Ray Long Fishing Report
On The Bite 13 Jan 2010
THE HEAT TURNS ON
Well summer has really hit this week with hot conditions across the region, but this has only enhanced the captures of many of our favorite species here in the bays and freshwater locations.
Freshwater continues to be productive with the Barwon River here in Geelong giving anglers any number of opportunities to capture quality redfin. While lures are dominating captures for those on bait minnow and shrimp are hard to go past. Buckley Falls all the way to Breakwater has been great although the hot conditions limiting the best fishing to the last two hours before dark.
Seven year old Anthony Leban and his grandfather Anton Gasparini sent in a photo of two magnificent redfin caught from the Barwon at Queens Park the best at 1.2kg, the following outing the pair nailed a total of fifteen more fish all from the same area.
Lake Wurdee Boluc has also been rewarding anglers with both redfin and trout available, once again lure has been the method with the late afternoon sessions bringing the best results. Here lures such as tiger minnows and vibrax spinners have been ideal.
While Lake Purrumbete has been a little quiet over the past week or so the same can’t be said about Lake Elingamite where redfin to 2kg and trout of a similar size have been landed. Live minnow will have the fish biting or small bibbed minnow pattern lures such as rapalas and minn minns.
Corio Bay has seen trevalla taken from both Fishermans and Cunningham Piers this week, while captures have been inconsistent early morning seem to be the best time, once the sun hits the water the fish seem to be shutting down, chicken as always has been the best bait.
North Shore rocks has been a favorite destination for Peter Carmichael this week and he had a great time landing snapper, pike, flathead, whiting and salmon, generally the high tide running back is when the action seems to be occurring. Lures have accounted for all the pike and salmon with the braid mauler the lure doing all the damage.
Drifting in amongst the boat moorings off Western Beach has seen Brad Cummings landing a variety of species on his soft plastics, while the snapper have been small most around 30cms he did land a beauty of 3.1kg as well as a flathead that measured 76cms, best lure has been turtleback worms in the pumpkin green coloration.
Stingaree Spoil grounds has been also producing small snapper with some nice whiting available especially to those prepared to fish into the night. Some of the best reports from this area have come from those fishing between 8 and 10pm with the high tide running off best.
In the outer harbour your best bet for the better quality flathead has been to drift in 3 to 5 metres of water off Hermsley, here soft plastics are accounting for most fish, this same area is also ideal for whiting with South Australian pippies clearly the bait to use.
Bird Rock also has been fishing well on the whiting but once again the evenings have produced the best captures, berley this area and you have a good chance of catching garfish as well.
Todd Morley has been spending quite a few early mornings fishing the edge of the Wilson Spit and for good reason, here he has found numbers of snapper with most of the bigger fish ranging between 3kg and 5kg. Todd has found that fresh squid has been the bait along with silver whiting, any soft baits are being cleaned off the hook in no time to the pickers.
Those fishing the deeper water off Portarlington to St Leonards are still catching mixed bags with plenty of flathead on offer, big snapper are being taken but mainly after dark. Gummy Shark are also present with fish being captured up to 10kg this past week.
Most are finding squid a little difficult to find this past week but those using small dark colored jigs in and around the mouth of Swan Bay before sun rise are still doing well. The key here is to use those size 2 or 3 jigs made by brands such as Clicks, Yo Zuri and Eco Gear.
Swan Bay has produced some of the big flathead this area is known for this week, unfortunately if the conditions become to bright most are struggling, so my suggestion hit the water early and when the sun is high look to the salmon that are working in and around the Rip. Either trolling small white ockys or casting three inch minnow pattern soft plastics into the schools will have you hooked up having fun. For the best salmon fishing fish the ebb tide.
Small Kingfish have shown up in good numbers offshore, while Barwon Heads has seen the most activity those fishing in close to Collendina have also had there share of excitement. While most of the fish are under 2kg they are fantastic fun on light spin gear, use small rapala type lures or slow trolled squid strips.
Holiday anglers are also having fun in the Barwon estuary where small salmon and whiting are both available. For you best results here fresh bait is a must with sandworm and bass yabby hard to go past.
Over the past week some of the best reports have come from Portland where some big kingfish are being landed. Daniel and Shane Skene made the trip here landing one fish of 11kg and another of over 13kg, both fish were taken on live baits. Scott Gray has the place wired on poppers landing fish to 15kg on Williamson 5 inch poppers. Most fish are being caught in under ten metres of water which allows boats of all sizes to get into the action, it is worth a trip to Portland now.
On Tuesday 19th of January a meeting that all anglers should try and attend will held at the Torquay Angling Club, Fishermans Beach Torquay. This meeting is in response to the Government’s new regulation banning the fishing for mako shark here in Victoria, this ban will take effect from the 29/1/2010 and not only will it impact on this species but have the potential to impact on the fishing of a wide range of commonly targeted table fish we all enjoy catching at present. To voice your concerns on this subject I hope to see you all at this meeting which will start at 6.30pm.