Latest Fishing Report
On The Bite 30 Jul 2010
Waterfront Starts To Fire
It must be said that most anglers struggled this week to catch a few fish but for those prepared to put in the hard cold hours there were fish still to be had.
Once again surf anglers found the offshore winds lifting up a heaving inshore ground swell, this causing sandy conditions, not ideal for great salmon fishing but when the water settled some awesome fish were landed.
Jan Juc rewarded anglers with fish to 1.5kg on both bait and lure but most were frustrated with the constantly changing water quality. Fairhaven and Eastern View were slightly better with fish to over 2kg taking lures such as the Braid Marauder in the 30gram weight. This area also produced sandy condition accept right on the top of the tide when clean water was available.
Many anglers found the rock platforms between Lorne and Apollo Bay a better option as the discolored water was not as prevalent as it was off the beaches. Salmon to 2kg were caught from Artillery Rocks, Wye River and the Sheoaks all located along the Great Ocean Road, lures certainly out fished bait at all these locations.
Those fishing the Barwon estuary found small salmon well upstream of the Sheep Wash along with the odd silver trevally, here soft plastics such as Gulp minnows were hard to go past, best fishing was had just as the tide started to run off.
David Bourke had a great session spinning up salmon to 900 grams off the Point Lonsdale pier this week, high tide bought the fish on and a frantic hour session ensured a nice bag of fish.
Finlay O’Toole had a hot session fishing the Lonsdale Bight, twenty whiting to 38cms took a likening to his fresh squid that he caught from the same area on Clicks size 3 jigs.
Darren Jones also had a ball fishing this area on whiting landing seventeen fish in two hours all as the tide started to run off from high.
Queenscliff cut not renowned for being ideal at this time of the year for trevally captures, but this area continues to surprise all with this week Peter Sullivan landing twelve fish on two occasions his best close to 1.5kg, all were taken on turtleback worms in the green pumpkin color.
St Leonards has been consistent with many anglers catching there bag limit numbers of whiting along with some quality squid. While anglers are finding a number of moves may be necessary to locate fish the moves are paying off. Best results on the whiting have been coming around an hour either side of high tide while the squid have been caught at any time by those fishing very light lines and small natural colored jigs. Soft plastics anglers have found the snapper fickle at times but long drifts over the outer harbour spoil grounds have produced some outstanding results, none better than the 4.4kg beauty taken by Frank Cummings this week, this was along with six other fish all around the kilo mark. Frank found the best lure this week to be the Squidgy lobby in the lave coloration. Also fishing this area was Paul Fitzgerald, using his Hobie pro angler kayak, in the calm conditions he had a ball catching a mixed bag of flathead, snapper and salmon. Currently the better numbers of fish are being taken on the inshore edge of the spoil off Pelican Shores Caravan Park.
Corio Bay this week has seen garfish show up in numbers with fish to 45cms being taken from Rippleside Pier, the landings beside Pivot Pier and at Griffin Gully. Various baits have worked including silver fish and pippie, berley is a must with a mix of fish oil and pellets hard to go past. Maybe its due to the garfish showing that has seen the snapper numbers caught from the inner harbour increase dramatically the past fortnight, bait anglers have had the better numbers of fish at the stick marking the end of the old Yarra Street pier along with the Stingaree Spoil grounds while on soft plastics this week anglers including myself have nailed pinkies to 1.5kg on the city waterfront.
Freshwater has seen Lake Bullen Merri rewarding most anglers with rainbow trout below the kilo weight, Powerbait fished on a running sinker from the shore is all you need to get into the action. Those trolling have accounted for the larger fish these being browns with some nudging 3.5kg, tassie devils in the gold colors are hard to go past at present.
Closer to home Wurdee Boluc Reservoir has been the place to be, while not every day has been hot those patient enough to cast lures for a few hours are generally landing a fish or two. Browns to over 3kg have been landed although most are closer to the 1.5kg mark. Best lures have varied from day to day with the small shallow running bibbed minnows best in the calm conditions while metal lures such as the tiger minnow or tylo are hard to pass up if the conditions are windier.
I have struck very few anglers fishing the Barwon River here in Geelong but fish are available at present from this water, carp are firing at Queens Park, use corn or bread fished unweighted, you may even nail a tench or two. Redfin are also hitting lures such as SX 40s in the usual reddy colors, try Buckley Falls or right under the bridge at Queens Park.
Forgot to mention on a couple of occasions this week while fishing the waterfront a pair of anglers fishing chicken for bait have landed some fantastic pinkies while fishing after dark, the best time to fish has been an hour either side of high tide.
To get everyone into the soft plastics craze we have an unbeatable SHIMANO package available for this week only or until sold out (50 only) and here it is.
SHIMANO NEXAVE 2500B…………………... $129
SHIMANO CATANA 701 Soft Plastics Rod……$69 THE LOT FOR $99
POWER PRO BRAID 8LB 100mtr On Reel…….$25