Geelong

Predators smashing baitfish

GEELONG Neil Slater

slaterfish@gmail.com The joint’s gone mad, and I can’t write quick enough to be honest. There are 150kg tuna offshore, 50cm bream, 40cm whiting, 80cm landbased snapper inshore – I almost need to breathe into a bag to calm down!

November is peak hour for snapper around Geelong and the Bellarine. A tide change gets them excited, and if you can pin that around dawn or dusk, you’ll be in with a good shot at a decent red.

Pilchards are always a winner because they’re smelly, but silver whiting, redbait, garfish and squid are all great baits too.

Corio Bay has plenty of land-based spots with access to deep water, which is prime territory for snapper. Paul Gleeson recently fished with his mate David Graham from the rocks near Lascelles Warf. Using salted pilchards for bait, Paul landed a cracking snapper Sayed and Rialeigh boated this 150kg tuna in 75m out off Barwon Heads.

157kg of southern bluefin tuna boated by Rylan and Rialeigh off Torquay in 70m. Jae has caught some ripper bream in the Barwon using yabbies.

Peri from Trelly’s Tackle in Geelong with a cracking tuna that weighed 115kg cleaned. The lads estimated it could have been 130kg fresh weight.

of 82cm. Paul said not 20 minutes later, another angler hooked up to a big fish only to have it snap his line. Then, a young kid from Melbourne hooked up only to have his line snap also. What made it worse was everyone got to see the young lad’s snapper swimming about on the surface after it broke free!

Leopold Angling and Aquatic Club are hosting the Bellarine Snapper Classic from 4-6 November. The entry fee is $30 for an adult club member, $60 non-members, and kids under 16 are free. There’s an $18,000 prize pool, and you can find out more at leopoldaac.com/2022snapper-classic

There’s a fair bit of pinkie action along the Geelong waterfront too. Pinkie snapper either side of 40cm have been taking soft plastics and pilchard fillets from Wangim Walk, the Yacht Club and Cunningham pier.

If you want to target snapper in November, there are a few options available. Boat fishos should anchor up near the shipping channel in Corio Bay and lob a pilchard out around a tide change. Soft plastic enthusiasts should target the multiple structures around Corio Bay for snapper like the Yacht club, Geelong waterfront, Cunningham pier and Point Henry. Finally, land-based anglers should try the rocks at Lascelles, North Shore and St Helens plus St Leonards and Portarlington pier for snapper.

Salmon have gone off their heads around Corio Bay, with schools of fish around 40cm ripping into baitfish on the surface on calm days. Point Henry has seen a few, as has the Geelong waterfront and Bird Rock near Point Wilson.

The Bellarine Peninsula is famous for King George whiting, and for good reason. They are pretty much a yearround target and are always biting somewhere. November does see an increase in sizes, especially in the lower half or Port Phillip Bay and the Surf Coast shallows around Fisherman’s Beach at Torquay.

Clifton Springs to Queenscliff has seen scattered schools of small fish from 30-35cm, but November should see a few around 45cm and some approaching 50cm down near Queenscliff.

Calamari have been going off their heads around the Bellarine lately, with bags limits and some solid hoods as well. Clifton Springs has been a little sporadic, while Portarlington, St Leonards, Indented Head and Queenscliff have all been producing quality captures of calamari.

The Portarlington and Queenscliff boat ramp upgrades are now complete, and they look great. There is

a bit of concern regarding the capacity of the Queenscliff ramp now; dedicated parks are set where there was once a paddock. Time will tell, and hopefully it gets a parking expansion in the future.

The Barwon River estuary continues to surprise, with solid silver trevally and (since the water has been brown), big bream. Jae Peters has been getting stuck into some rippers either side of 50cm using crabs and yabbies as bait. Jae says he’s been using a running sinker on a no. 8 hook, and his best fish has been a staggering 55cm and 2.6kg!

Bass Strait has been off its head, with some massive tuna being caught out wide in 70-75m of water. Bear in mind that 75m is 25km out, so you really need the know-how, boat and weather to head out that far.

Peri from Trelly’s Tackle recently fished with Anthony Flopski and Josh Caruso, and landed a nice tuna of 115kg (cleaned) on a lumo skirt trolled behind a spreader bar. Peri says that the big tuna was picked up off a patch of birds, seals and dolphins, and the big fish took one hour and 20 minutes on the rod. They did see a few bait balls of pilchards being pushed to the surface by the seals and dolphins, but no fish were on them, showing that it pays to keep moving around.

Rialeigh Mathe has been fishing out in Bass Strait with Sayed Taleb and their mate Rylan targeting tuna, and have done very well indeed. The lads boated a beast of 150kg, and another fish that weighed in at a staggering 157kg! Both fish were caught in depths of 70-75m out off Barwon Heads and Torquay.

Keith Miller, the Commodore from Lorne Aquatic and Angling Club, reports the pier has been the go-to as the weather has been terrible. Some big salmon have been caught from the pier, along with trevally, mullet, gummy sharks, flathead and calamari. It’s well worth a look.

November is the best time to target snapper from the rock ledges along the Great Ocean Road. Fish to 7kg are not out of the question at this time of year, so it’s really worth a look. Big fish need big baits, time on the water and the right gear. A keen eye on the swell and tide is a must, and bear in mind that you are required to wear a PFD when fishing Artillery Rocks, west of Lorne and the rock platform opposite Sheoak Falls, south of Lorne as part of a 2-year trial by VFA. If you are new to rock fishing, go to vfa.vic. gov.au and search for ‘rock fishing’ for more info. • 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,