Hi again. I have to say sorry for the last 4 or so weeks, but I can say that you haven't missed much on the report front. I have spent the last few weeks going back through my diary in search of a pattern but I have to say that the fishing has never been so bad. Even on the Fish Victoria radio show we did a 1/2 hour special on locations due to the fact that the reports were so few. When I had to choose a spot to go fishing myself it took a fair while and although all my trips were very successful I can feel for the fisho who spent a lot of money and time for zero results. But as the fishery starts to pick up those quiet times I hope will go away. (Lets go fishing).

Corio Bay
Still very quiet but there is a glimmer of light on the horizon. During the last week or so Phil Lowe and his son fished of Clifton Springs where they caught 3 snapper up to 3.95kg on squid baits, in other parts of the bay things are slow. There was some hope that the large amounts of small flathead that were in the outer parts of the bay would come in to give us at least some fish didn't happen.

For the bank fisho there is the odd silver trevally being caught from Cunningham Pier but the main species keeping the fisherman going is mullet and although they are small there is plenty to go around. The best bait is fresh chicken or pippi and a good amount of berley helps. Yarra Street Rock wall is the same.

Bellarine Peninsula
Geoff and Shirl From Bellarine Bait and Tackle reported a huge school of salmon stretching from Indented Heads to Swan Bay on Tuesday and although some have gone the fishing is good... the only thing is that most of the salmon are small.

At Portarlington Pier there were two fishermen who were caught with large numbers of undersize salmon and consequently had all of their gear and their car impounded.

Further around at St Leonards there are whiting still being caught and although they are only in small numbers the whiting being caught are 34cm in size. John Amotts had no trouble catching his 10 nice whiting. Squid are very plentiful over the weed banks.

A little bit off track but if the fishing is hard there is another choice if you are on the Bellarine Peninsular, "carp fishing". Martin Reed caught this pair (above) in the Drysdale Lake.

Surf Coast
Not much is on the beaches at the moment, yeah sure you will get the odd salmon or mullet but it really is quiet. The only good things that come to my attention was from Ken Ritchy who reported some sharks off Ocean Grove.

In the Barwon Estuary there is the odd trevally but mostly things are quiet. The Angelsea River is worth a look the mouth may have opened in the last 2 days since I was there, the water was already 4 ft or so higher than normal and the river started to get a small amount of flow. If you fish with Bass yabbies or small crabs you are in with a shot but for me it has been soft plastics and my fishing mates and I have caught around 10 bream up to 37 cm on each outing. Oops sorry BloodWorm Squidgy in 65 or 80mm is best.

Till next week, happy fishing,
John Didge

See John's previous report here.