Hi Guys and welcome to this week reports. I have plenty of fishing reports this week although not to many for Corio Bay. I'm going to start this week telling you about the person whom if caught is in deep ****. Let me explain. On Fish Victoria the radio show we have a segment called "Dick o' the week" award this goes out to the fisho who commits a silly act, well this week I changed it to Prick of the Week. Let me tell the story...

During the middle of the week fisho Ray Johns had been giving the bay snapper a hard time, when it came time to leave he pulled up the pick and started to drift but the outboard motor refused to start. With in a few seconds Ray had drifted in to the path of on coming ship in the shipping channel, next thing Ray knew his boat was flipped over and Ray was clinging to his up turned hull, this is where it gets nasty. A fellow fisherman also on the snapper pulled up in a boat and Ray who was totally stuffed at this stage was shocked when the fisho said "are you alright, I can't help you, I'm in a hurray to get home", and with that he left the scene. Lucky for Ray local identity Ron Kitchen saw the upturned boat and sped to the area where he plucked Ray from the water. This is a mongrel act and if anyone finds out who this bloke is please report him to the police.

Corio Bay
Locally this week snapper reports have been slow, the only reports are of 2.5kg snapper at St Helens and of the end of Yarra St, both are good landbase or boating destinations. The snotties at Cunningham Pier have slowed a little I think this is due to the big schools of small barracouta that moved into the bay also there has been a big move in to the west end of Corio Bay by large schools of 20cm pinkie snapper. At Griffins Gully Jetty the first schools of small whiting are starting to appear. The best bait for the snotty trevalla is fresh chicken and the humble pippi is best for the whiting.

Another great report come via Terry Malone, who caught a good bag of flathead on pilchard baits, most fish were around 50cm in size at Pt Henry. Just outside the bay at Clifton Springs there have been good reports of snapper up to 4.5kg near the chair and along the edge of the channel. Over the other side of the outer harbor at Pt Wilson snapper up to 6kg, whiting to 33cm and flathead averaging 1.5kg in size are being caught, pilchards and squid are the best baits.


Bellarine Peninsula
If I were to recommend a place for fishos to get the best results it would have to be on the Bellarine Peninsula. At Portarlington Paul McGregor and Phil Lowe were fishing channel markers 3 and 4 when they caught 3 snapper at 2.5kg and 3 snapper at 1.5kg they also reported dropping 6 or 7 other fish. All the fish were taken on the last run out of the tide, squid was the performing bait.

Geoff and Shirley Green from Bellarine Bait and Tackle reported that customer Angelo caught 7 snapper up to 1.5kg at Indented Head. At St Leonards Geoff reports that whiting up to 40cm in size were caught on pilchard cubes at St Leonards Pier and good pinky snapper are being caught. At the Bluff and the Coles Channel good gummy shark up to 6kg, also monster garfish and some of the best-conditioned flathead I've seen in quite a while.

Swan Bay is still worth a look with good gummy sharks being caught and also flathead up to 3.5kg are about, the best bait is a pilchard. Lakers Cutting is worth a look, most fishos are reporting that bream averaging 950grms are being caught on live shrimp or frozen prawns. In the causeway at Queenscliff is a good spot to target silver trevelly up to 1.5kg in size, the change from low to high tide is the best time to target these fish.

In Port Phillip Heads fishos are reporting that good numbers of salmon are being caught on trawled white occy skirts. Also large numbers of squid are about. As far as snapper fishing goes, fishos using squid or pilchard baits on a 3 metre leader are having great success with snapper up to 7kg being caught on the run out tide. Bell Reef has been one of the best places for land based fishos to target squid, also good numbers of whiting are about off the Cottage By The Sea.

Surf Coast
Marty and Lisa from Martys bait and Tackle in Main St Barwon Heads reports that the Sheepwash area at Barwon Heads is fishing very well for the anglers who are prepared to fish the right tides. The high tide at the moment is best due to the very clear water and high salinity right up to the lake. Pinky snapper up to 35cm are being caught right through the system and although they are not in big numbers it's worth a look on the high tide.

Bank anglers and boaties are reporting that good silver trevelly up to 2.5kg are being caught, not in good numbers but worth a shot, whitebait, pilchard fillets and Bass yabbies are best. Bream are being taken right through the system. Gruvo and I fished with lure manufacture Mark Macdonald from Maccas Master Baits on Saturday and the bream didn't let us down... 8 bream on Bass yabbies in 2 hours. Mark got the biggest fish of 40cm. Marty also said that trawling Lofty lures up and down the river mouth gives you a great chance of catching Australian salmon.