Midas touch to happy snapper
CORIO BAY/ BELLARINE PENINSULA
If any angler has the Midas touch, it would have to be Danny Skene.
He’s not only caught several big snapper from his boat out in Corio Bay lately, but early last week he drove down to Indented Head to fish from the beach — a good move as it turned out, for he caught a beautiful 7.4kg snapper after casting out with a strip of squid for bait.
After fighting off a dose of the flu, Murray Stewart made the effort to catch some squid off Clifton Springs at the weekend before anchoring up on the west side of the Wilson Spit, just south of the shipping channel.
While he initially missed a couple of snapper early in the flood tide, he eventually caught one of 6kg.
Late on Saturday afternoon, Kirt Behan and Tony Mollenhauer headed out off Clifton Springs in the stiff northwesterly that kept almost everybody else ashore.
Their first attempt at anchoring about halfway between Point Wilson and the shipping channel failed because the wind was so strong that their anchor just pulled free.
A second attempt also failed for the same reason, but it appeared to be third time lucky, the anchor holding long enough to get all of their lines out. But it too pulled free, creating a great tangle under the boat, with one line in particular breaking all of the rules with a snapper that eventually weighed 7.5kg on the other end.
Also out fishing in 8m of water off Point Wilson were John Formosa and his son Cody. They too caught a couple of decent-size snapper just after dark, one of which Cody sent in a photo.
Rod Ludlow, of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head, reports that any break in the weather has seen his boats out, with flathead and barracouta among the catch. However, squid are still the main attraction.
FRESHWATER
John Clements, of Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park, reports that large brown trout are still on offer, with Darren Buffield of Colac picking up one of 3.85kg on a bibbed lure.
Unfortunately, said John, a good many of these trophysize browns have been lost, often beside the boat, and for the usual reasons.
Redfin are still well and truly on the bite said John, with Josh Fraser and Stan Rae, both of Norlane, picking up good catches. Stan also caught a 1.5kg rainbow trout on a mudeye fished beneath a float.
Fishing nearby Lake Bullen Merri on Saturday, eight members of the Drysdale Sport Fishing Club caught an estimated total of 80 chinook salmon to 2.47kg, most of which were released.
The majority were caught using pilchards for bait. But most of their smaller chinook salmon and two rainbow trout were caught trolling.
John also reports covering quite a bit of ground from Lake Elingamite near Cobden — where he caught nothing — to Lake Bolac on the Glenelg Highway where his companion, Mick Giles of Bannockburn, caught their only fish, a 1.5kg rainbow trout.
Michael Levett, who reminded me of our first meeting in 1966 at the Grammar School Lagoon while fishing for snapper, sent in a picture of an XOS rainbow trout that he caught fly fishing with a small nymph pattern from New Zealand’s Twizel Canals. He didn’t suggest the weight, but needed both hands to hold it up for a photo.
Dieter asks:
Geoff, I caught this crustacean off Clifton Springs recently. It appears to be a cross between a crayfish and a crab. It was brick red in colour with the body of a crab and the tail of a crayfish. Do you know what it would be?
Dieter, what you caught was a shovelnose lobster, of which there are several varieties to be found around the Australian coastline. The one you’ve photographed is the most common in Victoria.
Known as “squagga” in the days of my youth, they were almost wiped out from Port Phillip Bay during the illadvised era of scallop dredging, which was stopped by the Kennett Government in the mid-’90s, and now they appear to making a comeback.
For more information, check https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Ibacus_peronii.