Corio Bay
Fishing very well for both yank and rock flathead to 50cm. Top baits are pilchard fillets followed by soft plastic lures cast around in 2-4m of water. King George whiting are biting well right in the inner harbour. Most fish are between legal and 35cm, but in good numbers.

An unusual amount of gummy sharks have been caught around the regular Corio Bay snapper haunts with some nudging over 6kg. Silver whiting fished unweighted for snapper is what most people are catching them on.

The piers have been patchy, but earlier this month there were a few trevally about for the early bird angler on Cunningham Pier. St Helens Rockwall has produced some small pinkies to 40cm and some great flatties to 50cm just on dusk.

Bellarine Peninsula
The snapper have been going bananas in 20 meters of water straight out off Portarlington, St Leonards and Indented Head, with fish from 4-6kg the average. Anglers fishing the reef areas after dark have produced fish in ones and twos up to 5.5kg. The decent flathead inside Corio Bay have also been caught in and around Portarlington. Plenty of calamari are available from Portarlington to St Leonards with the shallow reef areas off Indented Head being the pick of the three.

The whiting grounds out near the Prince George Light and in the shallows of St Leonards and Indented Head have produced sporadic captures of fish from 33-37cm on the outgoing tide. Silver trevally have remained an option in the Queenscliff Harbour and there are also a few whiting to 36cm being taken in here too. Out near the entrance to Swan Bay there have been some ripper yank flatties to 1.5kg taken just on dusk, plus garfish and small salmon.

The salmon in the rip are still going great guns with recent reports suggesting schools of 3kg fish have moved in, but are unpredictable. The big calamari in and around Queenscliff have been patchy this year. Some anglers get them one day and they have moved on the next day – very hard to predict.

Barwon Heads
Bream to 900g are available to anglers fishing upstream with Bass yabbies, and good numbers of whiting have been biting very well on the incoming tide. The whiting are only up to around 35cm in length, but in good numbers and biting freely on easy baits like pipi. Larger whiting to 48cm can be caught down the mouth of the river, but are a little patchy at best. The mouth on the outgoing tide and the shallow reef areas have been best.

Thresher sharks have turned up offshore, as well as plenty of bait to get the food chain going such as krill, yakkas, salmon and barracouta by the hundreds. Seven gill sharks have been hooked by plenty of snapper fishermen. Those staying connected have boated seven gill sharks in excess of 35kg. Good numbers of snapper from 35cm to 5kg have been taken around the shallow reefs with the deep rubble beds fairing better on larger fish. Big tiger flatties are available for those anglers that can get past the barracouta while drifting in 35–40m of water.

Thirteenth Beach has produced a few salmon from 1.2-1.5kg with dusk and small pilchards being the best combination. Plenty of big gummies are also kicking about with a member of Drysdale Sportfishing Club boating one of 28kg recently.

Torquay
The big whiting are still about for those keen to fish after dark with fish from 38-48cm available in the shallows. These have been ignored for the very good snapper fishing since early October with recent captures of fish over 9kg taken on silver whiting and fresh squid. Average snapper sizes here have been 4-6kg and best depths seem to be 20-30m. Again, a few sharks are showing up for anglers fishing out wide, and the area is thick with barracouta to 1m in length.

If you have any reports, please send an email to me and include the angler, location (within reason if it's a secret spot), species, time and date of capture. A picture of the catch may be included.

Fish HARD - Die Happy!
Cheers, NS

See previous Geelong, Bellarine Peninsula, West Coast reports here.