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Apollo Bay and
surrounds
12 March 2008
With Daniel Kent
The hot weather just keeps coming, as do the flat windless days on the water. Everyone who owns a boat within a day's drive of Apollo Bay must have been out fishing on the long weekend, and while sharks were high on the hit list, it was the huge numbers of King George whiting that had everybody talking back at the boat ramp.
The sharks played hard to get and long hours where spent staring into the clear blue sea for nothing. Meanwhile the whiting fishers were hauling in big numbers right along the coast. The Elliot River region seemed to fish the best and I heard of bags of 34, 23 and 10 coming from this area late Sunday afternoon. I got onto a good patch of fish with my mate Robby and he also landed a nice silver trevally of 1.5kg. We took home over 20 good sized whiting including several fish of 47cm. Great fun on light line!
OFFSHORE
The sharks where hard to find this week with a few small makos being hooked and lost, and no reports of blue sharks at all. There are never-ending amounts of arrow squid out in the deep water and they make for a decent feed as well as top bait for the sharks. Huge schools of baby 'coutta have been spotted on the surface and the birds and dolphins have been giving them a hard time. This is a good area to pull up and berley for sharks.
INSHORE
King George whiting have been taken right along the coast on pipis and squid baits fished around small reef systems. The whiting seem to bite best around night fall. They will still bite during the day although sometimes the bites are very soft. Use light line and sinkers so you can detect the small nibbles and berley will help keep them around your boat.
WILD DOG BEACH
No signs of the salmon as yet. They should be around soon so keep an eye out for dark patches along the coast, or birds diving into the water. I like to get down to the beach at the very first sighting of a school and have the place all to myself. If you rock up to the beach and there is 30 people already fishing you're probably two days too late.
BOAT HARBOUR
Plenty of squid are still lurking in the harbour and they love small prawn style jigs in orange or pink when fished slowly over the weed beds.
Anchor up and berley with bread and pellets near the entrance for a chance of a silver trevally.
AIRE RIVER
The river was opened to the sea last week and the bream went ballistic. I caught 12 on an Ecogear SX40 lure while other fishermen where having success on scrubworms. This hot bite lasted for two days and as the river stopped flowing the fish stopped biting. Wait for the next opening and get down there.
BARHAM RIVER
I had a quick flick here on Friday but never had a bite. Try drowning a scrubworm behind the football oval for a chance of a bream.
This was one of a dozen bream taken from the Aire River on an Ecogear lure.
After the sun set behind the hills the King George just kept biting
more and more ferociously.
Robby Forester with some seriously big fillets of whiting!
Regards,
Daniel Kent.
See Daniel Kent's previous report here.
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