Hopefully
everyone got through last Friday relatively unscathed and can now focus on the
best time of year for fishing in the south west. Some excellent captures are
still being caught after the big swell last Friday.
Saltwater: Like last week the big tuna are again coming thick and fast for those having a
crack at them. These fish are spread from Western Port entrance all the way to
Robe now so there’s plenty of opportunity to catch that fish of a lifetime. One
fish and a memory that will stick with a group of mates fishing onboard Salty
Dog Charters was a 2m barrel that was caught on Troy’s bucks party charter.
The beers would’ve been flowing long and hard after this one especially after landing the second best catch of his life- after his fiancé! Another great effort
was Phil Pirotta fishing solo who landed a solid barrel locally straight after
work on a Bonze D-Shackle in Electric Salmon colour which is a very underrated
colour in the South West. This fish was caught right here off Warrnambool and
is a sign of the great fishing that our region has. If you are launching please
take note of the tide as the sand bar at the end of the boat ramp is nearly
impossible to launch your boat on low tide. On high tide it should be fine but
I would strongly advise that you check the water level before launching to not
only save disappointment but also damaging your boat. Like other years spring
is the stand out time for fishing for gummy sharks. Chris Clarke and his dad
Neil had a great day on the water fishing off Warrnambool where Chris scored
his PB gummy that weighed in at 24.56kg. A big shark for sure, and one that
would make most people very happy on the kitchen table. Andrew Buck from the
workshop fished off Port Fairy in the middle of the week where he landed some
nice flathead, a blue shark estimated at 70kg and lost a big gummy. There has
been some solid whiting being caught but numbers remain low. When you can find
them they are the right size fish and can quickly make a good feed for a few
people. Best baits as usual are pippies and squid. The wrasse have been
annoying a lot of anglers who are trying to target a whiting so it might be
worth while using both on the hook. To do this all you do is put the pippy on
first and cut a small strip of squid and put that on the hook. What this does
is allows the whiting to pick at the pippy without ripping it off completely.
The squid is a lot harder bait to rip off the hook so even if they do get the
pippy they still have something to pick at.
Estuaries: This weekend sees 41 teams hit the Hopkins River in search of the prized bream
that the system is known for. The past few weeks have been tough to say the
least but with a great band of weather here, the water will begin to warm up.
The big tides have also made a considerable difference to the water clarity
especially down the front section. My prediction is for a soft plastic bite and
majority of fish caught between 1.5-3m of water going off what it has been like
lately. If you’re wanting to come down and have a look at the daily weigh ins
on Saturday and Sunday they will be at the Ski Club beginning at 2pm. With some
local guns putting it all out there come on down and cheer on our local
anglers. Over at the Glenelg River there has been some whispers of a few mulloway starting to show up in the bottom section of the river. Not surprising
when we have had big tides during the day and massive swells too. Paul Ford
landed a fish of a lifetime during the week whilst fishing off his shack across
from the kiosk. Relaxing using some bait on a great sunny day he caught a
thumping 45cm bream that weighed 4lb. This river isn’t known for big fish
like this, so to catch one is a really solid effort. Often known for the
amount of fish in the system rather than size, it’s great to see some big fish still in the river
and willing to eat during the day. There have also been some excellent perch
fishing from Taylor’s Straight to the mouth by anglers casting vibes in the
deeper section of the water. Small hops are the key when these fish are
schooled on the bottom because it annoys them into biting the lure rather than
chasing it from a height. Hurricane Vibz37 and Samaki Vibelicious are both
working very well and will tempt a bite from a feeding mulloway also.
Freshwater: The redfin at Lake Purrumbete have been prolific with Ken from Victorian Inland
Charters putting his customers onto some brilliant fishing. On some of their
recent trips they have been landing over 50 fish on a range of Fish Arrow soft
plastics and live minnow. On the trout front there has been some small tigers and chinook salmon caught close to the boat ramp in the thick weed beds.
During last weekends big fly tournament held at Purrumbete the majority of
boats were over on these smaller fish. Just shows how tough it is at the moment
and the fact that there isn’t many big fish cruising the edges. Ken reports
that they haven’t seen any of the big Chinook Salmon on the surface for ages
which is unusual, as every year they usually see some type of action on the
surface from a number of big fish. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or not
but it seems as though the tiger trout they have been stocking are so
aggressive that maybe the brown trout and chinook salmon aren’t getting a look
in. This seems to be a feeling amongst anglers who fish Lake Bullen Merri a
fair bit too. The smaller tiger trout are owning the banks and making it super
hard for the bigger trout to get a look in. There has been some great Chinook
Salmon caught around the edges of the drop off by Xavier and Marty Ellul while
trolling Daiwa Double Clutches. Xav also caught a big Tiger Trout recently that
measured 62cm. With the water warming up in Lake Purrumbete I would expect the
Redfin to only get better coming into spring proper.
A
solid few days of weather should mean we can expect more tuna and gummy shark
reports from offshore over the weekend. If you’re planning a trip in the
Hopkins just remember about the tournament taking place here this weekend to
save disappointment arriving at the ramp. Until next week tight lines and best
of luck.