Snapper season set to fire

This week has been windy enough to blow the spots off a trout! But with the start of snapper season pretty much underway and enough squid and garfish in the bay to walk across their backs, you just can't keep the diehards down!

Port Phillip Bay
Someone said wattle blossom and in through the door walks a very fresh looking snapper caught by a very happy young man named Alex. After fishing for some squid on Friday, young Alex was motoring around the mussel farm inside Beaumaris and noticed that his fish finder had some very nice sized fish marks on it. Having confidence in his electronics and believing these marks to be snapper, Alex carefully tied on a jighead and loaded it with a 5" Gulp Jerk Shad soft bait and cast it out. Working it off the bottom just twice, the line came tight with some good headshakes and it was on! A few minutes later Alex netted this lovely 2.8kg snapper. A beautiful fresh run fish with clean looking fins and silver sides. Well done to Alex for catching this great fish, the first snapper that we have had through the store of the 09/10 season.

Garfish have turned up in good numbers over the last week and can be caught from most local piers. As is the case with most gar seasons, when these fish turn up they need quite a bit of convincing to come close to any pier because of a well established squid population that where there before them. Berley is the key to tempting them in close enough to catch with float fishing gear. Remember, berley a little amount a lot of the time. Try not to break the trail by keeping your berleying efforts consistent.

HOT TIP......If there is one tip you must know about catching garfish and how to catch a lot of them, it is that you need to use the right hook and bait combo. The best hook of all is a Japanese made 200R size 12 baited with a small amount of either silver fish, Moon Dough or two maggots. The amount of bait on the hook is critical. Too much and the fish can't get it all in its mouth in one shot giving you a false reading on your float and no fish on your line!

Squid are still on the move in the bay and are available on almost any patch of reef you can find! Big squid have been turning up at Portsea pier over the last week, some being caught on baited jigs and some on lures. One customer reported catching 10 lovely squid between 700g and 2kg on lures. The water was a little discoloured because of the nor-westers but the squid where still on the bite!

Speaking of squiding, Lou Rocca and Eren fished Queenscliff Pier on Sunday this week for little result. A midday fish at half tide probably didn't help but one thing that was interesting was when they got there, Eren looked down into the water and saw a rod tip floating past. Both boys pointed and laughed wondering where the other half of this rod was - who could be silly enough to drop their rod tip into the water!!?? After the chuckling had subsided the boys grabbed their gear to start rigging up. You know where this is going don't you! Lou? 1 x 2pc rod complete. Eren? 1 x 2pc rod butt section only! So the day turned a little sourer for our part-timer but the laughing didn't stop there. He hadn't told the boys at the shop yet!

Some lovely big mullet are starting to show their heads in Mordi creek. Locals are catching them on fine gauge treble hooks loaded with bread/dough. Fish to 500g are becoming more common. Beware of the monster carp that will eat your bait and run off with your gear!

Western Port
If wind was catchable on a rod and reel then the Port would be going off!

Eren, Lou and Lee fished Flinders on Sunday afternoon and while the boys did no good, one angler did manage a lovely squid of around 2 kgs which was taken on a silver whiting.

Out of Town
Good mate Mick Teller fished the Glenelg River at Nelson last weekend and had a great old time. He fished upstream of the township for two days and caught two jewies and some nice bream. One of the mulloway was caught on a live tommy rough and the other on a Jackall TN60 Brown Dog. The bream were caught on chicken fished on the bottom.

Barry Stuart caught and released a Murray cod of over 120cm out of the Murray at Lindsey on the weekend. Nice work Barry!

Lakes Entrance has been fishing well of late. Local fishing gun Lucas Smith reports that the surf has been firing up with salmon and tailor to 2kg on the run in tide. Best baits are blue bait and pippie. The jetties in lakes are going well also with trevally, bream and luderick being caught by holidaymakers.

The Tambo and Mitchell are fishing really well for bream and flatties above the bridges, mainly on 3" plastics and sinking hard bodies. Around the mouths of these to rivers the water is very clear making fishing quite tough!
Good mates and customers Dimi and Ari fished the Tambo last weekend and had a great time catching a heap of bream between 25 and 38cms on live freshwater yabbies and a few on vibe lures.
Offshore, plenty of small snapper and gummies are being caught around the reefs and good flatties and gummies in closer.

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