VIC
Great opportunities offshore GEELONG
Neil Slater slaterfish@gmail.com
It’s been an indifferent month on the Bellarine, with strong winds keeping most anglers inshore. A dousing of storms and a splash of heat has also kept us on our toes. All the local dams are full,
single-tailed grub soft plastics. Kel says mornings and arvos are best. He also noted that during periods where the river rises rapidly, the EPs can slow down while the carp come on the bite. Carp to 5kg have also been biting on bread baited running sinker rigs or floats. If you cast just out the front of weed beds you should find a few.
Darcy looks pretty pumped with his PB tuna.
Darcy and Sel caught these tuna busting up inside the heads, not far from Bell Reef near Queenscliff. and Wurdee Buloc near Moriac has been producing redfin with consistency. Most range from 20-35cm but the odd fish is over 40cm, so it’s well worth a trip. Keep your lures near the bottom and use a slow retrieve. The best lures for this method include soft plastics and weighted spoons around the 5-8cm mark. Bait fishos should try a live minnow on a running sinker rig, but be prepared to be pestered by smaller fish. The Barwon River in Geelong is discoloured at the time of writing, but estuary perch and redfin are still taking lures. The estuary perch are fish stocked by VFA in 2018
grandson out in Corio Bay recently. Fishing in 8m of water, 8yo Charley boated a 7kg gummy shark! Offshore in Bass Strait has been nothing short of spectacular, with southern bluefin tuna and kingfish schools providing plenty of opportunities for anglers. There are lots of schools to cast at, but getting them to
a whole day outside the Rip chasing two footy field sized schools of salmon in the hope of getting a tuna or kingfish between Point Lonsdale and the Barwon River mouth. The day was getting long and their arms about to drop from endless jigging and tackle testing new stickbaits. They decided to call it a day around 1pm and
Rocco loves fishing with his dad Mario, out off Clifton Springs. solid salmon as well. It’s hard to drive past schools of tuna while offshore, but the Bass Strait sharks
Gabrielle Costa fished with Connor, Doug and Oscar Glover trying their luck down at the Barwon River recently. It was Doug’s first time using a spin reel and Oscar’s first time with a Tadpole Spincast. They used bread on floats to lure in a few massive carp before they landed a neat little 30cm carp. Gabrielle said that both boys are excited for their next fishing adventure. The Barwon River estuary has seen a fair flush of fresh water heading down most run-out tides, so the incoming tide has been best for saltwater species such as whiting and trevally. Pinkie snapper and whiting
Grant, Dean and Harvey with their Barwon Heads captures taken while riding a jet ski.
Gabrielle and the Glover brothers with their Barwon carp. and doing very well. Kelvin Baldwin of Vic Trout and Redfin Fishing has caught plenty of redfin and estuary perch using lime green 86
MARCH 2022
have been solid inside Corio Bay. Mario and his son Rocco have been getting stuck into a few and been having a ball. Tony Broad took his
bite your lure is another thing! Larger, noisier poppers seem to be preferred by the kingfish, while slimmer stickbaits will take both species. The tuna seem to prefer these retrieved at higher speeds. Trolling skirted lures has been very successful – especially when fish are not visible on the surface. The better kingfish have been approaching 1m and about 9kg while the best tuna are around 25kg. Heavy jigs have also been successful if the kingfish are holding down deep. Speaking of tuna, Sel Kay and his mates Darcy and Andrea found them busting up just off Bell Reef inside the heads! Sel says they spent
head back to Queenscliff boat ramp. However, they spotted a school of bluefin busting a bait ball off Bell Reef! Luckily the rods were rigged! They sent out a Bezel topwater lure and got an almost instant hook-up as Darcy pulled up two turns of the handle. The fish went hard and took them out to the middle of Victory Bight, but they managed to get it aboard eventually. Sel said most fish were around 15kg. Exciting stuff! Dean McDonald fished with his son Harvey and his mate Grant out off Barwon Heads on their jet skis recently. All of them managed a few quality tuna trolling and casting and Harvey nabbed a
have been biting well too. Gummies to 10kg have been caught out off Breamlea in 50m, and the odd mako shark has been caught by fishos laying a proper berley trail and prepared to get away from the other boats, head out to 70m wait it out. The local beaches have been producing salmon either side of 1kg and down the Great Ocean Road, there have been pinkie snapper to 45cm taken from the rocks around dawn and dusk. Pilchards have been by far the best bait but can get picked over by wrasse. If the wrasse are thick, try raw chicken or squid as both of these hang on a bit better. Fish HARD – die happy! • Catch a few around Geelong, Bellarine Peninsula or Surf 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).
Charley caught this ripper gummy while fishing with his grandad Tony.
