Thresher near outfall
KANE Ardiri, son Ashton, 11, and Nello Sorgiovanni headed out off Barwon Heads on Wednesday morning hoping to catch a thresher shark, there having been some about lately.
Their first strategy was to troll deep-running lures, but apart from an occasional strike from the usual suspects, that created little interest.
However, soaking a fresh barracouta fillet in 25 metres of water off the old Black Rocks’ sewer outfall was more successful; first producing a strike from a small hammerhead, which was a surprise, then, signalling action stations on what turned out to be a lively thresher shark of 65kg.
CORIO BAY/ BELLARINE PENINSULA
Heading over to Point Wilson around 10.30am on Sunday, Kirt Behan’s sounder displayed a promising signal off nearby Arthur the Great. He began berleying with pilchard pieces and caught a snapper of 4kg after about half an hour.
Interestingly, Kirt found his largest snapper to be in roe, a somewhat puzzling observation for this time of year, March usually being the last month to find snapper in gravid condition.
Mike Windsor of Clifton Springs Boat Hire reports that there are good size flathead about, and among those to catch them was Brett York who was fishing out towards the No 7 Point Richards channel marker. Brett also caught a 60cm gummy shark.
Mike said whiting are still about but you may have to do some prospecting to find the bigger fish, as Dennis O’Brien could relate after taking 10 keepers to 40cm or so on Friday. He also caught seven good size squid.
FRESHWATER
Trevor Holmes of Victorian Inland Charters reports a successful weekend on Lake Tooliorook for clients Luis Elgueta and sons Luis and Isaiah, 8. In fact, Isaiah caught his first ever redfin, a beauty of 43cm on a Daiwa Double Clutch minnow. It certainly put a smile on the lad’s face and was one of several caught that day.
John Clements of Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park reports that redfin are still the main catch from Lake Purrumbete with Darryn Busfield picking up 10 fish on scrubworms, and soft plastics.
John said brown trout are also on offer, with Tom Templeton taking a beauty of 3.8kg while trolling a lure. Fish around the 1.5kg mark are more common, with Mick Cunningham of Altona picking up several of these using lures over the weekend.
Chinook salmon are on the bite at Lake Bullen Merri. Maz Stowalowski got fish to 2kg or so trolling lures, while Les Broughton from Geelong also took several while bait fishing.
PORTLAND
Bob McPherson reports that, on Saturday, a number of large tuna were caught. Among the captors was Paul Hourmouzis who has now taken the lead in the “Hooked on Tuna” competition with a fish of 105.9kg.
Bigger fish were taken by anglers not in the competition, including two of 124kg, 113kg by Mason and Michael Shultze along with another of 98kg. The biggest was taken by Tom Robley and Adrian Seccombe and weighed 127.5kg.
Bob has made several trips to the wider grounds, catching blue-eye trevalla, pink ling, ghost cod, eels, various sharks, frost fish and nannygai.
BEN ASKS:
I have heard that when using threadline reels you should have the handle on the left side of the reel if right-handed: Is that correct?
Ben, threadline or spinning reels were initially developed for casting small metal lures like Devons, on shallow streams in the UK. These reels were small and fished with light line. Changing hands after the cast usually allowed the lure to sink to the bottom and become snagged.
So, right-handed anglers using such reels cast with their right hand and wound with their left hand to retrieve the lure. Little attention is paid to such finesse in light tackle fishing nowadays, and the larger threadline reels require no such protocol.