Take your marks, get set, go! PORT PHILLIP EAST
Lee Rayner info@fishingfever.com.au
If someone had said 20 years ago that you would be able to do a totally Victorian bluewater report in this magazine, you would surely tell them that they were taking crazy pills. Oh, how times have changed, with Victoria producing not only offshore options for nearly twelve months of the year, but also being right up there with some of the best fisheries in the world. Here you can tumble with big swordfish in Gippsland, the jumbo bluefin tuna off the West Coast, and in recent years more local metro areas of the state have also produced. Not to mention, the tons and tons of school fish that call these waters home for a good part of the year. We cannot forget the kingfish that come with the warm water. I have always said that when I can catch marlin in Victoria, that’s when it will be a good place to live. Well, over recent years I have caught many Victorian marlin, and cannot wait for them to turn up each summer at Lakes Entrance and Mallacoota. WEST COAST Summer saw lots of school tuna and kingfish on offer from Portland to Port Fairy, offering anglers some awesome action, either casting stickbaits and poppers or trolling with small skirts. That all changed in early April, and overnight the jumbo tuna made their presence felt in a big way when a whole pile of big fish rocked up off Portland in 70-120m of water between Lawrence Rock and Cape Bridgewater. Mark Scholte was quick to get on the bite, landing five jumbos in two days, then from there it was daily reports of big tuna being hooked, lost and landed. What contributed to such good fishing was that the tuna were feeding heavily on redbait, so lures in the 7-9” size were being eaten in a big way by the fish, as they matched the bait size perfectly. When it comes to colours and styles of lures pink, blue, silver and gold tones such as Paris, mia, big dog, spotted and striped evil in lures such as the JB Dingo and Little Dingo, Zacatak Sprockets and Pakula Sprockets. Bullet patterns have been getting a lot of bites, especially on the really calm and really rough days. For those of you that haven’t run a bullet, they are deadly effective, which is strange, as they do very little in the water. Their heavy heads mean they spend a lot of time under the water, which makes them easy for the tuna to eat. As for lure positions, the bullets always
Charlie Agius with his first Portland jumbo. are a favourite on the long rigger or shotgun position. My own personal favourites are the Aloha Ninjas in mia and big dog patterns, or another lure that always seems to get bites is a colour called black rainbow. It doesn’t look like anything special, but it gets eaten time and time again. While the Ninjas are great, the Bonze Exocet bullet has also been a real winner on school and jumbo tuna, and works in any position. It gained a lot of popularity last year, when anglers Dan and Mark began running the Bonze spreader bars in their lure spreads and off the back they ran the Exocet bullet, which accounted for a lot of the bigger school tuna for Dan and a bunch of jumbos for both the boys. Either way, spreader bars and teasers are tools that more anglers should be using for tuna and I’m sure they will gain popularity in coming seasons. While it’s lovely fishing in the calm weather, it also makes it a lot harder to get a tuna bite, as they can see your leaders much better. This was proven in the bite over the past weeks, with some of the best fishing happening on the really ugly days.
Over the coming weeks, the tuna fishing will only get better. Although it’s the big tuna that get a lot of anglers excited, there are a lot of fishers who really enjoy and prefer to chase the school fish, which will stack up in big numbers out along the shelf and in locations such as the Horseshoe. Out here the fishing is often crazy on fish ranging from 10-25kg, and in this part of the world a great pattern to run is two X-Rap lures in short then three or four skirts further out the back, with lures in the 6-8” size proving deadly. Some hot favourites are the Zacatak Small Sprocket and Vamp, JB Micro and Little Dingo, Black Bart Pelagic Breakfast and Canyon Prowler. Locally during May, the tuna bite should really start to fire up closer to Melbourne, with locations such as Apollo Bay, Barwon Heads, The Rip, Cape Schanck and Phillip Island all worth a look, especially if we get bait pushing into these areas. Even better is when you see whales pushing along these parts of the coast, as the tuna love to follow them. Further to the east, early April saw Tony Kemner land
a cracker of a sword. This caused a bit of frustrated hair pulling from several anglers, as they had to decide whether to head west for a jumbo or go east in search of a giant swordfish. As May rolls by we should really see the sword season fire up, with a large influx of food pushing into the canyons running from Lakes Entrance and up to Mallacoota. The real factor that dictates the fishing is the weather. So, calm seas and light winds are what anglers hope for. The swordfish are a prized target, but the great deep water bottom fish on offer get people excited with big blue-eye trevalla, Hapuka and ling all on the cards for a bait dropped to the bottom. If you’re heading to the canyons in search of these species, make sure you also pack a few extra game rods and some berley, as it’s also mako time in this part of the world. Anyone who has fished out here would agree that some days they are there in huge numbers, chewing up your sword baits and eating
This is where it all started for the author, with his first Victorian sword. May is the prefect time to catch them. your bottom fish as you wind them up. I’m not complaining, mind you, as I love catching a few big makos. While it’s not done often, it is also worth trolling lures or cubing as there are some very good tuna to be found during April, May and June, with
the past seasons producing albacore, big bluefin and even big-eye tuna. It’s a very exciting time of year to be heading to our offshore waters and hopefully this report will help get you out there in search of the big fish that call our waters home.
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