Favourable fishing results for keen lure casters

WARRNAMBOOL

Mark Gercovich

mgercovich@hotmail.com

Big bluefin fever kicked in pretty quickly here this season, with multiple fish from 70-120kg being taken in early March. Portland was the definite hotspot, but there were other fish taken closer to home.

Dan Grixti and Dan Ierodiaconou set out from Port Fairy and managed to subdue a magnificent 120kg bluefin in around 70m of water. The fish took a lure that was being cleared from the spread after a school fish had been hooked on one of the other rods.

Speaking of school fish, there have still been good schools of these in closer to shore. May is a month that can see schools of these smaller fish present fairly close to shore. These tuna are usually in the 8-14kg range, and they’re often less fussy than the similar sized fish in summer when encountered in this area.

If the high seas and tuna aren’t your thing, trout fishing locally really starts to kick into gear with the cooler weather of May. One benefit of a cooler and unusually damp summer is that the local trout should have maintained condition/survived that warmer period, and be primed ready to fire this winter. Already some good fish have started moving, including a nice 2kg fish I managed before work. The newly-released shallow running 75mm Daiwa Double Clutches should prove deadly on the local trout population this season.

May is often a great month to target estuary perch in the freshwater as they begin feeding up and moving down to the estuary in the winter months. Keen lure casters have also been getting in on the EP action using surface lures that imitate a struggling insect.

The estuary section of the Hopkins River has continued to fish well for bream on all manner of techniques. Lure anglers in particular have been doing well, with clear