Trellys Fishing Report
Corio Bay
Inside Corio Bay has been a feeding ground for Australian Salmon over the past week fish baitfish being pushed to the surface causing bust ups nearly every day. In and around the Geelong Waterfront is where majority of the action has been with anglers from both boat and land getting amongst it. Casting small soft plastics to resemble baitfish have been deadly and when the fish are on can result in a fish a cast. This time of year we should see the winter snapper in this similar area start to turn on with fish to 10kg being very achievable.
Clifton Springs
Clifton Springs is still producing some fantastic whiting fishing at the moment, big fish and big numbers. Fishing just about any time of the day and any tide has been producing plenty of fish with reports of fish reaching over 40cm! There are still lots of small fish amongst it all but with persistence and working through the smaller fish its well worth it. Squid and Pipis have been yet again the standout baits with a light burley trail being a handy enticer to have in the water.
Bellarine Peninsula
Calamari are still holding in great numbers in shallow, unfortunately the water has been a little dirty so finding them can be a grind but once a pod is found you can seriously clean up. Jigs with a rattle built inside have been working better than the standards as the squid have something they can feel better in the water as well as jig scent. When the water is dirty and chasing squid these 2 tips can be a game changer.
Offshore
Offshore Barwon Heads is still fishing very well for Pinky Snapper and Gummy Sharks with the 50 and 60 metre line producing the goods. Snapper Snatcher Rigs with fresh squid and salmon have been working a treat. Portland to Port MacDonnell is still on fire with the Barrel Tuna bite that is going on down there at the moment with reports coming in daily of fish to well over 100kg. Trolling Skirted lures has been working very well with Aloha Super Ninjas being a standout at the moment. School tuna have also been holding out a bit deeper on the shelf, yet again skirted lures and divers have been doing the damage with fish up to 25kg hitting the deck.
Goulburn River
The good fishing out towards Toolamba continued this week with some good reports coming in with both bait and lures working well. Casting the Arashi Deep 25 or Bassman Twin spins have been stand outs with chicken working best for those bait fishing. Further upstream around Seymour there has also been some reports of cod up to 80cms caught. Bait fishing has been great with worms, cheese and chicken working well. There has also been some reports from those Casting lures that the cod have been smashing both surface lures or Bassman Tubby’s in the large size.
Broken River
The Yellowbelly bite has kept going in the Broken River with good numbers of Yellowbelly being caught at Benalla, the Weirs and along Broken River Drive. Small yabbies and worms have worked best for the bait fisherman with those casting lures doing well on smaller Lipless Crankbaits and small divers such as the Old Mates or Balista Smoke 65s. With a bit of rain predicted this week the river will get some fresh water flow which always means a good bite period.
Irrigation Channels
There has been some big cod caught in the channel systems lately with a meter cod last week and another beauty this week out towards Rushworth. Bait has worked well for targeting cod with Cheese and Chicken working well. If your looking to chase Redfin or Yellowbelly we would suggest worms or small yabbies under a float or lightly weighted so the baits are not sitting rock bottom.
Shepparton Lake
The weed chopper has been very active at the Shepparton Lake over the past few weeks so hopefully this makes fishing access a lot easier for us all leading into winter. This past week we had a few reports of trout being caught on small spinners and divers. Redfin have also been caught on fly or bait at the rowing club boat ramp. Those fishing the deeper water have caught Yellowbelly Trolling Tn50s along the rowing markers. There were plenty who took advantage of the Canoe hire over the Easter break whether it was a leisurely paddle or a serious fish, for more information drop into Trellys Shepparton or log onto our website. The trout are slowly starting to take baits under floats with powerbait or worms about 30cms under the float working best. The grass hill and skate park boat ramp has always been a bait fishing stand out area and we would expect this winter to be the same.
Waranga Basin
It’s been a week dominated by those trolling at the basin, any small diving lure in around 10/12 foot has worked well. Stumpjumpers, Codgers, Old Mates and RMG’s are the go to Basin lure with or without a soft plastic up the front. If you find a certain are where you get doubleHook ups or regular fish spot lock and start casting as these fish are really aggressive at the moment. If your casting lures the best methods have been Slow rolling soft plastics, hopping a blade or burning back small tail spinners. Bait fishing in these active areas has also been successful with worms or yabbies working best especially out the front of the boat club. There has also been some good sized Yellowbelly being caught amongst the schools of Redfin or along the rock wall.
Lake Eildon
By now a lot of you have seen the Giant Cod that cod Fishing Gun Kate Norman managed to land this week. It was Kates first trip back to Eildon for the year with her 3 month old baby at home with dad Kate went to work in her 3.6mt tinny on a fresh foggy morning.She found some bait stacked up in one of the bays and caught that big cod on a Megabass Vatalion.The fight was a fun one with the cod towing around the little boat and after a bit of a struggle she managed to get the cod in the boat for a couple of happy snaps. Kate was using a Wilson swimbait rod and a 13 Fishing A3 which is a absolute brute of a reel with some massive drag pressure.
Merrigum
Two town water supply dams in Merrigum have been turned into stocked fishing lagoons and will soon be home to a range of native fish. There has been plenty of fish holding structure placed into these water storage’s with snags and concrete pipes placed into the dams so the fish have a place to call home. We look forward to what these water sources will become for local fisho’s
Tournament Talk
The ABT Bass pro series rolled into Grafton NSW last weekend with 34 Pro’s & Co’s entering in the second last qualifying round. Shepparton’s Nick Brown made the 15hr drive north and didn’t manage to challenge for a win after a tough day one. Crank Baits, Jigs, Blades and Topwater baits all worked well with many fish caught downstream of Grafton mostly in shallow water with the bass eating prawns in around 3/8ft of water. But in the Pro division things got super tight with Mitch Cone’s second win for the season overtaking Matthew Langford in the race for AOY. It will all come down to the last event which will be held at Cania Dame QLD. Langford will need to finish 5th to be crowned 3 time ABT Angler Of The Year. Mooroopna’s Best bass fisherman Nelson Rouw will be doing all he can to hold onto his 2nd place in AOY. Shepparton’s Nick Brown will need a good result at Cania to have any chance of a Back to Back top 10 AOY finish.
