Snook good sport by any name
Catch brings back memories
CORIO BAY/BELLARINE PENINSULA
CASTING various lures from the North Shore rocks near Moorpanyal Park on Saturday’s daybreak low tide proved fruitful for Jason Treloar.
Hopeful of catching a snook, a species we once referred to as pike in the early days of sport-fishing in Geelong, Jason hooked a beauty of 80cm after a couple of half-hearted strikes.
Encouraged, he persisted for another hour or so, but his only additional catch was a couple of small but legal Australian salmon.
Catching snook, or pike as we knew them, played a large part in my fishing education as a youngster when introduced to the approach by a Mr Page on the now demolished Parkside pool below the eastern gardens from Hearne Parade.
On Friday morning, Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien went prospecting for whiting, initially without much success.
However, after making several moves, they found a good patch in 7 metres of water between Hermsley Rd, Curlewis, and the Sands Caravan Park, Leopold, where the whiting came on the bite in the early afternoon as the high tide starting running off.
Finishing with their bag limits, mainly of fish from 3438cm, along with several bigger fish that included one of 42cm, they planned another trip for the following day. But, as sometimes happens, Saturday’s catch resulted in a meagre six fish; three whiting and three flathead.
OFFSHORE
RECENT good weather has seen many anglers fishing offshore and usually well rewarded for their efforts.
Among them was Naji Assafiri, who launched at Queenscliff on Friday afternoon.
Fishing on the drift in 2550m, Naji’s catch included several pinkies and a snapper of 4.5kg that took a pilchard and, just on sunset, a gummy shark of 7kg that took a trevally fillet.
Also taking advantage of the good weather, Chris Stamalos and his companion Brendan fished in 30m of water off Barwon Heads where their catch included a snapper of 3kg. And, because Chris always has a berley trail going, they attracted a number of seven-gilled sharks of which they caught five, two of which they kept.
FRESHWATER
TREVOR Holmes, of Victorian Inland Charters, reports that redfin are a good chance on Lake Toolondo at the moment, and over the weekend, he and Aaron Habgood caught several to 1.13kg on trolled lures.
John Clements, of the Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park, reports that brown trout are still on offer, and the best caught over the weekend was a 3.5kg specimen taken by Brian Nygaard, of Bacchus Marsh. Brian also caught several smaller fish, all taken on mudeye.
The Knox Fishing Club also fished Purrumbete over the weekend where chinook salmon about 1kg were the main catch. However, their biggest fish weighed 2kg.
Speaking of chinook salmon, Terry Shepherd — who spends a good deal of time on the Camperdown lakes — reported that one of his customers at Regal Marine had recently taken a number of chinook to 1.5kg from Lake Bullen Merri.
PAUL ASKS:
GEOFF, Looking up low water for Port Phillip Heads on Saturday I went down to Point Lonsdale Pier to fish the incoming tide at 3pm, but I found the tide still running out as strongly as ever, and it kept doing so for some time: How come?
Paul, given the tidal range inside Port Phillip Bay is less than half that of Bass Strait, neither low nor high slack water at Port Phillip Heads can happen at the bottom or top of the Bass Strait tide cycle. Slack water at Port Phillip Heads happens about mid-tide when the levels outside Port Phillip Heads and inside Port Phillip Bay are in equilibrium.
This is because the narrow passage of Port Phillip Heads does not allow the water to empty, or fill, at anything like the rate that would be required to have parity with Bass Strait.
Just as well, otherwise all of the low-lying land inside Port Phillip Bay would be flooded at high tide; especially so in periods of sustained westerly winds or storm surge.