My earliest memories of fishing in Lorne may have been from the 80’s where I fished for Yellow-eye Mullet in the St. Georges River a few kilometres to the southwest. We used float fishing techniques an bread dough for bait. I do recall catching quite a big Galaxias as well, but I really can’t tell you what species it was.
It was only until after I moved to Werribee that Lorne was much more accessible. I recall my first rock fishing session there. I don’t remember which year or month it was, but I do remember the first fish and how. I had stumbled on a nice rocky headland and decided to try and fish it using some prawns. On the first drop, and within seconds, with much suprise, I had hooked into a fully grown male Blue-throated Wrasse [#24], which led to my life long obsession with catching wrasse from the rocks here. It was the first time I had ever seen a wrasse, but it is such a stunning looking fish. Blue-throated Wrasse are quite easily told apart from the other common wrasse, the Saddled Wrasse (see below) because they always have yellowish fins. The immatures are quite similar as well, but just check the fins to be sure.
Blue-throated Wrasse - Notolabrus tetricus #24
Blue-throated Wrasse - Notolabrus tetricus
Blue-throated Wrasse - Notolabrus tetricus
Within a few minutes of catching the Blue-throated Wrasse, I pulled out another wrasse, the Saddled Wrasse [#25]. I found these to be the most common of the wrasses in the western part of Victoria and have given good sport throughout the years. They are usually grey or brown with yellowish saddles along their backs.
Saddled Wrasse - Notolabrus fucicola #25
Saddled Wrasse - Notolabrus fucicola
Saddled Wrasse - Notolabrus fucicola
Saddled Wrasse - Notolabrus fucicola
Saddled Wrasse - Notolabrus fucicola
Amongst the wrasse, I also caught a weird fish with cirri on it’s dorsal fin and white spots on its gills, a Western Kelpfish [#26]. These are a temperate relative of the colourful coral reef dwelling hawkfishes.
Western Kelpfish - Chironemus georgianus #26
Western Kelpfish - Chironemus georgianus
Western Kelpfish - Chironemus georgianus
Western Kelpfish - Chironemus georgianus
In the next post I will talk about the other species I'd caught around Lorne and the Great Ocean Road.
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