The Pelican's Pick

Friday, 2 May

An open mouth at Lake Tyers and delightfully warm weather has seen some impressive fishing reports from the area! Neil and Berni are a great example of this when they headed out for a fish over the cracking long weekend. A stunning Friday morning session saw the pair getting stuck into the flathead measuring up to 76cm, bream and trevally. Lures and soft plastics were the choice for targeting these quality fish.

If you’re out fishing this week and would like to feature in Pelican’s Pick, send your photos to pelicanspick@vfa.vic.gov.au.

Along the Coast

Salmon are being caught off the Surf Coast beaches using pilchards and soft plastics.

Down the southwest, the barrel bonanza continues as big tuna are consistently being caught off Portland and Port Fairy. For those with the setup for it, May is a great time for deep sea fishing off Portland, so get prepared!

Offshore at Lakes Entrance, snapper are being caught over the reefs on bait, with gummy shark and flathead closer to shore, and a few kingfish still around the reef systems.

In the Gippsland Lakes, a few King George whiting are starting to appear around Metung, though numbers are still low. Rivers leading towards the lake mouths are fishing well with bait and lures, and there have been solid catches of dusky flathead on hardbody lures and soft plastics.

At Lake Tyers, flathead are biting in the lower lake and bream are taking baits up the arms. The Snowy River at Marlo is producing good numbers of bream on bait near the lake and perch are taking lures around the islands.

Cape Conran is fishing sturdy with good numbers of gummy shark and large schools of salmon moving along the beaches, and a few kingfish still hanging around offshore.

Around the Bays

Plenty of slimy mackerel are around Mornington, making it a good spot to stock up on bait. Land-based anglers did very well fishing off Werribee, Mt Martha, and Black Rock catching snapper and gummies.

All the rest of your bread-and-butter species - whiting, squid, salmon and flathead are fishing consistently well right across the bay. Make the most of the odd warm days still kicking around before we head into winter and generally slower fishing across the state.

Despite the wind and rain, Western Port still produced good fishing over the long weekend. The temperatures are suitable for gummies at the moment, so get out there and have a crack at this terrific shark fishery. As always, fresh baits are key for targeting your sharks. Everyone’s favourite eating species, whiting and squid, are still kicking around right across the bay. A silver whiting trailing on a spike under a float while on the drift is a great way to improve your calamari catch rate.

If you’re keen for some hard fighting fish on light gear, there are good numbers of silver trevally and salmon in Western Port at the moment. Throwing slugs for the salmon and plastics for both species can produce some really fun sessions on these fighting fish.

Inland

All our large inland lakes are still producing good numbers of Murray cod. Head out to any of the renowned fisheries at Lake Eildon, Nagambie, Lake Eppalock, Cairn Curran or Rocklands Reservoir for a crack at some good fishing. As we head closer to the winter months, it’s expected that the number of catches will decrease, but this is also when we will see those Jeremy Wade-like River (and lake) Monsters caught.

Solid cod are still being caught throughout the Goulburn in and between Nagambie and Shepparton. The boardwalk at Nagambie continues to produce little reddies and yellowbelly also, try locating the schools for volume.

It’s a good time of the year for redfin, especially the larger models. They’re active southwest of the state, including Wurdiboluc, the lakes past Colac, and in the creeks and reservoirs along the Macedon Ranges.

For the trout fishers, temperatures are soon to really cool down, and the fishing should pick up. At the moment though, the cool upper streams in the High Country are still fishing well, as is the Goulburn. Otherwise, Australian bass are providing good action at Blue Rock Lake.

A special shoutout goes out to Cody who did well over the school holidays catching a nice yella out of the northern Victorian channels, as well as good numbers of redfin and cod out of the Campaspe.

Tight lines – Mr. Percy!