Trellys Fishing Report
The Outer Harbour
Snapper are certainty starting to fire up in the outer harbour with Clifton springs through to Portarlington producing some fantastic fish being pulled in. Along the channel near the bend has definitely been one of the hotspots with fish to over 5kg being taken with lots of sub 2kg fish amongst them. Bait fishing with Pilchards, Squid and Salmon have all been lethal baits to run lately. Fishing on the tide changes as per usual are the preferred times to be fishing, an hour or two either side of the change. Portarlington rock wall has been producing some fantastic fishing to shore based anglers and with the windy and wild conditions the fish tend to come in close to the shore to feed, with addition to the small reefs out the front of the rock wall this makes for a fantastic location to fish at the moment. Launching out Pilchards on a paternoster rig has proved to be very successful.
Bellarine Peninsula
Calamari remain a hot target species this past week with anglers finding great success right across the peninsula. Clifton Springs through to Portarlington has been producing plenty, St Leonards to Swan bay a few but Queenscliff yet again being the standout location. Anglers have been landing bag limit numbers of squid and some hoods to over 50cm. Size 3.5 Jigs are definitely the way to go when fishing out here.
Queenscliff
King George Whiting also remain on the chew across the Bellarine Peninsula with St Leonards through to Queenscliff holding the best fishing as of late. Fishing the tides has been very productive with fish to over 40cm being taken. Gone Fishing Charters have been putting their customers on some fantastic fish lately.
Offshore
Snapper and Gummy Sharks off Barwon heads continue to hold in good numbers with reports of boats landing snapper to 5kg and Gummy Sharks to 15kg. Fresh Salmon and Squid baits have been most productive. The foul Grounds in 40 metres has been a very popular area to fish lately with some great reports coming from that area.
The Otways
The Otway streams and rivers have responded very well from the heavy rain we have received with some great fishing being reported on with Brown Trout thriving and chewing! Casting small hardbody lures and soft plastics have been accounting for plenty of fish. When the rivers are dirty like this it can really turn the fish on as they’re super aggressive.
Kialla lakes
We have had some good news this week regarding the fishing at Kialla lakes. It’s looking like the lake hasn’t been majorly affected by the floods with the fear of fish migrating to the river not happening like past floods. This week there were a heap of reports of some Big Yellowbelly being caught up to 50cms. The exciting thing is some of the fish caught this week being a bigger class and looking more like a river fish not the thinner milky coloured Yellowbelly we catch at Kialla. Slow rolling blades or soft plastics has worked well for those lure fishing so has the new Diawa Steez soft shell vibes. Kaleb from Relentless Fishing Co on Facebook put these lures to test this past week finding the black and yellow version worked well. Bait fishing has also been good this past week with Redfin, Yellowbelly and also catfish reported with scrub worms around the drop off edge working best.
Irrigation Channels
The water isn’t the cleanest in the channels around Shepparton but this hasn’t turned off some Shepparton locals who have managed to land a couple of Yellowbelly this past week. Dark lures seem to be the colour of choice with a base colour of black working best on both Lipless crank baits and also small divers. We have been getting reports that a 3/4 cranks and a long pause being the best retrieval method over the past week. Bait fishing along the edges has also been successful with small yabbies and night-crawlers working around pine lodge.
Lake Eppalock
Reports this week have been dominated by those fishing from the banks with plenty of fish feeding up on the freshly flooded areas.Floating worms or lightly weighting them and fishing around flooded trees has worked a treat this week with heaps of Redfin and Yellowbelly reported. Casting lures off the bank has also been an option this past week with small divers, chatterbaits and Tn50 jackals working well.
Lake Eildon
There is a theme this week and that’s fishing from the banks of most lakes being a great method. We have had some reports of cod up to 80cms being caught off the bank and Yellowbelly up to 52cms. Worms and yabby tails have been great baits with the fish biting both during the day and at night. With the weather hopefully warming up over the next couple of weeks we should start seeing the Yellowbelly becoming more active. Fishing submerged trees, rocky points or freshly flooded banks had always been a great way to target spring time Yellowbelly at lake Eildon.
Waranga Basin
There is plenty of water at the basin with it now steady and sitting around the 96% mark. These higher levels have pushed a lot of fish around the edges and we have had reports from Both land based and those fishing from a boat or kayak. With the shallow fall in the banks, you need to fish light or with lures that won’t crash dive especially from the banks. Lightly weighted soft plastics and Rapala X-Rap6s are perfect this time of year with worms or corn being great baits. Trolling TN60 jackals around the 6/8ft mark has been great this week so has hopping blades along points. Yellowbelly have been hard to find recently but with warmer conditions to come we would expect they become more active.