Finally, there was a window in the weather that allowed the offshore brigade to get out and into some great shark fishing.
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Meanwhile, the rivers and estuaries also produced some cracking fish for all.
OFFSHORE
As I mentioned above, there has been some serious shark fishing to be had and it doesn't look like slowing anytime soon.
Peter Sedgley, Janaka and Max Kandage fished off Port Fairy for a great session on school shark. The boys landed seven schoolies and a gummy shark and lost seven more due to bite offs.
Their biggest went a whopping 28.4kg and was longer than Janaka.
Salty Dog Charters Port Fairy have also been smacking some great shark while fishing a bit wider.
If you're after a feed of shark, then call Dan Hoey and book your spot now and take advantage of the excellent fishing lately.
Out wider again at the shelf, Luke Smith, Xavier Ellul and crew, landed 15 blue eye trevella in a mid-week mission that came up trumps. After a quiet couple of months on the blue eye, it was great to see some big fish come aboard.
Xav even tried his hand at using a conventional rod and reel to land some, which is a big effort, especially when fishing over the shelf.
To be able to get to the shelf, you'll usually need some calm conditions and a sense of what the weather patterns do out there compared to in close. It might be calm in close and completely different out at the shelf, so it's vital that if you don't think it will be ok to fish, then don't take the risk. It's a long way to come back at a slow pace.
There has been little to no tuna action off our coast but I'm sure it won't be too far away and the bigger school fish will be back frustrating anglers heading into the summer.
ESTUARIES
The Glenelg River has fished extremely well for bream this past week or so. The estuary on the blue water has been the go-to spot fishing, with pod worms pumped from the estuary.
Finding the blue water line and sitting close by has been the way to entice the bigger fish. Due to the light weight of the worms, you'll need to fish a very light running sinker rig, so the fish take the bait with as little resistance as possible. If you're thinking of fishing lures, then you can't go past a Gulp camo worm or turtle back worm on a light jig head and drifted through with the current. Unfortunately, when the tide pumps in blue water, it also brings with it pufferfish, which love biting the tail off them.
It's not uncommon to go through a lot of packets in a single session but to get the bream, it's something that you need to put up with.
Fishing shallow diving crank baits and minnow style hardbodies will also get the bites and won't be bitten off like plastics. The Hopkins River is fishing has been fishing quite tough this past week, and I think it's largely due to the fish in spawn mode.
The Warrnambool and District Anglers club held its first comp of the year on Sunday in very trying conditions. Shane Murphy caught the heaviest bag, with 3.6kg for his best five, and Peter Lane caught the heaviest bream weighing 1.09kg.
In the junior section, it was fishing mad Jack Kelson who caught the biggest for a junior.
It was a tough day for the lure casters trying to cast a light weight lure into 50km/h winds and trying to keep in contact with it.
FRESHWATER
Cold weather and blustery winds mean one thing for the freshwater gang and that is trout time!
This past couple of weeks has seen some cracking fish caught both locally and afar from customers willing to put the miles in to get the smiles. Dave Russell landed a cracker 6.48kg rainbow from Eildon Pondage, casting a Tassie devil. Not to be outdone, his mate landed a whopping 9kg rainbow the same day. These fish have been stocked specifically so that anglers can catch a fish of a lifetime after they have bred in the fish farm. This is a great initiative from the Victorian Fisheries Authority instead of wasting them.
Closer to home local, trout nut Skeeta Andrews has been walking the banks in search of that fish of a lifetime. He well and truly found it but when the fish launched out of the water, it came crashing back down onto the leader and breaking it.
His estimate was over 4kg but, unfortunately, he will never know. Skeeta did manage a 3kg brown a couple of nights before, which is nothing to be sneezed at.
With another bad run of weather, it's looking like maybe Sunday and Monday could be ok for a fish, so we will be waiting intently to see the reports.
Until next week, tight lines and best of luck.