The Pelican's Pick
Friday, 26 April
Matt, his father Rodger, and son Lachie have been fishing the north shore out from Portland recently, and have been catching some absolute cracking gummies, schoolies, and snapper.
This week, they took the opportunity with the spectacular weather to hit their favourite spot on the north shore, where they were having a hot pinkie snapper session. They were fishing on the anchor with a burley trail in around 13m, using mostly squid and pilchard as baits. Lachie caught this remarkable King George whiting in amongst the very nice snapper. This whiting measured an impressive 53cm, caught with bait on a 3/0 hook. Great catch Lachie sounds like a successful day out on the water!
Along the Coast
Portland has been barrel central this week, with the big bluefin showing up in numbers and plenty landed. Portland bay has been fishing well for big King George whiting and snapper, and wider offshore good sized gummies have been landed.
The Gippsland Lakes are fishing well at the moment, with decent bream being caught on lures and fresh shrimp. The hot spots are around Holland Landing, around the jetties and structures near Paynesville, and around the silt jetties along the Mitchell River. There are big fish out on the flats, particularly on the Eagle Bay side when there is a bit of breeze.
There are big schools of large tailor around in Lake King trolling 7-12cm hard body lures, such as the Rapala Ripstop, between the mouth of the Mitchell River and Metung, that’s where you’ll find them!
Down near the entrance, Australian salmon are being caught and land-based fishers are getting in on the catch casting metal slices off Bullock Island. Good numbers of sand crabs can be found late afternoon and night.
Offshore along the 90 Mile Beach, the gummy sharks have been biting along with plenty of pinkie snapper. A good location to start is off The Pines just down the west from Lakes Entrance. There are still larger snapper about on the offshore reefs out from Corner Inlet and the gummies are taking fresh slimy mackerel baits.
The 90 Mile Beach has been producing impressive sized Australian salmon caught on both bait and lures.
Lake Tyers continues to fish well for both bream and flathead on lures and bait. The flathead are looking for the last areas of warm water, probably further up the Nowa Nowa Arm, especially given the high water level and cooling conditions.
The first of the season’s broadbill have been landed at Lakes Entrance, with the calm days earlier in the week seeing a number of boats fishing the shell and having success.
Inside Corner Inlet, both Port Welshpool and Port Albert are producing gummies in deeper holes, with fresh salmon and squid being the best baits. Flathead are still about in good numbers, with people getting their bags including bigger yanks. The Australian salmon are around and they are taking lures and pilchard baits.
Shallow Inlet is producing bags of King George whiting on bass yabbies & pipis. You’ll also find lots of small whiting, so there’s a bit of work scouting the legal size and bigger catches.
Inland
Autumn days are here, and with the big high-pressure systems and strong cold fronts, the big highs bring cool and foggy mornings and sunny warm blue sky afternoons. This is a great time of year for fishing the inland waters with some stable weather and barometers.
The cool and clear flowing waters of the Goulburn River below Eildon to Alexandra have seen good numbers of rainbow trout being caught, with lures such as Rapalas cast across the deeper runs producing fish. Fly fishers nymphing ‘down and across’ or casting nymphs upstream under a dry fly indicator are also enjoying the abundance of fish in the river. It’s not until late in the day when you can see just how many fish are in the river as they feed at the surface on aquatic emergers such as mayflies and caddis. Black cricket patterns, despite being cumbersome to cast, are also accounting for fish.
Access on the Goulburn River at Gilmore Bridge between Thornton and Alexandra is still challenging with works recommencing this week; traffic management, heavy machinery and speed reductions are in place with parking recommended on the northern side of the bridge.
The Stevenson River between Buxton and Marysville has been popular with fly fishers, with small rainbow and brown trout occupying the faster flowing riffles. It’s particularly clear at the moment, with fish holding along the shaded margins. The Delatite River around Marimbah is crystal clear and begging for the attention of a dry fly seeking ‘mountain sized’ healthy rainbow trout.
Lake Eildon has slowed somewhat with early season trout being targeted by anglers trolling lures in the Big River Arm. Scrub worms slowly towed behind paravanes or cowbells are also producing larger brown trout, the trick being to keep the boat speed down to a slow walking pace. Similar reports are also coming from Coller Bay, with trout taking trolled Tassie Devils approximately 30m out from the banks. Small golden perch and redfin have been caught on baits from the bank in the upper Delatitie Arm towards Walsh’s Cove. Murray cod up to 130cm have been caught on lures and plastics cast into structure, and the entrance to Ford Inlet is becoming a new destination for some trophy sized cod.
The Eildon Pondage sees brown trout caught on both powerbait and local dough, and anglers casting winged pink lures along Bourke Street are taking a number of large hungry rainbows. Spiny freshwater crays are pinching baits and active again at the Pondage with the arrival of cooler weather, however, the season does not open until the 1st of June so any early captures must be released back to the water.
The Chinook salmon have been on the chew at Bullen Merri, with some nice fish caught this week.
Lake Toolondo is starting to produce legal sized salmonids, with rainbow trout being caught in the 35cm to 38cm range on worms and powerbait, along with the odd redfin. Reminder though, that Toolondo has specific regulations that applies with a combined bag limit of 3 salmonids per day, and minimum legal size is 30cm for rainbow trout and 45cm for brown trout.
Lake Lascelles and Willow Lake at Hopetoun has been producing good numbers of silver perch and golden perch along with redfin and eel-tailed catfish being caught on worms or vibe lures.
Around the Bays
The lower Yarra is on fire at the moment, which is great news for the land-based fishers The Warmies is the go-to location this week, because fishers are consistently catching their bag limit of pinkies and some over 40cm being caught. There are a lot of small ones around them though, so be sure to measure your fish and release the small ones safely so that they can grow and be back for round two next year. Success seems to be best with pilchards and chicken as bait, and another good location at the moment is Point Gellibrand.
There are still plenty of mackerel about up the top of the bay and some nice Australian salmon schools are around as well. They are holding in close around the rocks and points, so fishing in close is working a treat for bags of both.
The Bellarine and Mornington peninsula’s are both holding good numbers of calamari at the moment. Most of the weed beds are fishing well by drifting with size 3 jigs. If you find the right patch, you’ll find bigger models around. The King George whiting are continuing to bite well in both bays.
Tight lines – Mr Percy!