Shark take the bait
Anglers reap rewards for venturing out
WITH reasonable weather, anglers fishing offshore have taken good size gummy shark with 20 to 30m of water a good place to start looking.
Kevin McLoughlin and Marcus Pearson caught and released one approaching 18kg off Torquay on Friday evening.
FRESHWATER
John Clements, of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park, reports some big fish have been hooked fishing the lake, but — as is often the case — few were landed.
Among those weighed in was a rainbow trout of 4.5kg caught by a Camperdown angler on a lure, while Andrew Robinson caught brown trout to 1.5kg, also on lures.
Also, redfin continue to be caught from the lake in good numbers, said John, with Stan Rea and Josh Fraser, from Norlane, taking another good catch over the weekend
Lake Bullen Merri continues to produce rainbow trout and chinook salmon to a kilogram, from boats and the bank; the latter including Steven Hill, from Camperdown, who has done well with soft plastics.
A 2.3kg Australian Bass taken from Lake Bullen Merri by Michael Craig was a surprise, but there are a good many in the lake, especially in the area of Potters Point, but few anglers seem to fish for them.
CORIO BAY/ BELLARINE PENINSULA
With cold weather and patchy fishing, comparatively few folk have been out. However, on Thursday, Tom Robinson and Keith Berry, who were trying for squid off Curlewis, saw surface activity, almost certainly betraying a school of salmon feeding on baitfish at the surface.
Initially trolling lures, strikes were not long in coming, with salmon to a kilogram or so soon on the boat’s floor. From then on, cast and retrieve proved as effective.
A migration of spider crabs into Port Phillip Bay has now turned up in Corio Bay. Mike Windsor, of Clifton Springs Boat Hire, reports no bait on the bottom is safe from the crabs in the outer harbour.
On Saturday morning Jason Treloar and Harley Griffiths fished the grass beds off Swan Island hoping for whiting. They had no luck, but they did catch several squid, including one over a kilogram.
They decided to head back to the Queenscliff boat harbour, hopeful of silver trevally, but caught a number of small but legal size salmon and several large mullet.
PORTLAND
Bob McPherson reports small southern bluefin tuna have been the main catch with fish being taken from 30-40m of water south west of Lawrence Rock. Although these have only been around the 10kg mark, they have attracted a good many anglers.
AHMED ASKS:
Geoff, how do you know at what tension to set the drag on your reel?
I’ve heard it should be one third the breaking strain of your line, is that right?
Ahmed, drag settings based on a proportion of the line’s breaking apply to designated IGFA line class tackle, details of which need to be submitted when claiming a record for any specific line class.
Should you be using non-designated tackle, you can easily determine your appropriate drag setting by putting your rod in a holder, with the line from your reel threaded through the guides and attached to a spring balance.
You will need an assistant to monitor the scales, while loading the rod up to the point where it becomes obvious that the drag should be yielding line. The reading from the scales at that point indicates your primary drag setting.