A TASTY RIVER CATCH
BIG MURRAY COD CAUGHT ON CHEESE
SELIN Inan had only been fishing on the Murray River for 20 minutes when the rod went into the water.
Luckily, Selin’s companion, Paul Rahman, had secured the rod to the bank of the river at Echuca with a length of twine.
So retrieving the rod was Selin’s first task — her second took somewhat longer on light tackle normally used for trout.
But after 10 minutes or so, she’d coaxed a 72cm, 7kg Murray cod — that was tempted with a cube of tasty cheese from Aldi — into Paul’s landing net.
Members of the Maryborough Angling Club fished Lake Mulwala at Yarrawonga during the weekend and among the successful anglers were Brodie Harrison, whose catch included a 68cm Murray cod; and Amber Wild, whose best cod measured 80cm.
Both were caught on trolled lures.
Offshore fishing enthusiast Chris Stamalos fished Wurdee
Boluc Reservoir for a change last week in his quest for eels as gummy shark bait.
Small redfin initially plundered the scrub worms he was using for bait, but they shut down after dark.
From then it was a long wait until he caught the first of two large eels: one weighed 4kg, the other 3kg.
CORIO BAY and BELLARINE PENINSULA
Mike Windsor, of Clifton Springs Boat Hire, reports that whiting are on offer and among those to catch them were Andrew Phillips and Mark and Tina Sesar, who made an early start off Clifton Springs on Saturday morning.
After making a couple of moves, they found them in 6.7m of water off the Pelican Shores Caravan Park and finished up with their respective bag limit catches of whiting and several red mullet (whiskered goatfish) by noon.
Also on Saturday, Andrew Johnson and Dennis O’Brien found the whiting at the east end of the Clifton Springs mussel farm, and they too took bag limit catches.
Jim and Will McCredden found a productive patch 500m off Curlewis, while Ben Cochrane and Adrian Steer took a mixed bag of whiting and flathead near the mussel farm using squid and mussel for bait.
A point of interest regarding the Clifton Springs boat ramp, on Saturday in particular, was that the carpark was full with cars and trailers lined up along Bay Shore Rd — perhaps a sign of things to come.
QUEENSCLIFF
Whiting are still on offer off the entrance to Swan Bay at
Queenscliff as Garry Ridgeway and Marty Bluml discovered on Saturday evening.
After waiting some time, and without a bite, for the tide to turn, which it did shortly before dusk, they enjoyed a hot bite until dark, during which time they caught 35 fish to 38cm.
FROM THE BEACH
On Friday night, Ray Millman fished from Fishermans Beach between the Torquay Motor Yacht and Angling Club and the Torquay Sailing Club in calm conditions with squid stealing his baits for at least some of the time.
He caught a gummy shark early on, but considering it was such a nice night he stayed into the early hours of Saturday morning, when at about 1.30am, approaching the low tide, an angler fishing nearby hooked a good-sized fish that turned out to be a gummy shark of perhaps 10kg that had Ray wading out to drag it ashore.
Bob says: Geoff, in regard to what you said last week, if there were no barb on the hook the fish would escape, wouldn’t it?
Bob, the key holding factor for J pattern hooks is penetration, and before the advent of chemically sharpened hooks (which have smaller barbs) in the 1980s, opinions had been expressed that the large barbs on most fish hooks may prevent optimum penetration.
Circle hooks, which were initially used on commercial longlines, although barbed, relied on their ability to trap the jaw hinge of the fish between the point and the shank, some, like the Mustad 39960D, featured substantially recurved points to assist in this process.
However, when circle hooks went on the recreational fishers’ market they invariably featured more open gapes in anticipation of angler resistance, which still remains a factor, in much the same fashion as barbless hooks today.