Fishing this past week has been great along the South West of Victoria with a wide range of species caught recently by all types of anglers.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Thankfully we have had some half decent weather which has made it a lot more enjoyable when getting out for a fish.
Offshore: I have written multiple times now of when will the big tuna stop being caught off the coast of Portland and Port MacDonnell but the end doesn't seem to be in sight unfortunately for the abundance of bait fish but much to the delight of the hard core offshore angler.
The fish are wide spread from Lawrence Rocks right through to Port MacDonnell to the west just over the S.A border.
Many of our customers are still targeting these big fish trolling skirts and bibbed minnows but the hype, as I've touched on recently, is drifting baits such as pilchards and red rockets unweighted through the plethora of bait balls where there are feeding tuna on these.
Fishing your reel with the ratchet on will stop the line from over spooling to a degree and also will be sure to let you know when you have a bite. This can be a frustrating style of fishing as they might continuously swim next to your bait and not take up your offering but when it happens you won't forget that first run once the hook sets.
The biggest craze at the moment that looks to be getting more and more popular is spear fishing these giants, so with this comes the need to take extra care and vigilance with divers in the water.
Some anglers think that because they are a huge fish you need a gigantic hook but that couldn't be further from the truth.
One of our customers landed a 111kg fish on a Black Magic KLT 8/0 circle hook which is predominately used for big snapper offshore and gummy sharks so they are more than capable of tackling some of the biggest fish in the ocean and are affordable to everyone wanting to target them.
The biggest craze at the moment that looks to be getting more and more popular is spear fishing these giants, so with this comes the need to take extra care and vigilance with divers in the water. The safest thing to do if you see a dive flag is simply keep a safe distance and make contact with the skipper of that boat so you are all aware of where and how many people are in the water.
In other offshore reports the crew aboard Boat Charters Warrnambool put some stoked anglers on to a few deep water species which made for a great cook up. The boys landed a nice pink ling, blue grenadier and some beautiful school shark all brought up from the depths of the continental shelf off Warrnambool.
Estuaries: The Hopkins River is firing big time for all anglers targeting bream with some absolute belters hitting the net of some very excited anglers. No one was more excited than Rick Hilliam who landed the heaviest bream of 1.565kg in the Warrnambool and District Angling Club's third competition of their season. A few days later he was still skiting about how big it was. Mick Treloar landed a 1.49kg fish also and Rob O'Neil another fish over 1.4kg which just shows the health of this relatively small system after a few slow months.
The main areas that people have been fishing have been from the middle section around Rowans Lane to the bottom of the system below the bridge. There have been quality fish coming from both the shallow flats and the deeper holes in these areas. Most productive baits have been scrub worms, shrimp and cut mullet all fished with the lightest possible sinker which is definitely the go to technique.
There is also some nice fish being caught on lures and soft plastics bounced along the bottom. Myself and a couple of mates landed some fish up to 1.1kg in that comp also, but the bait fisherman definitely found the better quality of fish which is no surprise given the water clarity.
Freshwater: The freshwater scene has been very quiet of late with little to no reports coming from the district. Whispers of a 12lb fish being taken from Lake Purrumbete have surfaced but the evidence is yet to be confirmed. Mud eyes under a float have accounted for some nice browns to 2kg. Chinook salmon to 3kg have also been taken on this technique along with pilchards where the fish have been to 2kg. George Gillies landed some nice redfin on soft plastics lately so these should fire up in the coming weeks.
Lake Bullen Merri has again been alarmingly quiet since the fish kill earlier in the year but with added fish stocks being scheduled we should see some more action soon enough. Anglers are still marking up lots of fish but for some unknown reason they just don't want to eat the anglers offerings.
With some decent swell coming the offshore fishing will again be narrowed down to the bigger boats apart from Friday where the swell is under 2m so hopefully we see some good catches coming in.