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On The Bite 1 Feb 2012

WHITING & SNAPPER YOUR BEST OPTION

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This week both whiting and snapper dominated captures with fantastic reports from both the inner and outer harbour.

Fishing the Stingaree Bay spoil grounds Paul Jeffries landed a nice bag of snapper, his best a beauty of 63cms, all fish were caught on Gulp minnows in the Nuclear Chicken colour. Paul found the fish only to willing to bite on the run up to high tide.

Also fishing the inner harbour spoil was Henry Mason he to landed fish of better than 60cms but all of Henrys fish were caught on pilchard just on and after dark.

North shore rocks has seen only small numbers of anglers but for those patient enough to fish this location quality snapper have been available, fishing after dark has resulted in snapper to 5.3kg, here again pilchard has been the bait.

Soft plastics anglers have found various locations worth trying, the Grammer school lagoon has seen both snapper and flathead, while the Geelong waterfront between Cunningham and Fishermans piers has seen good numbers of flathead, turtleback worms have been the most consistent pattern lure.

Outer harbour results have been equally as impressive with the Hermsley spoil grounds a magnet for plastics anglers, here snapper to over 4kg have been taken with excellent numbers around the 1.5kg mark. Reports are showing that gulp swimming mullet and minnows are difficult to go past.

Fishing the southern end of the Wilson spit, Nathan Hogg landed three big snapper, all weighed over 5kg and readily nailed his fresh squid baits, Nathan also landed a gummy shark of just over a metre in length.

Rick Stockdale also found the snapper willing tom co operate, an early morning start last weekend resulted in three snapper all better than 65cms, Rick also landed a number of smaller fish, all were caught on pilchard.

Fishing in 18 metres of water off St Leonards, Terry Fallon found small snapper a problem  stripping baits from hooks in seconds, running low on bait he decided to troll his way back to the ramp, a good choice it turned out as he landed three snapper all around the 2kg mark on Dr Evil lures.

Darren Middleton also found the snapper while trolling, fishing around seven metres of water off Portarlington his bag included a fish of 6.7kg, this fish was taken on a Rapala tail dancer.

Darren followed up his snapper session with a shot at the whiting, only a few hundred metres from the Clifton Springs boat ramp he caught his bag limit in less than two hours late in the afternoon last weekend.

Bird Rock saw plenty of boats but it was those fishing within  1oo metres of the rocks that saw the best fishing, while most of the whiting were just over 30cms it was the garfish that made the result special with many up to 45cms.

Fishing Edwards Point Henry Shaw found the whiting only to willing to bite, catching his bag limit he switched to soft plastics this resulted in four nice flathead the biggest just on 2kg.

While there are still salmon inside Swan Bay most are under 800grams, work closer to the Rip and salmon to 3kg have been caught this week. While trolling lures works, those prepared to cast into the surface action will always see the better results.

Fishing Black Rock this week Noel Stirling found a nice patch of snapper averaging a kilogram, Noel also landed two whiting both weighed over 800grams each, fresh squid was the bait used.

Salmon were inconsistent this week from the surf, many casts of your lure were required per fish but there were fish to be caught, most were under a kilogram with the bigger fish some nudging 2.5kg being taken just prior to dark.

Unfortunately we are suffering with the algae blooms here in the Barwon River, but all is not lost, upstream of Buckley Falls you can find plenty of productive clean water and the redfin are certainly there. When it is bright fish vibe style lures in the deeper sections of the river, late in the afternoon or in overcast conditions try suspending minnow patterns such as scorpions or atomic shads and fish the under cut banks.

Deep Lake once again produced both brown and rainbow trout, lures are working well with bait anglers finding either minnow or mudeye your best option. Fish early morning or even better late in the evenings and you should catch a fish here.

Over the past fortnight Wurdee Buloc Reservoir has been one of the best freshwater locations, why because variety is the name of the game here, redfin some to better than a kilogram along with a few magnificent brown trout of over 4kg have been landed, not to mention the roach that are also another option at this water. All methods work with bait anglers requiring minnow or mudeye, fly anglers will find nymphs consistent and for lure anglers the renowned tiger minnow, vibes or dorados all hard to go past.

This weekend the tides are perfect for those looking to land a snapper or two on soft plastics, fish either the outer harbour spoil grounds or possibly better the Stingaree Bay spoils, fishing will be at its best throughout the early afternoon.

Freshwater anglers should make their way to Wurdee Buloc late in the afternoon, fish right up until dark and remember those using lures need to let the lure drop close to the bottom before retrieving as the bigger fish seem to be holding close to the bottom.

Starting today we have a new photo of the month competition starting, here are the rules, send us a current photo of your catch (must be taken in the month of Feb 2012), your photo must be available for use in the Geelong Independent newspaper & on the Fishing World Web site. That’s the end of the rules. If your photo is judged as the best for the month you will WIN thanks to Penn not 1 but 2 of the FAMOUS PRO ELITE 702ESX solid tip rods (valued at $79.00 each). So start sending those photos in, you can send as many as you like.

Good luck and hope to see you all somewhere on the water, Brian, Ray, Brendan, Jeanette and Hudson.