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Hardy souls brave the elements
  |  First Published: August 2016



The cold weather continues, but there have been those hardy souls who have been prepared to brave the elements, and some are having success.

Through the week, I received news that Russell Ferguson hooked into and landed a very nice 8kg snapper off Corinella. Naturally, the man has bragging rights for some time yet. There was also news that Bert from Inverloch also hooked into a 7kg snapper. Of course the fish are always around, it’s just that there’s not as many fishers chasing them.

The area around Cape Paterson is always worth a visit, where there have been very good size whiting being caught fairly close to the shoreline. The best of the baits have been Bass yabbies, squid, sand worms and even small lures. The idea as far as these fish are concerned is to pick what is known as broken ground and the holes will come up as light patches of water. Fish on the edge of the clear water for best results. The whiting are often to the 50cm mark, which puts them well into the 1kg range. Boats naturally offer a wide range of spots to try your luck, but there is also very good fishing from the shoreline.

At this time of year, it’s not uncommon to see the estuary fish such as perch, bream, mullet and eel numbers increase. This is no doubt due to the coldest water temperatures. For example, the Tarwin River has been very productive and the Wonthaggi Angling Club, whose members did very well on the perch recently.

There was a report that a local angler was determined to catch a fish and was out in his boat looking for a perch, has been the club’s fish of the month. Out on the water, he was very intent, looking at his depth sounder, just crawling along at a slow speed. Around and around, up and down he went, stopping and starting, apparently not looking where he was going. That is until there was a lady on a nearby bank, very nearby as it turned out. Apparently this lady does not swear, but on this occasion she made an exception. In no uncertain terms she described in colourful language what she thought of the boater entering her space, and to make things worse he couldn’t escape, as his motor wouldn’t restart. He was eventually towed to relative safety. As it turned out the unnamed boater actually caught one very unfortunate perch that was weighed in, but not heavy enough to earn him a prize.

There was yet another report that involved a local fishing legend. Steve Waldron is a nice bloke and a very keen angler, who seldom fails to catch a fish. This time, however, the boot was on the other foot. It turns out he was out in a boat battling a fish and was about to bring the big fellow aboard. As we all know, you don’t celebrate until the fish is safely in the boat. Then, and only then the celebrations may begin.

This nearly happened on this occasion, only nearly though. What happened was that as the hapless angler was on his victory stroke; the lure broke free at the vital moment. The hook now becomes an unguided missile, so to speak, looking for somewhere to penetrate. Before he realised, Steve had it stuck securely in his right ear and that was where it stayed until after considerable pain, yelling and cursing, it was removed. A bemused and somewhat confused doctor would no doubt be wondering how this could possibly have happened.

There have been quite a few other reports from this area where bream are also in fairly good numbers for those who know where to look. The bream have not been huge in size, but to the 1kg mark they will put on a very impressive performance.

Silvers are also making an appearance along with eels that have also been making up bags, but the slimy ones are probably better off as eel bait due to their high oil content.

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