Ray Long Fishing Report
On The Bite 20 Jan 2010
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Conditions over this past week have been trying for many with windy cooler days but there has been no shortage of captures coming in from both fresh and saltwater.
Once again the Barwon River here in Geelong has proven itself with some quality captures of redfin, while those fishing bait need either live minnow or shrimp to have some fun, lure anglers are clearly taking the better quality fish. Steve Dmytrenko has been working a range of soft plastics around the Breakwater area catching many fish to 800grams, Steve says you need to work your lures very slowly and cast hard up against the banks as this is where the fish are holding. Doug Welsh has had great results using SX 40 hard bodied lures this week catching in excess of twenty fish all between 600 and 900 grams, his area of choice upstream of Breakwater Road.
While chasing redfin myself this week from the Barwon I came across two anglers fishing Fyans Park, here they had landed six carp, the best close to 5kg, all were taken on corn and bread, clearly berley was a contributor to there success.
Corio Bay provided great fun this week with trevalla available to those land based fishing between Cunningham and Fishermans Piers, chicken has been the bait with early morning’s best.
North Shore rocks once again was ideal for those casting metal baitfish profile lures of an evening, here pike to 85cms have been taken along with a few small to medium size salmon.
David Park fished the sandbar at the Grammer School Lagoon this week casting both Gulp turtleback worms and fry, the whiting loved his choice of lure as did the trevally, salmon and flathead making for a fantastic bag of fish.
The Stingaree Spoil grounds has been a little patch of late with many finding the whiting and garfish difficult to locate but the best reports are coming from those pushing closer to Point Henry and fishing in only 2.5 metres of water, once again berley has made a huge difference to captures. Very small snapper at times have made fishing difficult here but in amongst the small fish the odd larger one can be had and this occurred to Peter Cunningham who landed a nice snapper of 2.2kg on his light garfish outfit, the fish took the silverfish he had on for bait.
While both salmon and trevalla can be caught in close to the Alcoa Pier the resident seals seem to make fishing difficult with many fish removed from lines. Generally if the seals are sunning themselves on the end of the pier the fishing will be fine but if they are not high and dry it pays to continue on somewhere else. Best method around the pier is with soft plastics such as worm patterns or three inch minnows, fish these on very light jig heads around the 2.5gram weigh or lighter.
Bird Rock has been the area for whiting while most are averaging 33cms now and again the odd big fish is landed like the one Paul Holt sent a photo in of at 43cms this is a big fish for this area of the bay. South Australian pippies have been clearly the bait to use.
Anglers fish the Wilson Spit have accounted for quite a variety of species of late with flathead and whiting dominating, but for those fishing early morning snapper to 2.5kg and small gummy shark of a similar weight have also been taken.
Noel Wynd and Dean Mott sent in an interesting question, fishing for snapper off Portarlington Noel had a run on his first outfit at around 10pm, a few seconds later his second outfit also screamed off, Noel picked up his first rod Dean grabbed the second, a few minutes later a fish was at the surface with both baits in the one fishes mouth, who really caught the fish a posing question but as both outfits were Noels guess the fish is his.
Generally most of the better snapper and gummy shark reports are coming from those fishing the eighteen metre depth off St Leonards, anglers are finding the run off tide clearly the most productive, hopefully a few of these better snapper will push in a little closer over the coming weeks.
Swan Bay area as most of you know is one of my favorite areas, here consistent captures are available with some huge flathead on offer. This week we know of a number of fish landed that measured over 70cms. Barry Halliday’s 2.5kg fish was only eclipsed by Henry Prestons 3.2kg monster, while I’m unsure of how Barry caught his fish I do know that Henrys fish was taken on the drift casting a red rocket soft plastic. For the best flathead fishing in the shallows of Swan Bay anchor and berley, don’t move as it sometimes can take time for the fish to work up your berley trail, but you will get results.
Offshore has seen a large number of small kingfish working between Barwon Heads and Collendina, unconfirmed reports of fish to 4kg have been had but most of the fish I have seen are from 65cms down. Many are under the 60cm size limit for this species but still make for great catch and release fun, remember there is a bag limit of 5 kingfish per person.
No such size problems with the kingfish being taken from Portland, the fishing here has attracted anglers from near and far. Noted Geelong Fly fisherman Robert Hughes passed in the fly rod to try his hand at live baiting down this way and was rewarded with a beauty of over 9kg, his mate Daniel Morgan lost an even larger fish on the same trip. This area has also produced numbers of kings on surface poppers with the Williamson Jet popper an absolute must have for this area.
Anyone interested in Game Fishing would be well advised to attend a free seminar on the 10th of February at the Torquay Angling Club, Fishermans Beach Torquay starting at 7pm. Here world renowned lure manufacturer and game fisherman Peter Pakula along with Andrew Jones of Williamson lures will host what is to be a very informative evening covering areas such as lure choice, trolling, rigging, teasers, fighting tactics and more. With the Bluefin Tuna season fast approaching this evening will be a must for all to attend.
Tackle World Geelong will be closing at 12 NOON on Saturday 23RD JAN and will Re OPEN on WEDNESDAY 27TH at 9AM, we will be closed in preparation for our ANNUAL GAME TACKLE SALE, get in early Wednesday for some HOT HOT DEALS.
Good luck and hope to see you all somewhere on the water, Brian, Ray, Brendan, Jeanette & Hudson.
CHECK OUT OUR SPECIALS PAGE ON OUR WEBSITE FOR A FEW TEMPTING DEALS, ALL AVAILABLE ON WEDNESDAY 27TH.