Kingfish in the bay

Adam Van Der Lugt with a bass from the Barwon River. (supplied)

The local fishing this past week has been quite interesting to say the least with reports of yellow tail kingfish being caught inside Corio Bay.

Yes, you read that correctly. Kings have been sighted and landed off Cunningham Pier with anglers getting arguably the surprise and fight of their fishing lives, hooking into these hard fighting thugs on light tackle. Anglers have been picking them up on pilchards and squid but I’m sure if you head down there and throw a few lures around they will snatch them up. Other anglers have been picking up plenty of other species like pinky snapper, flathead and silver trevally.

The northern side of the bay up around Avalon and bird rock has been fishing really well for King George whiting with anglers landing near bag limit captures of fish and some fish to over 40cm.

Fresh squid and pipis are dominating the reports this week and yet again soft plastics in a worm profile have been picking up plenty of fish also.

Snapper in the outer harbour have been chewing pretty good also with reports of fish to 5kg being landed. Fishing the tide change with silver whiting, pilchards and squid have been picking up fish.

The channel off Clifton Springs has been one of the many hot spots as well as the spoil grounds. Again soft plastics have been picking fish up also.

Offshore has seen the tuna bite really fire up with boats and anglers really getting stuck into the action landing lots of bluefin tuna all day and on various tactics. Anglers trolling earlier in the morning are picking up fish with divers and skirts assist with a spreader bar and as the day goes on casting lures into the schools of fish has been lethal to say the least.

Poppers and sinking stickbaits have been working a treat with fish ranging in size anywhere from 10 right up to over 20kg. There has still been a few kingfish reports come through but after the big swells the water has dirtied up a little made the fishing a little tough but after some days like what we’re getting it should clear up shortly.

The Barwon River saw some fantastic fishing this week with perch, carp, redfin, yellowbelly and bass all on the chew.

Anglers casting 3-4inch paddletail soft plastics with a jig spinner have been picking up plenty of fish and is what has been getting those rare natives. Worms have been a reliable bait and the humble corn has been getting the job done on carp.