Ray Long Fishing Report
On The Bite 16 Dec 2009
FISH LOCAL AS THINGS ARE GREAT
.It has been quite noticeable this past week the lack of anglers wetting a line, having fished a number of locations only the Grammer School Lagoon saw someone fishing near me and that was on Sunday when the weather conditions made the lagoon one of the few sheltered anchorages.
Flathead captures have dominated this week with good numbers being taken on the drift within the inner harbour, while lures have been the most successful for those using bait fish can still be caught. Most flathead are averaging 40cms with the odd fish nudging 50cms. Standout areas have been the Grammer school lagoon on the high tides and North Shore Rocks on the low tides.
Whiting were also taken on the Stingaree Spoil Grounds, but here you need to fish either the last two hours before dark or the two hours of the run out tide. Most fish are averaging 33cms with pippies clearly your best choice in baits.
Pike continue to be taken from the rock platforms around the bay, this week Leigh Westerland had success landing a nice 70cm fish on a laser lure, David Hope also took pike land based from Bird Rock, soft plastics giving him the edge over other anglers who were only using bait.
Snapper of various sizes have been on offer from the two spoil grounds off Leopold, the high tide running off is clearly best as are soft plastics such as Gulp Minnows and Red Rockets. This weekends late afternoon tides will be perfect for this area, fish from around 4pm right up until dark and you should catch a few here.
Bait anglers should fish the outer edge of these spoils in around 5.5 metres of water, berley up and fish well into the night, if you can fish through the rays at present you should be able to land a quality snapper or two.
Salmon continue to hold along the Alcoa Pier, if the resident seals are sunning themselves on the end dolphin the fish are quite easy to catch on all lures but if they are in the water continue on as the salmon will just not bite.
Between the Alcoa pier and the sandbar numbers of garfish are starting to make there presence felt, this week I have seen a number of excellent bags of fish, all were caught on silver fish under a quill float. The addition of berley will always enhance your captures of this species.
Swan Bay has seen anglers getting there fair share of fish of late with flathead, garfish, whiting and gummy shark all being caught in good numbers. Tide movement is critical with problems with toads and leatherjacket when there is no water flow.
Squid are still holding off Duck Island and Edwards Point with very early morning fishing the best, as always small dark colored jigs are the best performers.
Salmon numbers are on the increase with Portsea the side to fish, slow trolling baitfish profile lures is working but anglers drifting and jigging with ockto jigs are having the best fun.
Queenscliff Cut is still the place for anyone looking to catch some of the quality silver trevally that this area is known for. This week Brendan Sheedy had the area to himself and landed any number of silvers along with a nice snapper of 35cms. Turtleback worms are the lure of choice by most here but mojo curl tails are also working well in the motor oil coloration.
Freshwater has been great with carp in numbers to those fishing Queens Park to Fyans Park, Breakwater has also been worth your time, best fish we saw this week would have nudged 7kg and taken on bread.
Lures have also been nailing plenty of redfin with SX 40s and Micro Minns clearly best, but bait anglers can also do well, my dad Ray has been using live minnow at Queens Park and landed any number of fish to 900 grams. Using a very small running sinker rig the fish are easy to catch it’s just the bait that has been difficult to obtain.
Many of you have been voicing your concerns over the Governments listing of mako shark under the migratory species act, as of 29th January 2010 this species will no longer be allowed to be fished for in our waters. Anyone wishing to find more information on this new legislation can go to cms@environment.gov.au.
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