Ray Long Fishing Report
On The Bite 21 Jul 2010
TUFF WEEK BUT STILL OPTIONS
This winter has bought endless days of offshore winds, this is not ideal for surf fishing as once again this week we saw a huge ground swell pounding the shoreline causing sandy water, something the salmon just don’t like.
When the water did clear salmon were taken at all the renowned beaches but only in smaller numbers this week.
Fairhaven and Eastern View was a popular spot last weekend but most struggled to land a quality fish due to the extremely high tides and dirty water. What fish we did see caught came mainly from the low tide running up for just the first hour.
Danny Jacobs found the water a little cleaner at Stony Creek just as you enter Lorne, here he landed around twenty fish on lure, most averaged 900 grams. Jim Cunningham also found some clean water at the mouth of the St George River, using 15 gram baitfish lures he had a ball with fish to 850 grams on the high tide.
Jan Juc beach a favorite of many also suffered with the sandy conditions be here also salmon to 1.5kg were caught as the swell settled and conditions improved, keep an eye on this one.
Shaun Palmer fished the Queenscliff Cut this week and found the trevally coming through in shoals, catching two or three on consecutive casts then missing for quite a while until another shoal moved through, his best fish went 1.2kg and all were taken on turtleback worms in the pumpkin color.
Swan Bay once again rewarded patient anglers with gummy shark, although most are small fish to 6kg have been taken of late. Fresh squid and eel are the baits down this way with all fish coming after dark on the run up to high tide.
Whiting continue to reward anglers chasing them, Edwards Point has seen good numbers of fish averaging 35cms while St Leonards has been the most consistent area. Generally a number of moves are required to find the fish but once they are located a nice bag can be had on pippies and fresh squid.
Joel McCallum has been walking the shore line between the Clifton Springs boat ramp and Hermsley, here casting small dark colored squid jigs he has caught twenty two squid over his last three trips, just shows how productive this area can be.
Fishing the outer harbour spoil grounds at this time of the year is uncommon but for brothers Nathan and Barry Bourke they have found having it all to themselves has been ideal as they have been able to do long drifts and cover plenty of water, this has resulted in some fantastic snapper catches on there soft plastics of late. Best fish landed weighed 4.3kg but any number of fish around the 1kg mark they have found. Nathan mentions that they have found shoals of fish on the sounder swimming just off the bottom but most of these fish seem unwilling to bite. Clearly there stand out lure has been the Gulp four inch minnows in the peppered prawn color.
Steve Dmytrenko nailed two pinkie snapper this week fishing the Geelong waterfront on soft plastics, while the fishing has been slow effort does pay off as Steve has found. Also fishing the same area was Paul Geoffrey, casting gulp sandworms near the float plane he hit a patch of trevalla, some pushing 800 grams, a nice catch of seven fish was the end result.
While the Cunningham Pier has produced trevalla of late no consistency has been had on this species so feel there are just not the numbers in the bay at present.
Fishing Rippleside Pier of late has seen mainly those casting soft plastics catching fish, while small snapper have dominated captures here also trevalla have been taken, seems the fish are at there best an hour either side of high tide.
At this time of the year bream anglers tend to do well at our various estuary’s, Angelsea River has had its share of pressure but mainly small fish have been taken. Those on lure have nailed the larger fish, some to 38cms with hard bodied lures working best at present.
This week saw the biggest bream taken at Airys Inlet at 42cms this nice fish was taken on a Smith Jade lure in the clear red coloration, it was one of a bag of four fish caught on Monday morning.
Freshwater has seen Lake Bullen Merri rewarding anglers fishing Powerbait with many rainbow trout most under the kilo mark. Trolling once again seemed to produce the larger fish these being browns, Jonathan Holmes nailed a nice brown of 3.1kg this week trolling a tassie devil in the color number Y48, he also caught rainbows ranging from 2kg down to around 400 grams. A number of angling clubs ran outings to this water this past week and found the small rainbows great fun to catch.
Closer to home on the freshwater scene has seen Lake Wurdi Bullock fishing nicely, here a mix of both rainbow and brown trout can be caught. While lures such as tiger minnows and vibrax spinners are working best bait anglers should use scrub worms and they will do well.
This week I struck two anglers fishing just near the Queens Park Bridge for carp, using corn and bread for bait they landed six fish in just over one hour of fishing, the best around 4kg. The two put there success down to plenty of berley they distributed the day before.
This weekend if the surf settles fish the afternoon low tides at Fairhaven or Breamlea for salmon, or try Lake Wurdi Bullock with lures for a trout or two.
This week’s 1ST SPECIALS are for the Fly Angler, we have 8 LOOMIS Rods we want to clear from our inventory, the prices we are prepared to sell them at are BELOW COST PRICES. Here is what we have.
1 X EACH GL2 9FT # 5, #6 & #7……….…any rod $220
1 X EACH GL3 9FT #5, #6, #7 & #8/9 ……any rod $300
1 X EACH GL4 9FT #5…………………….this rod $399
THE FOLLOWING LOOMIS RODS ARE ALSO BEING SOLD BELOW COST.
We have one of each of these models as listed.
CR 643 GL2 5’ 4” Barra Baitcast WAS $280 NOW $150
CBR 756 Crankbait Barra Baitcast WAS $469 NOW $295
C724 GL3 Barra Baitcast 12-20LB WAS $399 NOW $225
P842 GL3 2 piece 7’ 2 piece 6-12LB Baitcast WAS $$479 NOW $ 295
MUSKIE 17-40LB 7’ Overhead (this is a brute stick) WAS $ 359 NOW $200
Escape ETR 99-3 8’ 3” 10-17LB 3 piece Baitcast Rod
Perfect for the surf lure caster (we use this one ourselves) WAS $589 NOW $ 300
LOOMIS SPIN REEL MODELS
We have one of each of these models as listed
L844 GL2 7’ 10-20LB top snapper rod WAS $359 NOW $200
P842-2 GL2 8-12LB 2 piece all rounder WAS $ 399 NOW $200
This is the ULTIMATE SPECIAL
1 X ONLY LOOMIS HSR9000 GLX 3 piece 6-12LB spin Rod
WAS $815 NOW ONLY $399
all above available as at 4.30pm 21/7/2010.
You know the deal, first in, no lay-by but be quick these wont last long.
Hope to see you all somewhere on the water, Brian, Brendan, Jeanette, Hudson & Ray.