On the Bite, by Adam Van der Lugt
The next week has some pretty ordinary weather forecast but anglers shouldn’t let that discourage them from getting out and wetting a line.
Snapper in excess of 8kg were reported by a number of anglers fishing in the inner-harbour over the past week. One spot worth trying was on the outside of the Western Beach boat moorings where fishing as light as possible with fresh baits like silver whiting and squid can work well over the colder months.
Big schools of salmon remained present in Corio Bay where they can be seen at times busting up while chasing baitfish. Boat anglers fishing around Avalon and Point Wilson caught salmon to 1.5kg by casting metal lures and flick bait plastics.
Land-based anglers also picked up a few salmon along the waterfront while chasing flathead and pinkies, which were also caught in good numbers.
The wind dirtied up parts of the Bellarine Peninsula, which some anglers said was responsible for triggering a good whiting bite. Fishing the area off St Leonards known as Bourke Street saw good numbers of whiting caught, with pippie being the standout bait.
Queenscliff Harbour produced big silver trevally for anglers fishing over the high tide changes. Casting into the channel anywhere from the mouth to the old abalone shed with grubs or worm plastics produced fish to 47cm along with salmon and pinkies also caught.
Bait anglers can expect results in the harbour, too, with bluebait or chicken fished on a paternoster rig able to catch treveally.
With trout season closing in just over a week, now is the time to get out and hit the streams.
The cold weather and recent rainl had the Goulburn River flowing a bit harder and the trout switched on the bite. A mixture of wild and huge recently released ex-brood trout were caught by anglers wading the edges of the river from the Goulburn Valley Hwy bridge upstream all the way to the Eildon pondage.
Any shallow-diving hard lure around 80mm should be effective on the trout, while grub and creature bait soft plastics also caught fish.
The Eildon pondage also offered exceptional fishing, with trout to 11lb caught on lures cast at first light.
