Catch of the evening
Daytime was quiet, but things got busy after dark
FISHING some distance north of the channel junction off Curlewis on Thursday night, Jason Treloar and Harley Griffiths were hoping to catch a snapper or two as they’d done before. But apart from the occasional small flathead, all was quiet.
It wasn’t until the tide began running out just after dark that their luck changed — a nice snapper of about 5kg along with a couple of pinkies around the kilogram mark, all being caught on squid.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that that pinkie snapper have been plentiful but, apart from one fish of about 3.5kg, the larger fish have been a bit scarce.
Flathead were a different story, though, with some larger fish coming from the shallower water toward Portarlington. Among those to do well on these was Corey Mountney, who returned with several good-sized flathead, the biggest measuring 56cm.
Mike reports that whiting have been scarce, but whiting specialists Andrew Johnson and Tony Mollenhouer managed to catch 17 good ones to 40cm or so after making several moves from 4.5 to just over six metres where they found the bigger fish.
Rod Ludlow of Beachlea Boat Hire at Indented Head reports that squid and flathead are still on song, with most of the better catches coming in during the mornings.
Small barracouta have also been about off the Prince George Bank, but while anglers have shown little interest in these, there’s been some attention from below with something snatching the hapless ‘couta, sometimes with a tussle ensuing.
FRESHWATER
John Clements of Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that redfin remain the main chance on Purrumbete and that George Gillies of Winchelsea took them to 700 grams on live minnow, while others had similar success using a variety of methods.
Chris Farrugia of Oaklands Junction and his eight-yearold son Charlie fished Lake Bullen Merri, where they caught both chinook salmon and rainbow trout on both bait and lures, and at Lake Purrumbete, where their catch included a 1.3kg brook trout.
Also fishing Lake Purrumbete was Ray Stewart from Melbourne, who caught brown trout of 1.96kg.
Kevin Wild of the Maryborough Angling Club reports that following fellow club members Ken Hinks and Alan Poole’s catch of 50 redfin from Lake Cairn Curran last week, he and Don Rayner headed out onto the lake with high hopes of doing likewise.
They caught 17 to just on a kilogram using both soft plastic lures and small yabbies, while Ken Hinks and Alan Poole who were fishing nearby picked up 20, the hot bite beginning at about 8am and lasting an hour.
SURF
Beach-fishing enthusiast Tony Ingram tried his luck from the 50W area of Thirteenth Beach on Friday afternoon, where he’d previously caught good-sized Australian salmon.
Moving some distance down the beach to keep clear of nearby surfers who were taking advantage of the midafternoon high tide and reasonable waves, Tony soon caught two good-sized Australian salmon. He also caught a tailor of about 2kg, a species he’d already learned to be wary of after having a close call with a specimen’s sharp teeth after dark one evening.
AHMED ASKS:
Geoff, can you enlighten me as to the use of a bubble float? I can’t grasp the significance of having a float shaped like a bubble. Is it supposed to be disguised as a bubble so as not to arouse the fish’s suspicion?
Ahmed, bubble floats and their variations continue to be used, and misused, in various ways. However, the clear plastic egg-shaped model (preferably about the size of a bantam’s egg) featuring a displaceable, tapered tube within to allow the infusion of water to provide sufficient weight for casting, is the most useful. The bubble float is rigged in tandem with a smaller styrofoam or waggler float — which is fixed onto the line a metre or so above the hook with a small split-shot on either side — to act as both a bottom stopper for the bubble float, and to indicate any bite, while the hollow tube within the bubble allows the line to pass unimpeded.