Geelong

School holiday adventures

GEELONG Neil Slater

slaterfish@gmail.com

Anglers should shift their focus as we dive into July. Trout get a little more adventurous and move into the shallows of Wurdee

Oliver and Lila with a pair of reddies caught on a green soft plastic shad.

Boluc and Stoney Creek reservoirs. The redfin in these reservoirs slow their bite but the fish caught are often a good size.

Fly fishos should hit Stony Creek at first and last light as there are some decent fish working the shallows here. The same can be said for Wurdee Boluc but it is more exposed so you need dead calm weather to fly fish here.

These July school holidays, 750 ‘ready-tocatch’ rainbow trout will be stocked into St Augustines Waterhole near the Waurn Ponds end of South Valley Road. These trout are around 30cm and will grab small lures, artificial baits or a bunch of worms on a simple running sinker rig.

This stocking program aims to encourage families to go fishing, particularly during school holidays. Rainbow trout are a good option for children or those trying fishing for the first time, because they are relatively easy to catch.

Anglers are reminded that a daily bag limit of five trout applies, of which only two can exceed 35cm. Fish stocking is funded by recreational fishing licence fees and the State Government’s Target One Million plan, which aims to get more people fishing, more often.

Australian salmon will

be on the hunt at the back of the breakers on the local beaches and can be caught by flicking a pilchard or lure in the gutters. If the bite is slow, try walking the beach with a lure and piffing that into all the gutters you can find. It covers a lot more water and often you can find a hungry school where you might otherwise go fishless.

Hardcore snapper anglers put in long hours fishing after dark inside Corio Bay for big winter fish pushing 8kg. Hotspots for winter reds include the area around Corio Quay, North Shore and Western Beach.

Paul Mayer has been getting stuck into a few snapper around Corio Bay and says they are widespread at the moment. Paul has caught them near structure and steeper drop-offs using Munroes soft plastics in brass monkey colour on a 1/8oz Jigman jighead. Paul notes there are some chunky whiting schools straight out from the Grammar School Lagoon boat ramp. Pipis and turtleback worms in pumpkinseed have accounted for fish in the mid-40cm range.

The Geelong waterfront has been fishing well for

pinkie snapper from legal length to 40cm, plus the odd flathead. July can see an influx of snotty trevally into Corio Bay, and they love unweighted raw chicken and seem to bite well on the high tide around Cunningham Pier. Australian salmon have been ripping into baitfish on the surface along the Geelong waterfront, with a lot of smaller fish up to 35cm with the odd 55cm school kicking about. Regardless of size, these are fantastic fun to catch with stickbaits or other lures cast into the angry school.

St Helens Rock wall has seen some quality flathead, whiting and solid snapper caught by anglers using bait. The snapper have been up around 55cm and caught on pilchards and bluebait.

Rippleside Jetty in Geelong received $160,000 to replace the jetty deck, bearers, crossbeams and railing to ensure safe access by land-based fishos.

The Portarlington pier is also set for some major upgrades to better cater for the ferry service and commercial sector using it. There is also a proposal to include new rock groyne on the western side in an effort to reduce wave height, protect the ferry berth and reduce sand migration into the harbour. So, there may be limited access to fishos for short periods during construction works which has a completion date of late 2022.

It will be interesting to see how the estuary perch stocked by VFA in the Barwon bite over winter. They have grown well and provided a much-needed sportfish for the locals.

Redfin slow down a fair bit over the cooler months in the Barwon but can still be caught using live minnow or worms.

Vass Coves took his son Oliver and Lila Stubbs down to the Barwon at Breakwater for a fish one arvo. The kids came over to me proudly showing off a pair of reddies they’d caught so I went over for a chat. Vass said they caught five redfin using a fluorescent green soft plastic shad, and they also caught an estuary perch on worms. For the record, I caught nothing casting minnow lures!

Blake Robinson fished the Barwon with his mate Tealo Gillies hoping for a few redfin. Blake lobbed a heavier rod out baited with bread hoping to catch his first carp. It turned out to be a good move as Blake landed a beast of a carp that measured 65cm!

King George whiting have been biting well from Point Henry to Indented Head with some anglers enjoying bag limit captures of fish to 40cm. The usual baits are all producing – squid, pipis and mussels. Clifton Springs has seen fish in around 4-6m of water while the action around St Leonards has been in around 5m of water. Find yourself a sandy patch amongst the weeded areas for the best shot at them. If you get nothing in 15-20 minutes, move to the next sand hole.

Recent surveys of Port Philip by fisheries scientists have recorded the best sand flathead spawning in 24 years. Victorian Fisheries Authority (VFA) CEO Travis Dowling noted, “For many Victorians, sand flathead were the first fish they ever caught so this big spawning event in the bay is wonderful news that will resonate with lots of people, young and old.” He said the State Government had removed 90% of commercial netting effort in Port Phillip

already, and the entire bay would become completely net-free by next April.

Keen kayaker Shane Inglis had a cracking session out off Grassy Point where he caught his bag limit of good-sized calamari casting and drifting over the shallow weed beds. He has it all on video on his YouTube channel ‘GoastFishing’.

Michael Crawford has been working on Adamas Charters with Rodney Lawn. They had a few clients on recently where they got stuck into some quality snapper fishing in 55m out off Barwon Heads. Michael says there were lots of solid fish around 2kg, plus one snapper that would have been close to 4kg.

Mick Allardyce has been fishing down the Surf Coast with his daughter Maddy and picking up good captures of flathead out in 40m jigging with small metal lures.

The Lorne Pier continues to fish well for salmon to 50cm, whiting to 40cm and the odd flathead.

Fish HARD – die happy! • Catch a few around Geelong, Bellarine Peninsula or Surf

Smiles on dials for Adamas customers fishing out off Barwon Heads.

Image courtesy of Adamas Fishing Charters/M. Crawford.

VFA’s stocked estuary perch are coming along nicely in the Barwon River. Image courtesy of V. Coves. Maddy Allardyce with two fine flatties.

Image courtesy of M. Allardyce.

Blake heaves a beast of a Barwon River carp

up for the camera. Image courtesy of B. Robinson.

Coast to Lorne recently? Send in a report to slaterfish@ gmail.com with ‘FMG’ in the subject field or give me a call on 0408 997348. Please include where (without giving away your secret spot!), when, what on and who caught the fish. Pictures are always great, but please make sure they are at least 1MB (file size).