Whiting ride on turn of the tide
ON Friday, Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien failed in their quest for whiting off Leopold, and in other places where they had done well recently.
So, after hours of catching almost nothing, they headed to Clifton for one last try.
It was about 3pm, by which time the tide had started running and, with it, the whiting came on the bite.
They kept 27 ranging in size from 35cm to more than 40cm, and two flathead, each approaching 50cm, while using pipis and squid for bait.
Andrew’s son Tim, along with companions Joel Trezise and Callum Olsen, also did well after crossing the channel and anchoring up northeast of Point Richards on Sunday where their catch of snapper ranged from 2.5-4.5kg.
Hard to say how many they caught, but they kept only one each, releasing the rest.
The nightshift remained productive for Andrew Phillips and George Uranus, who made another successful trip off Point Wilson on Friday.
Andrew caught a snapper of 7.2kg toward the high tide about 8pm, and George caught one of 6.5kg at midnight.
Mike Windsor, of Clifton Springs Boat Hire, reports that while snapper remain the main attraction — as Alf Cardarelli could relate after catching one of 5kg on Thursday — good-size pinkies snapper are also present.
Terry Beasley and Peter Richardson, from Cobden in the Western District, can attest to that, having caught them from 35-72cm using pilchards and squid for bait
Australian salmon have also been a strong presence in Corio Bay for some time now and are easily located by the aggregation of birds overhead; something Simon Werner, daughter Kassidy, and friend Jake Callahan, took advantage of at Point Wilson at the weekend, taking fish to a kilogram and better at will. Offshore
With a break in the weather last week, Steve O’Keefe made an early start off Barwon Heads, where — in 43m of water — he picked up several snapper from 40-69cm along with a gummy shark and a couple of other species. Freshwater
Steve also fished Lake Elingamite, near Cobden, where his catch included a 1.76kg brown trout.
Lake Tooliorook, near Lismore, has been producing some fine fish lately, and among those to do well here last week were Jake Habib and Justin Cole. They kept 10 rainbow trout from 2-3kg, while releasing a good many others; all were taken on lures.
After their success, a return trip was in order, this time with Justin’s three-year-old son, Mason, who — with a bit of deft coaching — caught a brown trout of 2.5kg and a similar-size rainbow.
John Clements, of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park, reports that trophy-size brown trout are still on offer, with George Bolton, of Colac, picking up a beauty of 4.55kg on a Tassie Devil.
Tim Beusman, of Geelong, also caught one of 2.72kg — while down-rigging with Tassies — along with several smaller browns and rainbows.
Gary Drew and Jason Eastman, from Ballarat,
tackled Lake Purrumbete’s seemingly inexhaustible population of redfin, taking any number from 600g to 1.2kg using minnow and scrubworm for bait. Portland
Down Portland way, Bob McPherson reports that shoals of good-size whiting are widespread from Portland’s North Shore, all the way down to Cape Nelson, and among those to catch them last week were Zoe Stanford and her father, Phil, who — no doubt — have already dined on whiting fillets. Graham asks: Geoff, have you done any calculations on the sink rate for rubbers and various head combinations? For example, what weight of jig head would you use on a six-inch (15cm) paddle tail rubber in 25m of water running at two knots using 10kg braid?
Graham, such calculations are well beyond me.
However, you may find the publication Lures in Depth, by Bill Classon and Frank Prokop, helpful.
It was published by AFN (03 9729 8788) in 1995 and is available from Amazon, and possibly AFN.
Or, perhaps the manufacturer of your lure may be of some help: keep me updated on your progress.