Just like that local footy is over and the focus now shifts
to the fishing season for most that have put their boats away over winter.
Spring is widely known as the best combination of fishing opportunities and weather to hit the water
and it’s certainly been proven this week.
Offshore: the school and gummy sharks have been caught
fairly regularly by anglers fishing on the bottom. Neil Clarke got revenge on
his son Chris with a solid 16kg gummy caught off Warrnambool earlier in the
week, after Chris landed a monster the week prior. Another angler who landed a solid shark was Paul Dalton who caught a 24kg
school shark also off Warrnambool. The general consensus is that down near Lake
Gillear and further towards Childers has been producing some quality fishing.
Max Fry, Janaka Kandage and Peter Sedgley had a quick bottom fish on the
weekend after spending a fair chunk of the day looking for a tuna during the
Warrnambool Offshore and Light Game Fishing Club's September club comp. The boys
landed some solid nannygai and snapper in quick succession. During this
competition Glenn Crittenden landed a cracker 93kg bluefin tuna which was
weighed cleaned. This fish was caught on a Bonze Exocet in Paris which the
skipper TJ Symons purchased off us here at the Tackle Shack. Believe it or not
but this fish was caught in only 35m of water. The only other barrel was
caught was by Phil Pirotta and his wife Amanda which was tagged and released
after a gruelling battle on spin gear. This fish was caught on the old tuna
slayer the Rapala X-Rap 30 which have sort of been forgotten about in the
recent years due to the craze of skirts and other divers. These big tuna are
spread over a huge distance which is virtually half of the state with fish
being caught at Robe all the way through to Western Port entrance in Melbourne.
There has been some solid fish holding up in 35-45m of water both off
Warrnambool and Port Fairy now for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately a few guys
who have been under gunned for these rampaging giants found out the hard way.
Trolling for school fish and then hooking a fish that is potentially over 100kg
usually doesn’t end well. A few anglers have been spooled or just beaten and
bruised by the fight before the fish won its battle. Closer to shore there has
been some nice whiting caught but the numbers are right down, which is normal for this time of year. Melbourne cup weekend is
highly regarded as the best time of year to get a big whiting by those who
chase them year round. Our fresh South Australian Pippies have again been the
stand out bait for these great tasting fish. The Black Magic whiting snatchers
make it light work to set up and target them especially if you haven’t got a
lot of time. With their twin hook paternoster set up with flasher attractors on
each hook. Simply put a sinker on the bottom and attach it to your main line
with the swivel attached and add bait. It’s really that simple!
Estuaries: The Hopkins River has seen some weird captures
the past week but more so than Tony Read’s son who caught a
Johnston’s Weedfish. This strange looking critter was caught down the mouth and
would’ve most likely come in on the big tides and big swell that we had. The
other interesting by-catch caught recently is the amount of sea
run trout. During the Vic Bream Classic round held a couple of weekends ago a
number of trout were caught in the lower sections. Shannon O’Brien landed a
nice trout yesterday down around the danger board and said there were quite a
few of them herding up the white bait. When these fish are chasing white bait
there are few better lures than the Ecogear MX48 which is what Shannon was
using. On the bream front they still remain hard work especially down the
bottom section due to the clear water. Over at the Curdies River there has been
some great excellent fishing taking place for both the lure and bait angler.
Kurtis Powers and his grand father Barry Johnson have been getting some nice
fish on the new Rapala Crush City Creeper. These grub tail plastic with its
lifelike legs like a shrimp or a prawn make them irresistible fished on a
lightly weighted jig head cast into the snags. Barry Thomas also got some great
fish while using a Daiwa Double Clutch cast into the banks while using his
Garmin Livescope system. Finding schools of bream and perch on this livescope
meant that Barry could focus his attention on the groups of fish rather than
individual fish. This technology has divided the fishing community but it
certainly works and cuts down your search time considerably.
Freshwater: John “Tack” Hewett has been landing some nice
redfin from Lake Purrumbete on his live minnow. What he has been doing is
rolling slowly using a soft plastic until he finds a few then sets anchor and
uses his minnow on a paternoster rig. This has been working very well for him
lately where he has been catching in excess of 20 fish in a session. For a
freshwater fish the redfin certainly taste great and it doesn’t matter how many
or how big they are when you keep them as there is no minimum size or bag
limit. Plenty of chinook salmon are being caught also at Purrumbete by anglers
using pilchards cubed up and fished unweighted through the berley trail. Not a
lot of big fish lately but when you can find a school and get them fired up
they provide great fun especially for the kids. Over at Bullen Merri the boat
ramp is near impossible to use due to the amount of slime that is sitting on
the concrete at present. Most users are having to put their boats in on the
sand to avoid their car and boat from slipping in the water. When anglers are
getting their boats in there is some great fishing to be had with some solid
rainbow and brown trout being caught off the edges. Trolling lures along the
edges can be a great way of covering ground and allows you to have a shallow
diver and a deeper diver out thanks to the deep drop offs which are only a
short distance off the bank. This is what makes it so accessible from land if
you haven’t got a boat. The trout and salmon in this waterway will come up to
the shallows in search of some food so fishing from the bank can sometimes be
more beneficial than you think.
With the AFL Grand Final this weekend I would of thought
there would be less people hitting the water and more hitting the beers but if
you do head out and would like to show us your capture then send it in via
email or our social medias. Our email is fishing@richardsonmarine.com.au.
Until next week tight lines and best of luck.