This week has seen an absolute mixture of conditions which is playing with everyone’s emotions. For those that have taken advantage of the decent conditions they have found some great fish in all waters.
Saltwater: the bottom fishing has still been great lately with plenty of snapper, sharks and flathead caught this week. The boys from Richardson Marine had their Christmas party on Saturday and headed off Warrnambool for a fish and a dive. Snapper to 50cm, some solid flathead, nannygai and some delicious crayfish were the fruits of the day. Using Black Magic Snapper Snacks in a range of colours and sizes, the boys quickly had a bag of fish ready for the table. Pilchards and squid were the standouts on the day. Rodney Bawden and some mates had a cracking day off Warrnambool landing their bag of gummies and some nice snapper and nannygai. It’s not only the bottom fish that everyone is targeting recently but the kingfish have been getting hunted by keen anglers. Even though the water temperature isn’t quite warm enough yet, the signs are there that we could see some great fishing had soon enough. There has been some unconfirmed captures apparently from the weekend which isn’t a surprise seeing we had a couple of nice days to head out. The school tuna won’t be too far away seeing as though they are catching them at Port Phillip head near Melbourne. Watch this space!
Estuaries: the Glenelg River is fishing excellent for estuary perch down the front on lures and soft plastics. Connor Byrne had a great session getting two PBs in the same session with a 47cm perch and then only a few casts later a 48.5cm perch. This kids mother needs a medal as she has been driving up and back multiple times to Nelson. It’s great to see the younger generation into fishing and getting results for their hard work. Another who has been getting some nice fish has been Ollie Sharp. Fishing soft plastics and hardbodies Ollie has been catching some ripper bream in his local waters. Closer to home the Hopkins is up and down, making it difficult to predict when or if they will bite. Lots of small perch have been caught down the bottom end of the river but finding the better ones seems to be a hard task. Michael Hunt and Jack Allwood headed to the Curdies on Saturday while fishing in the Warrnambool and District Angling Clubs annual perch comp. The boys landed some terrific bream while chasing perch and also nailed some great perch along the way. Fishing a range of Hurricane Vibz 37 and soft plastics in deeper water they found a lot of hungry feeding fish willing to eat their offerings. Mick ended up winning the competition with his biggest 5 perch weighing in at 3.2kg which was anchored by his 850g fish. Everyone in the Hopkins struggled to find consistency with the size of the perch. Heaviest fish for a lady was Kylie Rowe who managed a 320g perch. The heaviest other fish went to Lachlan Peters with a bream of 755g. All perch that were weighed in the Hopkins were from below the ski run which makes sense seeing the salt water wedge that is there at the moment. One fish that loves the saltwater wedge is the elusive mulloway. These fish have been very quiet in the river this year but there has been reports of mulloway moving into the Hopkins this week.
Freshwater: the Merri River is improving day by day since the flow subsided. This has seen some solid fish caught on hardbodies and soft plastics cast into the shallow runs. The trout can be a little fussy into summer but changing lures to determine the lure of the day is a good tactic. Tim Vincent landed a few nice trout to 3lb, with the winning lure being the Prolure ST72 minnow. Another angler that has been putting in the hard yards is Lewis Holland who has been catching some nice trout recently. None bigger than the high 60cm fish that was over 7lb. Lake Bullen Merri has still been producing some incredible Chinook Salmon and Tiger Trout. Bill Classon had a great time catching and releasing both species in a red hot session including one tiger that was caught off the boat ramp itself. The new boat ramp is opening it back up to the larger boats after the surface was unsafe to launch in previous years. This would not have been possible without the help and backing of Better Boating Victoria who got behind the project and the many volunteers that got the ball rolling from Camperdown Angling Club and Purrumbete Angling Clubs. We've also seen stockings of both Lake Elingamite and Bullen Merri with Australian bass this week which is exciting!
This weekend looks to be another windy weekend which will only frustrate us more as we move closer to Christmas. Until next week tight lines and best of luck.