Geelong

GEELONG Neil Slater

slaterfish@gmail.com Well, here we are. April – and still talking about tuna. It’s certainly been a great year for school-sized fish with plenty around went off at 7am in 45m of water, their second bite was at 7:55am in 50m of water and their third rod went off 8.45am – nice start lads! They also managed a double hook-up in 55m but lost one. The lads hooked all three fish blind trolling. Alan said there were plenty

Kevin caught this ripper bronzie on a yakka.

the 8-15kg mark plus the odd fish over 30kg. We’ve had plenty of windy days making it harder for small boat operators to get offshore, so the fish haven’t been absolutely pounded. Larger boats such as charter operators have done very well, catching clients some solid fish to 30kg, mainly trolling lures.

There have been some days where nobody has caught a fish, and other days when they’re on and ‘just about chewin’ the paint off your prop’, as my mate Mick Allardyce would say. I have heard of anglers putting the lures away and throwing the tuna a rigged pilchard, which has turned a tough day into a better one with fish landed. Bait fishing for them has not been widely explored like the 1980s and 90s, where cubing for tuna was the norm off famed NSW tuna hotspots Narooma and Bermagui. It might be worth a shot on tough days.

Launching at Ocean Grove, Nick Mahoney and Alan Falzon headed out the mouth of the Barwon and into Bass Strait in search of tuna. Their first rod of birds in the area circling but none diving on bait. Two of their tuna went around the 12kg mark and one was around 10kg.

Alan also noted there was a lot of algae in the water between the 25m and 45m mark, which he says to avoid.

The top lures have been skirts, with purple and green doing well when trolled around 6-10 knots. The Halco Laser Pro 190 has also been popular for trolling, while cup-faced poppers and stickbaits have been an exciting way to fish for the tuna when they are visibly feeding on the surface.

Kingfish catches have tapered off, and I’d expect the tuna to back off too as the waters cool. There have been some big schools of salmon off Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove so let’s hope they move into the beaches this April.

Sharks have kind of taken a backseat this season, with all the tuna excitement offshore. Last month, Kevin McLoughlin sent out a berley trail off Torquay in 35m of water hoping for a shark. Using an unweighted yakka as bait, Kevin boated and solid pinkie snapper are a soft plastic target early in 4-6m of water from Point Henry to Clifton Springs, and along the Geelong waterfront.

The water in Corio Bay outer harbour has been quite discoloured due to the constant easterlies. This has made squid fishing difficult, but the whiting seem to like it and will bite all day in quite shallow water. Most of the whiting out off Clifton Springs have been from legal length to 35cm, while fish on the northern side of the bay and around at St Leonards have been a better average size.

April sees an increase in snotty trevally along the Geelong waterfront. Set your bait off the bottom, but fairly deep, and time your run with a dawn or dusk tide change to be in with the best shot. These fish love raw chicken, pipis and pilchard fillets. Soft plastic anglers have done well using Berkley Gulp Turtleback

a ripper bronze whaler he estimated at around 50kg.

Rock fishing is an increasingly popular form of fishing, but the danger is real. There have been tragic deaths in recent years, with several rock fishers swept off rock shelves and reefs. Two of the 10 identified ‘high risk’ rock platforms where rock fishers must wear life jackets are on the Surf Coast: the rock platform opposite Sheoak Falls south of Lorne, and Artillery Rocks west of Lorne. This is part of a 2-year trial aimed at keeping rock fishos safe. For more info, head over to vfa.vic.gov.au/rockfishing.

Whiting always provide an option during April and into May inside Corio Bay, Keep an eye on the sounder because often tuna are holding deep.

Alan with one of the three tuna he and Nick caught trolling lures in Bass Strait.

Worms, and some have modified their Worms by cutting them shorter when the fish are timid.

Pinkie snapper to 35cm have been caught by anglers bait fishing from St Helens rock wall, Limeburners and Cunningham pier. The baits of choice have been pilchard pieces and bluebait.

The Barwon River in Geelong has been brown now for some time due to all the rain we’ve had. That hasn’t stopped the carp biting though, with plenty being grassed from small to 4kg at the time of writing. Kelvin Baldwin has been catching some estuary perch on lime green single-tailed grubs over the past few weeks. VFA first stocked estuary perch in the Barwon around 2018, and there are reports of them up to 30cm already, which is great news.

Local reservoirs, Wurdee Boluc and Stoney Creek, are pretty much full. Wurdee has a bit of colour to it, but it’s still worth flicking lures there as the redfin have been biting well. Most have been around the 30cm mark, but a few nice fish up to 40cm+ have been caught. Stoney Creek reservoir most often remains clear during periods of heavy rain, so it’s well worth a look if you plan on flicking lures.

The Barwon River estuary has also copped the brown water, making fishing difficult. However, during the incoming tide, the water clears up and silver trevally have been caught up as far as the Sheepwash in the clean salt water.

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).