Ray Long Fishing Report
On The Bite 17 Mar 2010
JUNIOR ANGLERS CLEAN UP
Sorry for not sending out a report last week but I was away up north checking out some of the new ranges of tackle to be released later in the year, some awesome tackle will certainly be available, will keep you all posted.
Look out for the new APEX PREDATOR game lures due in store next week.
Well we have certainly seen a dramatic change in conditions this past week with blue skies, light winds and some truly fantastic fish captures to cap off what can only be described as a brilliant week on the water.
Corio Bay was at its absolute best with most returning to the ramps with a mixed bag including whiting, snapper, garfish, flathead and yes a few kingfish were also taken. While those that caught the kingfish were hesitant to divulge to much information it is a fact that they were caught on lures, a mix of soft plastics and metal slugs, with some fish close to 6kg this species is well worth some effort to target.
Those land based around the bay reported some nice flathead on soft plastics from the waterfront along with salmon, bream and flathead from the Grammer school lagoon. Stand out lures were the turtleback worms and fry in the camo coloration.
St Helens a favorite haunt for many confined to the shore has seen mainly small snapper taken but on Monday night at around midnight Paul Southern landed a nice snapper that stretched the scales to 3.2kg, taken on a fresh pilchard this is Paul’s biggest snapper to date.
Outer harbour reports have come in thick and fast with whiting numbers excellent from the area between Bird Rock and Point Wilson, here pippies are the bait with the evening tides always best.
Fishing soft plastics on the spoil grounds saw Fred Harper nail his bag limit catch of snapper on two occasions this week, his best fish a beauty of 3.6kg taken on a Gulp four inch minnow in the peppered prawn color. This same area accounted for many bag limit snapper captures along with the odd nice pike and flathead. This area will always produce the best results on the high tide running off, worth keeping in mind when fishing this productive area.
Seems the good weather has bought the gummy sharks on the bite and numerous reports from the Clifton Springs have been noted, most fish seem to be running between the 3 and 6kg weights with the best captures being taken early morning. This week noted carp expert young Lachlan McDowall showed his versatility landing his first gummy a great fish at 5.5kg this was also taken off Clifton Springs while using eel for bait.
Whiting were generally consistent between St Leonards and Queenscliff with most anglers taking nice bags of fish to 38cms. Fresh squid and pippies were needed and this weekends evening high tides will be perfect for anyone looking to capitalize on this great eating species. Swan Bay has been a fish magnet of late with good numbers of gummy shark to be had, the only stipulation here is that all the fish are being taken after dark with pilchard, eel and fresh squid the baits required. Remember to berley an area and don’t move, it can take some time for the fish to work up to your location.
While some quality flathead have been taken from the mouth of Swan Bay the best reports are coming from those using soft plastics, large paddle tailed lures are best with the likes of Gulp Pogys clearly hard to go past.
Edwards Point to Queenscliff continues to provide anglers with good numbers of squid, early morning is the time with small dark colored jigs working a treat. Reports are that Yo Zuri 2.5s and clicks jigs in the same size have been best.
Many of you may of heard of the number of kingfish taken over the past few weeks off Blairgowrie, in the area known as the Shark Hole, this is part of the Sorrento Channel. While most fish were small between 1 and 2kg there has been a few taken close to 6kg, here trolling small Pakula Micro Uzi lures has been working best.
Striped tuna continue to make there presence felt off shore from Barwon Heads, while they are not always easy to capture they are a top fighting fish and well worth a few hours trolling through. Of late the larger shoals seem to have pushed out a little wider into seventy metres of water, best lures have been small white and pink ockys.
Anglers have been having a ball capturing small kingfish off Barwon Heads and Collendina, here a variety of methods are working. Strips of fresh squid are ideal as are slowly trolled small skirted lures. This week has seen ten year old Kal Rawson capture his first kingfish at just over 2kg, nice effort especially as Kal was also fighting sea sickness. Between Kal and his dad they boated three nice kings, well done.
Freshwater reports have been just as exciting with locally the Barwon River still producing quality redfin to those casting small bibbed minnow lures such as SX40s and Micro Mins. Carp are also being taken by anglers fishing unweighted corn or bread baits in an area they have used a liberal amount of berley to entice the fish to.
A little further afield saw Peter, Tina and son Ben Murphy fish the Moama RSL Fishing Classic where with dirty water the fishing was extremely difficult, but when the fishing is tuff that when the cream rises to the top and young Ben showed his parents how it is done with a nice Murray Cod and an equally impressive Silver Perch. I should also mention that Ben’s dad Peter did land a nice Yellowbelly on his very first cast with a spinnerbait alas nothing more.
This weekend’s hot tip will be to fish for whiting between Edwards Point and St Leonards from late afternoon until dark or for a variety of species try the area from Bird Rock east towards the Quarries, fish in 3.5 to 4 metres of water from 4pm until dark, good luck.
Look to see you all on the water somewhere, Brian, Ray, Brendan, Jeanette & Hudson.