It’s been an incredible start to summer with glamourous
conditions for offshore adventures. This past week has seen some slightly less
than favourable conditions but with a small weather window coming up we expect
another burst of activity. A wide variety of species have been coming in lately
and the local rivers are beginning to move in the right direction.
Saltwater: it’s been a few months since we have had reports of large tuna schools, but as some of you have found out there are a lot
of fish along our coast now. These fish are widely spread but this means that
you could come across them at any time and nearly in any depth. Typically when
the fish are in close they tend to feed on smaller baits and can be pretty
tricky to get them to take a lure of any sorts. One lure that has stood up to
the test is the Zerek Speed Donkeys which are a trolling hardbody that can be
trolled at up to 12 knots. Even though this is far too quick for our fish down
here it’s always nice to know that these lures won’t “blow out” if you’re
heading down some swell. The silver bullet colour has been a favourite
of ours in the shop for a couple years now and has out sold all other lures.
Now whether this is because of the colour or the action I don’t know but I’m
leaning towards the action; one customer has been running one for a
few years and it has little to no paint on it and it’s usually the first lure
to get eaten! Through summer casting stick baits and other surface lures is a
favourite technique for most and can prove quite fruitful when you find the
right school to have a chew. These stick baits are getting smaller and smaller
from when the rage first started over a decade ago. In the early stages the size of these lures
was anywhere from 120-200mm long but with the size of bait that they are
feeding on comes the popularity of the small stuff. These smaller size stick baits
are anywhere between 80 and 130mm long and weigh a lot more than when they
originally were released. Using these techniques in range of 20-45m of water
will get you in the action but there has been some action in close.
Anglers have been getting tuna mixed in with the big salmon lately where they can
still see the bottom. Salmon to 4kg have been getting caught at Killarney along
the backs of the reefs. These are seriously big salmon and pull like freight
trains even on heavier gear. The shark fishing has been absolutely insane
offshore with gummies, schoolies, makos and threshers all being landed in the
last couple of weeks. Thomas Neal had the catch of the week with a cracking
100kg thresher shark caught at North Shore Portland. On the bottom the gummies
and school shark have been thick to say the least. One customer landed 13 in a
single session which just shows the sheer numbers of them around. Some smaller
makos were caught during the Warrnambool Offshore and Light Games monthly game
shark competition last Sunday. Craig Kermond took out the heaviest shark
weighed with his first mako ever weighing in at 44kg on 15kg line class.
Fishing with Peter Goode they landed a couple of makos that were pretty close
in size. Just like most trips chasing mako sharks the blue sharks were out in
force with a few of those caught too during the day.
Estuaries: the Hopkins River has been steady lately with
lots of smaller fish around. The Warrnambool and District Angling Club held a Friday Night Flick last Friday (obviously!); a popular social event where anglers duck out for a couple of hours with the biggest fish scoring a cash prize. Corey McLaren took out the prize with a 873g bream. Another gummy was caught over at Nelson whilst chasing mulloway which is interesting, two within a couple week! This river has been fishing well, but not exceptional, for the resident bream and estuary perch with the occasional mulloway still kicking about.
It's looking like a windy long weekend ahead so the inshore and inland fisheries will certainly be popular. Best of luck!