Winter is only a few days old but it’s already smashed us for six! Icy blasts from the south and huge seas have moved in on the South West. Fishing has been really limited due to this but there were some nice fish landed before the bad weather moved in.
Offshore: the tuna are still alive and well right along the coast and have been caught on a wide range of techniques. The size range this season has been diverse; tuna from the average 10kg are numerous, with fish right through to 170kg landed; and everything in between! These larger fish are being targeted on everything from skirts, divers, pilchard cubes and live red baits. One angler who employed a live redbait to land a 95kg barrel was Luke Gercovich out of Port MacDonnell. After persuading his father Mark to leave the school tuna alone in search of a bigger fish, they were soon tight to a rampaging barrel which had his Daiwa Saltist singing. After a decent fight, both Luke the fish were exhausted but he had enough energy left in the tank to help Mark drag it in their Anglapro Outlaw tinny. Matthew Hunt Fishing Services has been getting some quality fish out of Portland for his clients. Most days have seen them back at the dock by lunch time after bagging out early. This has worked out well; the weather is generally turning rougher in the afternoons. On their last trip out they got a mixture of school fish and two solid fish about 70-80kg. Don’t just think that all the action is happening to the west, as there has been some great fishing locally from Warrnambool and Port Fairy. Salty Dog Charters had a brilliant day landing their bag of tuna, including a 100kg barrel caught on a Bonze D-Shackle. Although they aren’t as thick in numbers as the Portland and Port Macdonnell fish, it is certainly still worth your time having a look here. On the beaches there seems to be a few salmon starting to pop up and these will only get more prevalent in the coming months. Storm Trick Metals have been accounting for the majority of fish that our customers have been catching. The beauty about these is they actually can be used as a jig as well as a casting lure due to their chunky back end. They are already rigged with super sharp assist hooks and a treble so there’s no need to swap them out.
Estuary: the Hopkins River has seen a huge amount of blue clean water coming into the system thanks to high tides and big swells. A customer was watching this water coming in down at the mouth during the week and noticed what he thought was a big mullet sitting in some kelp. On closer inspection he realised it was a mulloway which had just come in with the swell. There was already reports of them coming in and causing havoc on the mullet schools further up the system, but it’s great to hear of more fish coming in. Despite the clean water the bream haven’t fished well this past week, which was evident when Allansford and District Angling Club held their competition on Sunday. None of the 10 anglers were lucky enough to land their 5 fish limit. Sam Melican got a really nice fish, weighing 1.51kg; the heaviest in the competition. Paul Lamb and Brendan Howard worked together to weigh in 4 fish for 2.3kg and win the bag section. Hopefully these cagey fish start to have a crack again before they really shut down through the colder months. Corey fished the Fitzroy on Sunday for some small salmon and nice bream that averaged 35cm. There was a lot of water in the system which meant that the old jetty was completely submerged. The fish that Corey caught were all tight on the bank, but he witnessed a bait angler getting some nice fish in the shallow section on worms cast into the channel.
Freshwater: if you’re a freshwater angler then there’s a fair chance that you’ve already braved the weather in search of a trout. This is the time to target trout as the water has started to flow and cools down. The brown trout begin to get quite active as their spawning season fast approaches. Casting both hard bodied lures and soft plastics has produced a good start to the season for some already. One angler who is fairly new to the chase is Nate Monaghan. Lately he has been putting in plenty of hours walking the banks up along Woodford casting hard bodies. So far he has caught 3 trout with his go to lure being a Rapala F7 in the Perch colour. These lures have caught endless amounts of trout over the years due to their great swimming action and ability to float over rocks and timber. Lake Purrumbete has again fished really well for redfin this week especially for Mick and clients onboard Victorian Inland Charters. Using live minnow and trolling lures along the 16m line they have been landing some solid fish nudging 40cm.
This weekend looks to be a write off for the offshore anglers, so it’s a perfect time to come in and re-stock the tackle box for when the weather comes good again. Until next week tight lines and best of luck!