This week we’ve seen the return of the south easters as well
as a little tiny bit of rainfall, but all of our summer fish species are still
firing along the coast. Let’s take a look and see what’s being caught.
Last Friday and Saturday saw some glassy calm days perfect
for offshore fishing, with ramps buzzing and carparks at full capacity. The
main targets were tuna, kings, crays, gummies and snapper, with all being found
by lucky anglers. Heading east of Warrnambool is a productive choice currently,
with crews diving or drop netting finding some ripper crays to 3kg. There was
also a boat which washed up on the rocks after drifting a little too close to
shore on Saturday so it pays to be well aware of your surroundings and never
turn your back on the sea when in tight, no matter how flat it is. It’s been a
great season for crays so far with plenty being caught from all the major ports
(Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Port Campbell, Peterborough) and the reefs in between.
Dave Houlahan scored his bag of crays in just one net pull out of Port Fairy,
that’s a quick trip! 40-50m of water behind Childers Cove has been a good area
for tuna too, which are spread right along the coast now. Although the start of
the tuna season was slow, we are now seeing good numbers of fish come in to
around 20kg. As always, fish light for summer tuna; lures around the 4” mark on
30-50lb leader are best. Also in the same area off Childers/Logans Beach,
there’s plenty of gummies to be had in similar depths of 40m onwards. Wayne
Domaschenz has been sending us some photos of his family with some cracking
sharks to 154cm taken in 44m of water out from Warrnambool. There’s also lots
to be found out from Port Fairy and Portland, with Peterborough also producing
quite a few as Matt Clarke and Chris Meade found out. Baits of wrasse,
mackerel, salmon and pilchards are all working well; and the old faithful
squid, of which we have just received several boxes of fresh local arrow squid
at the Tackle Shack. The Warrnambool harbour has also been fishing well, with
young Theodore Wilson sending in some photos of King George whiting and
trevally taken in Lady Bay. This area has been fishing well both off the
breakwater and anchoring up between the boats with a berley trail out. Lots of
whiting, pinkies, squid and small flathead have been caught in this popular
area which is often overlooked by boaters. Port Fairy’s bay is also fishing
well, for similar species such as pinkies, whiting, squid and trevally. Tim
Vincent and Ben Woolcock got out last weekend in the bay casting 3-4” soft
plastics and found some nice pinkies to nearly 40cm, as well as squid, flathead
and trevally fishing in around 2-5m depth. Heading west of Port Fairy is where
most of the kingfish action has been, around Julia Reef and Lady Julia Percy
Island. Live baits have definitely been the go this season, with the majority
of fish only taking livies over lures which has been the trends over the last
couple of summers. Isolated reefs between Cape Otway and Port Fairy have also
been producing a very good class of kings to nearly 20kg, with the anglers
fishing these secret spots being tight lipped about location; and if you had a
school of 20kg kingfish to yourself, why wouldn’t you!
The rivers and estuaries have been a little quieter but
there’s still some good fish around, nonetheless. Mick from Victorian Inland
Charters has still been having a ball with the oversized Bullen Merri bass;
catching fish to nearly 2.5kg in weight recently! He’s also finding big numbers
of fish from the more recent stockings, with up to 30 smaller fish in a trip!
That’s as good of a bass fishery as you’ll get anywhere in Australia; yet it’s
just 30 minutes away and you’re lucky to see a couple of boats a week targeting
them. Fishing deep with soft plastics or live worms, or downrigging deep
minnows, has traditionally been the best way to get some of these natives
aboard; book yourself in with Mick to learn the tricks of the trade. It’s great
to see good numbers of the smaller fish, as there was a near 20 year gap in
stocking with many believing the Bullen Merri bass were going to die out of old
age soon until the VFA restocked the lake in 2018. These big bass, the original
stocked fish, are over 20 years old and have survived many algae blooms and
fish (trout/salmon) kills in their time. Bullen Merri is also producing rainbow
and tiger trout to 6lb, with downrigging or deep baits (pilchard cubes) being
best with these fish hanging deep for the summer. The local rivers are all
producing bream and estuary perch, with the Curdies fishing the best of all.
The fish in this system have moved down to the lower river and spilled into the
lake just above Peterborough, where anglers casting light soft plastics, shallow
jerkbaits and especially surface lures into the shallow weedy waters are doing
well. Reports from Rocklands are slow, which is typical for peak summer when
user activity and fishing pressure is highest. In times like this you’re best
to fish early mornings and evenings when fish activity will be higher.
The wind this weekend isn’t looking amazing so it’ll
probably be a weekend of inland angling for most. If you get out there, don’t
forget to send in your reports and good luck!