Family’s trout triumph
Lake Purrumbete a happy hunting ground
work cut out on Lake Purrumbete seeking redfin, but among his clients was Corey Mills, who caught two browns of 2.9kg and 3.2kg, but redfin were the main catch.
Jack and Jak, both from Geelong, had never caught a redfin before their weekend charter, but finished with 108.
Good size whiting are on offer at Queenscliff, and among those to catch them during office hours on Wednesday were Joe Mortelliti and Col Feldman.
They were onto them pretty well straight away off the entrance to Swan Bay, and there were some better than 40cm among them, but as the tide slackened, so did the bite.
Moving out toward the Coles Light, near the other boats, provided no more action, so in anticipation of the flood tide they returned to where they’d started.
A good move as it turned out, as by 2pm they left with 39 fish.
Fishing the beach at Cosy Corner, Torquay, with the low tide on Wednesday evening, Ray Millman was hopeful of catching a whiting or two. He caught three as it turned out, all just over 42cm and in just two hours before the incoming tide covered the beach.
Once, when about to cast out, he noticed some movement in the knee-deep water through which he was wading, and could see that there were whiting of a similar size in the shallows to those he’d caught, so it makes you wonder just how far inshore these fish come after dark.
Last Tuesday, on the day of the full moon, which is not a renowned time for whiting, Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien worked hard for their fish after launching at Clifton Springs, and having made several moves by 3pm had only caught 12.
They elected to make one more move before calling it quits, and that was in just shy of 5 metres of water off Curlewis where they found a hot bite. Here, they finished off their respective bag limits within the hour, their biggest fish measuring 40cm.
Fishing off Portarlington early on Sunday morning with cousin Trent Riley and his daughter, Zara, and son Zane from Bendigo, Tony Mollenhauer had high expectations.
To say they did well would be an understatement: they each caught their respective bag limits of whiting, the biggest of which was 40cm. Asrath asks:
Geoff, in regard to last week’s question about putting injured fish back, do you think — particularly with all the undersized pinkies about — that it would be a good idea to use barbless hooks to make releasing them easier?
Asrath, it probably would, but virtually all the hooks available are barbed, except for a small selection that are sold in specialised fly-fishing outlets, and these are generally of too small a size for general bait fishing.