There were some mixed results last week, but some great catches for those who waited for breaks in the weather.
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OFFSHORE
Tuna were again hot property this week and proved difficult to tempt for most anglers.
Leigh Oakley and crew had a great short session fishing off Portland, landing three tuna and a couple of nice gummy sharks.
Oakley said two out of the three tuna were taken on unweighted pilchards fishing for snapper in close.
This is a technique that works well if the fish are sitting under your boat or won't come up to the surface.
Joey Bourke and Tom Fox, a couple of our Richardson Marine staff members, ventured off Port Fairy to the shelf on Saturday, with Bourke landing a great school shark over 20kg.
Brad and Rob Sandlant had a great day out off Warrnambool, picking up a mixed bag. Snapper, tuna, gummy shark and swallow tail, all hit the deck of their Seacruiser 6300HT.
For the tuna fisherman or the first-timers wanting to target these speedsters, the mornings have been more productive as the fish seem to be more willing to eat the massive schools of bait fish, rather than just milling around on the surface.
The secret is finding your own patch of fish and working that until hopefully something happens.
Small metal lures have been a great, fun way of fishing for these little bullets, with a lot of anglers trying to match the hatch with the abundance of small bait fish in which the tuna are feeding on at present.
Lighter rods in the 4-8kg mark and small 3000-4000 reels and light leaders are definitely going to help your cause, allowing you to cast the lighter lures a long way into the schools without spooking them too much.
ESTUARIES
The Hopkins River has still produced some good fishing of late, as the water level continues to rise closer to the trigger point.
Adam Brown landed a healthy 1.1kg bream last Sunday morning on a Zman Slim Swimz in Bloodworm colour, around the ski run area.
He reported seeing bull mullet and mulloway all the way up past Toorum Stones the day before.
Bull mullet are hard to catch, as they have very small mouths in comparison to the rest of their bodies and are also one of the hardest fighting fish in the river.
Mulloway have been spread throughout the river, but I was told on Tuesday night they were schooling up the mullet down the bottom below the danger board sign earlier that day.
So, they are waiting to get out the mouth the minute it opens.
You can either fish the mullet live or cut the fillets off them, which will also entice the bigger bream and estuary perch.
The key with using the fillets is to not go too wide in the fillet as the fish won't be able to eat it fully and will just spit it back out again.
Don't use the black lining of the stomach either as the fish don't seem to like this part of the fillet, so take a sharp knife and slice that part off.
My favourite size and shape hook for mulloway is a 5|0 suicide or octopus hook and a size 2 ball sinker set up as a running sinker rig.
This is pretty simple but has been a deadly set up for the ghosts of our river over the years.
Further afield, Gary Kermond, Ashley Dance and TJ Symons opened their account for their Bermagui Marlin Quest with a nice 86kg black marlin, which was caught by Kermond.
It's great to see some reward for effort by local anglers who make the journey to a faraway destination and then come up trumps with some great fishing memories.
Until next week, tight lines and best of luck.