Reel Life | Place your baits for snapper season

Rod said snapper were not schooling around Queenscliff.

Rod said the fishing in his area featured mixed species, including salmon, whiting, flathead and snotty trevalla, which is a shallow-water version of the blue-eye trevalla caught in deeper waters off New Zealand and the shelf around Tasmania.

Rod also said he was catching gummy sharks around the dive wrecks off Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads. Rod said the tuna had moved on and were now scarce. He said some tuna were reported in the Anglesea area.

In Western Port Bay, there were better results for snapper on the rubble beds in the shipping lanes off Hastings. The grass beds in the shallows were producing whiting as far as Phillip Island and the submarine.

While dealing with saltwater fishing, we’ll head north of the border to Eden. John Liddell said Mark at Freedom Charters was still bagging snapper, morwong and other table fish from the inshore reefs from Boyd’s lookout at Twofold Bay to the lighthouse at Green Cape near the Victorian border.

Mark said he was also catching big gummy sharks and large flatheads on the sandy bottom on the Victorian side. He said these fish were in deep water, and the best results were by using braid to overcome the amount of stretch in mono lines.

Fishing off the shelf has been patchy; according to Mark, kingfish, marlin and tuna have been scarce, and according to Graham Cowley, up the coast at Narooma, the fishing was the same, with most action on the inshore reefs and sandy bottom.

Graham said the fishing in the lake was more predictable, with bream, flathead and luderick or ‘blackfish’ being caught by anglers taking advantage of the lake when it was too rough.

Down south at Flinders Island, James Luddington said between the islands there were flathead and gummy shark, while on the inshore grass beds, King George whiting were being caught using squid tubes as bait.

We are now just a couple of weeks from the reopening of the cod season for rivers and waterways in Victoria and NSW. The date is November 30 at midnight; the same goes for NSW.

At present, only cod caught in Lake Eildon can legally be kept. Eildon is not considered a breeding ground for cod; however, size and bag limits stay the same.

Once again, the weather has been the primary factor in fishing in our region, with water levels and other factors making results patchy.

Releases from Eildon are also having an impact.

In the north-east, fishing has been better, with trout being taken on bait and lures in the upper reaches of the Ovens River from Myrtleford to Harrietville, and the tributaries are worth fishing, too, as is the Goulburn from Seymour to Eildon and above the lake.

Of course, you can add Dartmouth to the list of areas to fish in the north-east.

Redfin are being caught in the Waranga Basin. The best spots are around the water pumps at Harriman Point, as well as the deep water near the kite flyers and the old quarry, trolling minnow-style lures — mainly pink or purple are best. Make sure you bounce them along the bottom. Most of the fish are small, but some larger ones can be caught.

We are fast approaching Christmas, and that means we had better start writing a wish list.

It is time to visit Trelly’s to see the latest gear.

There are new rods, reels and other gear that no angler should be without, as well as lines, lures, hooks and sinkers, all valuable additions to any tackle box.

So keep that in mind, along with staying safe. I see there was a fatality from what is believed to have been a snake bite; get a decent first aid kit you can take with you, as well as a book on how to treat snake bites.