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| geelong & corio bay with geoff wilson |
Dated: 8 June, 2009
 | | Triple treat: Robert Coon with a good sample from the Corio Bay inner harbour. |
Queen’s Birthday Reds
Queen’s Birthday weekend is usually productive for Snapper aficionados on Corio Bay's inner harbour; those prepared to put up with the cold anyway. They were right on queue again this year and prepared anglers weren’t disappointed.
While the list of those taking bag limit catches of, what we used to refer to as double figure reds is a long one: Robert Coon, Tom Berry, Keith Robinson and Bill Athanasslies were among those to leave them biting and be back at their respective launching sites by 10.00 pm or so.
Fishing from a boat in glassy calm conditions on Saturday morning, Tony Hynds and Geoff Vanderbosch investigated a number of man made structures from Eastern Beach to Corio Quay.
Using both bibbed lures and soft plastics, they caught a variety of fish including Australian Salmon and bream, but pinkie Snapper – the biggest of which measured 48 cm – made up the greater part of their catch.
Most effective lures on the day were the Atomic 2# guzzler-prong in copper-flake and the Tiemco stick minnow.
Offshore
On Saturday morning, Andrew Phillips and Keith Fry took advantage of calm weather to head offshore from Barwon Heads where they anchored up in 40 metres of water hoping to catch a Gummy Shark or two.
They did eventually catch one of 10.1 kg, but that was in the afternoon after they’d caught and returned dozens of unwanted fish, mainly draughtboard shark.
 | | Red handed: Bill Athasslies with a nice pair of snapper from Corio Bay's inner harbour. |
Peninsula whiting
Jeff Richards complained that he had to work on Saturday and Sunday, which would have been OK except that the weather was great for fishing.
However, Jeff's neighbour, Bill Pilipasides, headed out onto the Prince George Bank at first light on Saturday where he first caught some southern calamari before making the journey to St Leonards hopeful of catching some whiting.
Bill finished up with 17 nice ones until the flood tide eased off late in the morning.
Barwon redfin
Stan Daglas of the Bellarine Light Game and Sportfishing Club tried his luck on the Barwon at Queens Park on Friday where he caught some small European Carp.
Also included in his catch though was a 1.1 kg redfin that took a mudeye that Stan cast out under a float.
Western District
Doug Lucas of Colac reports that both the Aire River at Horden Vale and the Gellibrand River at Princetown are open to the sea and producing bream. Doug fished both estuaries during the week and took bream on each occasion. Bait used was shrimp.
Doug mentions meeting Peter McFarland at Princetown who’d been fishing the nearby surf beach where his catch comprised 8 Australian Salmon from 700 grams to 1. 3 kg. These were all taken during the afternoon on cut pilchard.
Portland tuna
Last week, Andrew Johnson, along with Ian Oakley and his son Dean, headed off to Portland to try for tuna.
 | | Nice one: Stan Daglas with his redfin from the Barwon. |
Heading in the direction of Cape Nelson, where a good many bluefin have been taken of late, they hooked up on game fishing tackle in 80 metres of water and soon boated several fish they estimated to have been be from 18 to 25 kg.
With their early success, they decided to put small feather jigs out on their Snapper tackle to make the event more of a challenge. Needless to say, the next lot of fish they hooked took much longer to bring in.
Paul asks:
Geoff I’ve heard that if you wind braid onto your reel under too much tension it can spread the spool and damage the reel. Is that true?
Paul, If you wind nylon monofilament onto your reel under excessive tension, it may spread or warp the spool, especially the spools of cheap reels. This is because the stretched mono expands, exerting pressure on the sides of the spool.
However, gelspun lines, either braided or fused (all widely, but inappropriately described as braid) are no problems in that regard.
This is because, unlike monofilament, which stretches and becomes thinner under tension, braided or fused gelspun lines remain uniform in diameter under tension as they are wound onto the reel, and for that reason, pose no threat to the spool of your reel.
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Geoff Wilson
Fishnet Pro Angler
Email : geoffw10@optusnet.com.au
Fishing reports may be sent by e-mail, or mail to Geoff Wilson:
PO Box 384,
Geelong 3220. |
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