Anglers on the storm
Sizeable hauls despite rough conditions
ALTHOUGH stormy weather kept most anglers ashore over the weekend, those who managed to get out earlier in the week included Justin Burns, wife Katryna and son Jai, who fished for whiting off St Leonards.
At first, there wasn’t much doing with banjo sharks and other unwanted species taking their strips of squid.
Towards evening, though, it was a different story.
In a short window of opportunity as the sun went down, they caught a dozen goodsized fish before they went off the bite.
The Burns crew also fished the Sheepwash on the Barwon estuary, hopeful of catching a mulloway as others have done of late. But they found elephant fish, not mulloway, on the bite, as did others.
Unfortunately, anglers are only allowed to keep, or possess, one elephant fish. For goodness’ sake, who concocts these stupid restrictions?
OFFSHORE
Early last week, Chris Stamalos took a run out from Barwon Heads, anchoring up in 25m of water off the old Black Rocks outfall. A good move as it turned out, for he caught a 13.5kg gummy shark right away.
Things settled down after that but then a maelstrom of white water erupted behind his boat, followed by the scream of his reel. As it turned out he’d hooked a 9kg gummy shark on one hook and a 1.5kg salmon on the other, something that more or less solved the white water mystery.
CORIO BAY/ BELLARINE PENINSULA
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that squid have been the main chance, with bag-limit catches by no means rare, but bottom fishing out deep has been rather disappointing with the number of small flathead.
Whiting are about, though, said Mike, and among those to catch them were Mark Sanders and his two sons, who returned with 20 that they caught between the boat ramp and The Dell. However, he said leatherjackets had been a nuisance on the softer baits used for whiting.
With the ominous threat of an approaching storm late Friday afternoon, Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien braved the gathering northerly and hit the suds off Clifton Springs, where they caught six squid.
From then on, they anchored up in 4.5m of water inshore from the nearby mussel farm toward evening, and — despite the contrary conditions — they caught a number of whiting, with their better fish hitting the 40cm mark.
FRESHWATER
John Clements of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that, with stormy weather over the weekend, virtually nobody was fishing. However, earlier in the week, redfin enthusiasts, including Angus Robinson from Altona, took a swag of fish from 600-800g using minnow for bait.
Lake Bullen Merri was also a challenge, except perhaps for Wayne Black of Camperdown who has taken chinook salmon to 2.5kg from the bank on several occasions lately, casting out with pilchard fillets for bait.
PORTLAND
Bob McPherson of Portland reports that the aftermath to stormy weather usually provides an opportunity to catch large snapper from the Lee Breakwater, and that was the case over the weekend, where Ross Boxhaul caught a beauty of 7.5kg on Sunday morning.
And, with an improvement in the weather, clients of Bag out Fishing Charters went in search of tuna on Sunday, catching several in 50m of water some 14km east of the Portland Harbour.
PETER ASKS:
There are tiny garfish everywhere in the Grammar School Lagoon at the moment: Do you know when they spawn, and how fast they grow?
Peter, on reading an article by Ross Winstanley, based on a 2008 stock assessment conducted by the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute at Queenscliff, I offer the following:
Garfish spawn in the warmer months from October to March when females school up in the shallows, attaching multiple batches of perhaps 750 relatively large eggs to the seagrass and algae.
Garfish grow rapidly, averaging 17cm after one year and 27cm after three years with sexual maturity being reached at 18 months. Females are larger than males and have been recorded at 50cm and possibly 10 years of age. However, twoyear-old fish dominate local catches.