stavropoulos joined good mate Owen Westwell and Trellys Laverton’s Dylan Pace in crossing paths with numerous Bream to around 40cm.
The boys reported that the bream were obliging in taking a variety of lures such as Cranka Crabs, soft plastics and stick minnows.
Anyone after a barrel tuna will find Port MacDonnell hard to go past at the moment. Jordan Watts can’t seem to get away from them down there, landing another barrel weighing around 140kg after trolling a skirted lure.
