Trelly's Fishing Report

Trelly's Fishing Report
Corio Bay

Corio Bay provided sheltered waters and fantastic fishing for pike, Australian salmon, pinkie snapper, flathead and garfish. Soft plastics cast along structure in deeper water was ideal resulting in most of the species mentioned above. Trelly’s Geelong’s Adam Van Der Lugt snagged a mixed bag working soft plastics cast from a boat around the Geelong waterfront Monday morning. Adam noted that making sure your lure bumps the bottom was a must do.

Clifton Springs 

Over at Clifton Springs anglers fishing the Curlewis Bank encountered whiting and pinkie snapper with tenderised squid a standout bait.  At times Australian Salmon erupted on the surface in a feeding frenzy casting or trolling lures around the commotion would almost certainly result in fish. The Alcoa Pier area was also worthwhile option with pike and pinkies in great numbers with some monster pike to over 80cm snapping up Daiwa double clutch 95 lures. Snapper catches slowed a little from Clifton Springs, with anglers making a day break start reporting the best success on snapper to 8kg.

St Leonards

Last week’s easterly winds did nothing to slow the fishing over at St Leonard’s. Daniel Baden and I ventured out Saturday afternoon and anchored up on a section of water to the south end of the area know as Bourke St. Baiting up with pippie and tenderised squid we managed a bag limit capture of whiting, with some fish over 40cm in length. Of note the last of the run in tide was most productive.



Sam Pitman took a run out from St Leonard’s Sunday afternoon where in no time at all he boated 10 nice sized squid. Sam’s squid jig of choice was a Yamashita size three.



Peri from Trelly’s Geelong also wanted to get amongst the whiting action off St Leonards and Tuesday night he managed a nice bag of fish with again some thumpers to over 40cm amongst his catch. Peri mentioned that the bigger fish really fired up after dark.



Queenscliff 

Queenscliff Pier right around to the Bight land based was excellent for squid when the water clarity was good. Large 3.5 sized jigs cast out some distance worked a treat. The RIP was a hot spot for Australian Salmon with large schools of fish busting up on the surface.

Ocean Grove 

Off Shore from Ocean Grove / Barwon Heads anglers chasing snapper boated reasonable numbers of fish in thirty to forty meters of water. Fresh baits such as salmon of squid did the job, a few gummy sharks were also taken as a by catch. Keep your eyes peeled while off shore as the Kingfish can’t be long for making an appearance.

Torquay 

Last week the Victorian Fisheries Authority placed a FAD (fishing attracting device) out from Torquay which is fantastic news and will help increase captures of species like Kingfish.

Hopkins River 

Brody Craig tangled with some thumping big bream in the Hopkins on lure last week along with his son Asher who also landed some well conditioned bream. Brody's mate Rob managed his first bream on lure too!  


Lake Purrumbete

Freshwater anglers saw trophy brown trout to over 4kg once again from Lake Purrumbete with trolling Tassie devils a tried a proven tactic.  Bait fishing with mudeye under a float also resulted in fish.

Barwon River

Right on our door step large carp have been keeping anglers entrained in the Barwon River with Break Water to Queens Park a hot spot.

Seymour / Nagambie

The Goulburn River has settled a lot since Cod Opening, quite a few Cod in the 45cm to 60cm range on baits such as Cheese, Bardi Grubs and Scrubworms around Seymour, Trolling 6 Metre Diving Koolabungs, Orange colour around Trawool has accounted for some nice Cod around the 60cm mark. Bait fishing the banks of the River around the Wineries with Scrubworms working well for Cod and Yellowbelly, don’t be afraid to put 2 big Scrubbies on a 6/0 widemouth hook to get the Cod going. Trolling BIG hardbodies such as Ac Invaders, Coddogs and Whitecrows in the deeper, middle part of the River, also around the Wineries and Horse Studs working well also. A few Redfin and small Yellowbelly caught along the boardwalk around Nagambie Lake bobbing Soft Plastics and worms. Kirwans Bridge area is a really good option at the moment with Redfin, Yellowbelly and Cod all being caught, trolling small divers such as Size 2 and 3 Stumpjumpers and casting Jackal T/N 60’s accounting for Redfin and Yellowbelly, and Casting Surface Lures, big Plastics catching Cod, also bobbing worms and Yabbies around the Willow Trees will get you all 3 species, give the tree a go for 20 to30 mins, if nothing, move to the next, so on and so on.

Murchison / Toolamba 

This region is probably been the standout in our area recently, River has settled down and has cleared up, Casting Spinnerbaits such as Bassman Codman and 4 X 4 Series, purple or orange and Pirate vibrating blade in pink/white or black/orange, Trolling Size 1 Stumpjumpers in Fruit Salad Colour and Old Mate’s and Codgers in Green working well for Cod and Yellowbelly on the lure front. The banks are still muddy, but bait fishing is working well for big numbers of Cod, mainly around the 35cm mark, but the occasional 55+cm fish amongst them. Dargalong Road area Murch East the spot to try and Cemetery Bend area around Toolamba the go.

Shepparton / Undera 

The River is at a good level, but is still a little dirty, and the banks are still muddy, bait fishing is still the preferred method, with Pro Straffer Graeme catching 4 Cod in the Goulburn River at Arcadia on Bardi Grubs, Cod where up to 65cm, in a quick session. It might be time to crack out the big surface lures in this area, Graeme reported an absolute horse of a Cod smashing something off the top, he said it was the biggest and loudest crack he has seen or heard, unfortunately out of casting range for him! The River around the Boulavard to the Cemetery in Shepparton is fishing ok, once again bait being the best method, Scrubworms and Yabbies working well. The Graigmuir Lake in Mooroopna is fishing really well for Redfin on small divers and soft plastics, Pro Staffer Sam was catching them on Norie Laydown Minnows, shallow and the Gold colour nearly every cast, most fish where around 25cm to 30cm mark. Quite a few Cod being caught on Cheese at the Main Eastern Channel on the Shepparton/Euroa Road areas, Spinnerbaits would be worth a try also.

Rushworth / Kyabram 

Waranga Basin keeps producing plenty of Redfin, and bigger fish are more and more regular, trolling deep RMG’s in white or green, Balista Smokes in White or Green working really well, mainly in the Southern Parts of the Basin around Harrimans Point and the entrance of the Catternach Channel. All the channels are running again, and look pretty clear, and they are all fishing well, focus on the drop bars, worms, yabbies and any small lure with red on it, Hogbacks, 3 inch White and Red Plastics and Size 3 Stumpjumpers working well and should produce plenty of Redfin and some nice sized Yellowbelly also. Nash Hocking and Austin Laurie are still catching plenty of Yellowbelly in the Campaspe River at Rochester on Spinnerbaits.

Out of Town 

Ron from BT’s has reported plenty of Yellowbelly on the chew at Wentworth casting Jackal T/N 60’s at the structure from the bank.

Big XO sized Yabbies are going nuts at Barmah, focus on the rushes and around the bases of the big trees in the creeks and backwaters.

Christian Georgopoulos has had a cracker start to his Cod season, already catching 2 over 1 meter in the Murray, downstream of Cobram in the last week off the surface.



Mulwala and Bunderlong are fishing really well, with plenty of meter fish off the surface and some big fish caught on shallow big Divers such as the 1.8-2mtr 165mm Coddogs and shallow 130mm Whitecrows. A lot of the big fish have been caught in less than 3 meters of water.
The Harro’s boys from Harro’s Lures have had some great sessions using there blades in front of big deep divers catching multiple Cod over 75cm each session at Lake Eildon. Goughs Bay area the place to start.


Looking to wet a line next week then keep an eye on St Leonard’s for whiting or try off shore for a snapper or gummy shark in thirty to forty meters of water. On the freshwater front keep trolling the east bank at Lake Purrumbete for big brown trout.