Ray Long Fishing Report
On The Bite 14 Apr 2010
SURFS UP & THE SALMON ARE ON FIRE
A dramatic change in conditions has seen a steep decline in captures this past week but with a little effort there are certainly some quality fishing to be had.
While this is early in the season for salmon captures along the Otway coast this week has seen the best reports come from this area. The renowned beaches have been quiet mainly due to the dirty water caused by the sharp shore breaks stirring up the sand, but the rock platforms are working a treat with lures clearly a winner a present.
Having fished the rocks this week from both Cinema Point which is just past Eastern View and Stony Creek just before you get into Lorne where any number of salmon were nailing the braid mauler baitfish profile lures I was using. Over two trips a total of over thirty fish were landed with just as many lost while trying to lift them up the rock ledges.
Most fish were ranging between 500 grams and 1.5kg but I did loose a couple that would have been in excess of 2kg.
Similar reports of salmon were taken by both David and James Holding fishing the rocks just past Lorne at Artillery Rock, while they did land a few on bait, they also found that lures accounted for both the majority of fish and also the largest fish.
This weekend will be perfect for the surf with high tide running mid afternoon, my suggestion is if you need to fish local try either Jan Juc or Breamlea Beaches. But if you are prepared to travel certainly work between Lorne and Apollo Bay where there is any number of outstanding rock ledges to work from.
Last weekend saw strong gusty westerly winds force most home but Peter McMillan worked his soft plastics from the North Shore rocks, here he landed flathead, snapper and two nice pike the best at 2.7kg, the lure doing all the damage being a Squidgy 80mm Wriggler in the bloodworm coloration.
When the wind was down Bird Rock was the place to catch a feed of whiting here anglers consistently caught bag limit numbers, pippies and mussel were the baits with early morning best time to fish.
Alcoa pier gave lure casters a hot time on Tuesday morning with the salmon crashing the surface chasing small white bait, with the tide pushing up the fish kept feeding but once high tide came the fish disappeared not to be seen again for the day. Best lures were Squidgy flick baits in the evil minnow color.
Snapper anglers have found the going tuff on the outer harbour spoil grounds this week but fish were caught none the less, here you had to drift over large areas to catch just the odd fish on plastics but with snapper to 3kg on offer it is worth spending a few hours here at present, as a by catch there are still some quality flathead to 65cms also being taken. Wilson Spit has been the bait anglers best option with snapper to 4.5kg caught this week by those prepared to fish after dark, with the occasional gummy shark also being taken but bait choice is critical with fresh squid best on the snapper and eel the bait for the gummies.
Fishing the morning high tides this week has seen Stuart Cunningham catch his bag of whiting on each trip, Edwards Point he has found to be consistent, this same area also providing fresh bait with good numbers of calamari still in the area. Stuart has found that the smaller size jigs in dark natural colors are a winner at present.
Fishing Swan Bay after dark this week saw Fred Jolly return with a nice gummy shark that weight 4.8kg cleaned, Fred also caught three others but all under size. Big rays are a problem at present in this area and not long after a berley trail is set the rays arrive causing any number of baits to be stolen and a lot of line lost.
Queenscliff Cut is still your best area for a silver trevally, bait to use is pilchard fillet but clearly those using small curl tails grubs are catching more. Lately the Damiki shrimp scented lures have been a favorite by those fishing this area and as always the first hour of the run out tide is seeing the most activity.
Squid reports have been sensational with those fishing both land based and out of the boat catching plenty, late evening and after dark is best with a hot area at present being the Barwon Heads bridge on the run in tide.
Freshwater has seen the Barwon River best with quality redfin to be had on small bibbed type lures, this species will start to back off as the weather cools down even more. Trout are also on the bite with upstream of Buckley Falls the area to chase.
Lakes Bullen Merri and Purrumbete are both fishing well with a range of methods worth trying, none better than trolling with a three color lead core line at Bullen Merri, here trout averaging 900 grams are readily available and the fishing in both these lakes will only improve over the coming weeks.
Twelve year old Mitchell Wemyss of Ocean Grove and Daniel Whitburn ten of Ballarat sent me in a photo of a pair of Murray Cod they caught while on school holiday at Echuca, great to see the kids having a fantastic time and landing a fish to boot.
With the SURF fishing on fire thought for this week we would have a RED HOT SPECIAL on the 12FT SILSTAR HYDRO EXCEED SOLID TIP 2 Piece Surf Rods, Normally $79.95 but this week ONLY $30, be quick numbers are limited.
Hope to see you all the water somewhere this weekend, Brian, Ray, Brendan, Jeanette & Hudson.