By Adam Van Der Lugt
Good weather produced great fishing over the past week.
Snapper to 8kg were caught on Corio Bay, which potentially might have been the start of this year’s run. Anglers fishing around The Turn off Clifton Springs bagged snapper on lightly weighted squid strips and pilchards.
Snapper were again present in the bay’s inner-harbour. A number of boats confirmed their presence on sounders but found them hard to tempt.
Clifton Springs also produced amazing squid fishing in three metres of water over the weed beds. White and King George whiting-coloured size three jigs, Trelly’s Geelong’s Chris Pitman managed an easy bag of squid that were noticeably larger than average.
The break in the weather allowed boats to finally venture offshore. Peri Stavropoulos and Fez Sepic headed out to 30m of water off Barwon Heads where they managed gummy sharks to 15kg on freshly caught pike.
The hot gummy shark fishing wasn’t just reserved to offshore, as Sam Whitworth found while fishing a local surf beach. He managed eight in a single session and, despite having fresh yakka for bait, it the sharks preferred his pilchards.
As well as the sharks, salmon have provided good fishing along the Surf Coast. Moggs Creek saw fish over 1kg caught, although any surf beach along the coast should be a likely location.
Lake Bullen Merri fired during the week for salmon. Dropping pilchard cubes down with a light burley worked well, as did trolling Double clutch lures and Tassie Devils.
This weekend will see the opening of trout season, so anyone with an itching to catch a trout from a river will be able to do so after a three-month break. The Otway streams will be a fantastic option close to home and their fish should be firing after recent rains.
A little further from home but definitely worth the drive is the area of the Goulburn River just down from Eildon, where the current flow rate is ideal for casting lures around in search of a big trout.
