Inspired by Sebb's post of his success fishing Clifton Springs on the yak, I wanted to give a locals insight into the underrated gem that Clifton Springs and surrounds is for us land-based and yak fishers. As a young bloke who has lived in Clifton Springs for over ten years now, and most importantly has spearfished pretty much every inch of the Curlewis bank, I can provide some great insight into secret spots and potential this area has.
LANDSCAPE
Lets start with the landscape, this section of the Curlewis bank has a diverse range of structure and bottom types all at a very shallow depth.
Attached is a photo of the area with bottoms and structure circled.
This section circled in blue is the heaviest natural structure along this stretch of beach and begins at the first point on the left away from the boat ramp. The bottom structure is a mix of clay flats, shell grit sediment and medium sized rocks and iron rich rocks. This section is very shallow and is exposed on a low tide and often is piled up in decomposing eel grass. The mix of bottom structure makes this an awesome spot to chase flathead and their lies are often see silhouetted in the clay. I catch a lot of octopus by using a traditional Indigenous method, we use a reed or cane pole sharpened at the end of poke octopus holes until the octopus tries to escape the hole when it is the netted/released. The reason we use a reed/cane is because it is flexible and this to travel into the hole.
CLAY FLATS
These are one of the only naturally exposed clay flats on the Bellarine, and they are very impressive. The bottom is a mix of mud and clay and is incredibly slippery, you can find big chunks of white, yellow and red ochre washed up along the shoreline. This section is very shallow and a great spot to chase flathead, mullet and flounder.
HEAVY SHELL GRIT
This point is where a lot of shell grit accumulates and it creates an amazing section of mud/sandy bottom with heavy grit, the perfect kgw spot. You can often see kgw cruising the shallows and if you were to wade out, you'd get them in 1-2m. Caught plenty here in summer while wading/spearing. Took this photo last month.
Since this whole area is really shallow, there isn't a huge amount of eel grass spread about. The thickest sections are by the boat ramp and the fishing pier (max 2m deep) is surrounded by thick eel grass. This makes for a great spot to chase calamari of a float (too shallow with jigs), mullet and garfish on a run out tide. There won't be heaps of gars but they will be big and a deeper colour green.
The second section is by the rockwall, there is a circle of heavy weed at around 2-3m deep which is killer for a floated jig or normal jigging. Get big squid here.
MUD SAND FLATS
This runs from the boat ramp edge all along to the Dell Reserve. This whole section is shallow, a matter of feet and can be very productive for kgw and flathead. The bottom is a mix of light rock, sand, mud and spots of shell grit. Photo attached. Good mix species.
This area offers some amazing fishing potential and you can catch a diverse range of species here. Some I often see a lot of are flathead, calamari and kgw with your less desirables of mullet, wrasse and others being caught too.
cheers.
