Ray Long Fishing Report
On The Bite 22 Jun 2010
WINTER SNAPPER SHOWING UP
Conditions this past week have made for mixed results from the saltwater, but some great captures were had none the less, also freshwater results have remained exceptionally good.
Winter traditionally big snapper time has not disappointed although most of the better captures have been coming to those putting in the cold hours after dark.
Jacob Knowles landed his bag limit catch of snapper from the inner harbour on two occasions this week, fishing close in to the Rippleside Jetty his pilchards did the trick nicely. Dan Fernley also had success on the winter snapper landing a quality fish of 8.2kg while fishing the Stingaree spoil grounds on Monday night, Dan also landed a fish of 3kg.
Boat anglers have been working between Cunningham Pier and the ruins of the Yarra Street pier, here a variety of sized fish have been boated, most between 900grams and 3kg. This area has also seen salmon some pushing 2kg landed on both bait and soft plastics.
Steve Dmytrenko has been casting soft plastics from all the major structure along the Geelong waterfront, here he has had success on small snapper, salmon and bream but he did manage a nice snapper of around 2kg fishing on first light this week.
Fishermans Pier saw a couple of quality snapper landed to bait anglers the best we saw at nearly 3kg, this area is well worth a few hours on the high tide running off, even though it will be cold the early hour tides this weekend are perfect.
St Helens also rewarded a couple of hardy anglers this week with nice snapper, pilchard and squid are working here with first light currently the most productive time.
Paul Barnett fished the North Shore rocks this week, here salmon were thick taking his soft plastics as soon as the lure hit the water, when he finally got the lure to the bottom a nice snapper of 1.2kg was the result, Paul was using Gulp 3 inch minnows in the moldy cheese color.
Peter Noble fished just a few hundred metres off Bird Rock this week, here the whiting were right on the boil, landing his bag limit in just two hours, all fish were between 30 and 33cms and took a variety of baits.
Seems even those fishing the outer harbour are finding a snapper or two, John Uwland landed a cracker of a fish off Clifton Springs close to the channel, pilchard was the bait and taken early in the morning. Henry Hyland also boated a nice snapper of 4.5kg along with a few small fish while anchored up close to the Wilson Spit, here fresh squid and silver whiting were the baits along with squidgy 100mm wrigglers in soft plastics.
Generally squid are still in good numbers all the way along the south shore, we are seeing more anglers walking the shore casting jigs over the shallow grass beds with fantastic results, try the area between the Clifton Springs boat ramp and Hermsley and you should do well after dark.
Swan Bay saw small gummy shark once again caught from the jetty after dark, soft plastics anglers fishing here have also caught some nice silver trevally to 900grams on worm pattern lures.
Queenscliff Cut has been the best area for trevally here turtleback worms fished on a 3.5gram jig head are working best. Two hours either side of high tide will have you into some great action. Bait anglers will need to fish close to the time of slack water, use pilchard fillet and do berley.
Salmon are in the Barwon River at present but seem to be holding well upstream, by all reports the best numbers are between Lake Connewarre and the break. For access to this area you are best to have a canoe or a very small boat.
Those fishing the surf have once again been frustrated with a large shore break causing sandy discolored water in close, this will generally cause the fishing to be poor. When the water has cleared salmon are in good numbers at all the major beaches so keep an eye on this fishery over the coming weeks.
Freshwater saw the western district lakes clearly your best option, Purrumbete saw both bait and lure bring success. Trolling with tassie devils especially in the gold wing colors produced good results on both browns and rainbows. Mudeye fished close in to the weed beds was ideal producing some of the better browns some close to 3kg.
Lake Bullen Merri was you best bet land based here Powerbait is all you will need fished on a running rig just on the drop off in close to shore, trolling is also working well with tassie devils hard to go past. Generally the better size rainbows are up close to 2kg at present.
Tuna continue to be worth chasing anywhere from Apollo Bay to Portland with Port Fairy a clear favorite. Fish to well over 100kg have once again been caught and if the conditions allow this fishery should continue for another month or so. It must be noted that most fish are between 10 and 30kg these being ideal for most anglers to both catch and for the table. Steve Reed and his mates Trent Leen and Travis Tournier have been typical of anglers fishing Port Fairy on their last outing as they moved into 180metres of water all rods loaded up with fish. A pass over the same grounds produced a similar result a short time later. Keeping just there bag limits all other fish were released to fight another day. This was great fun on there light spin tackle something that more and more anglers are starting to use on this species.
Had a great report sent to us on Freshwater Cray’s from the Murray River at Tocumwal, both numbers and quality are currently available, check out the pic of young Jack Flannery with an awesome cray. Jack and the family caught a total of 9 rippers.
You only have just over a week left before our stocktake sale must finish, there are great specials running in store and as previously mentioned we have added new deals every day. Following are just a couple available exclusively to those that read our fishing report.
ZULU BRAID 200YD Spools any weights $20 that half price.
JUST FOUND 50 SILSTAR HYDRO EXCEED 701SSL Snapper Rods, these have solid tips, under & over bound and ideal for both braid or mono lines, Normally $59 but to CLEAR them out QUICK we are prepared to sell them at ONLY $15 each, these wont last long.
Finally I have 12 only of the exclusive SHIMANO SNAPPER soft plastics rods left at the CRAZY PRICE of $99.
Good luck and hope to see you all somewhere on the water, Brian, Ray, Brendan, Jeanette & Hudson.