Over the last week many more Salmon reports have come through, with a majority of them by landbased anglers fishing the Eastern Seaboard of Port Phillip Bay.  Customer Justin has been catching regularly from Mordialloc Pier.  Whitebait or Bluebait under an LED float has been his favoured method, with the occasional fish taking a metal lure or soft plastic. 

Michael came into the shop over the weekend and reported smaller numbers of Salmon but better size with his largest going 1.2kg, taking on a white/glow GIllies Baitfish lure.  He also had gar rods rigged up and managed to catch 9 Garfish on maggots in between catching Salmon.

Customer Justin also gave us the heads up on a large school of Salmon moving between Seaford and Frankston piers.  Justin said that the conditions were 'tough' with onshore winds and rain making for a wet but successful session.  Justin got over 20 fish between the two piers, with the 70mm Squidgy flickbait in 'new' Pilchard pattern - without the dots.  Most of Justin's fish were spitting up small whitebait which is why this soft plastic worked so well.

On the bayside Beaches, the Salmon have been quite good; Gunnamatta Beach is the hot spot at the minute, with most anglers catching here.  The fish are averaging about 800g with some larger fish about.  Customer Matt was lucky enough to find one of these larger fish, weighing a massive 3.9kg which is very exceptional for here.  This thumper took a whole Bluebait wrapped in 'baitsock' to stop smaller fish picking away at it, and also to prevent cast-offs.  Customer Alin went and had a spin at Gunnamatta as well, having a quiet session with just 2 smaller fish, both on the Pilchard pattern Maria Duplex.  These lures are excellent off the beaches; they are designed to cast well due to heavy weight, and have a tight swimming action at faster speed retrieves and can also be sunk down deeper under the foamy water to where the fish are holding.

On the Squid and Whiting scene, southern Port Phillip has been reasonably good over the last week.  Bill and John went out and smashed the Squid off Woolies Reef just north of Mornington, with both of them fighting over a size 2.5 Q-Live in colour NSBG.

Customers Tran and Ryan have caught Squid at Mornington Pier, with size 2.5 Q-Lives in RDRA colour being a standout.  Ryan also caught 3 larger Squid from the rocks along Mt Martha, with all 3 taking a size 3.0 Haramitsu in EWC colour.

Customer Eddy has been catching lots larger Garfish from the rocks at Mt Martha.  Eddy has caught Garfish up to 42cm using Silverfish here.

Staff member Dylan caught a few smaller Squid from the Blairgowrie Yacht Squadron over the weekend, all on Yamashita Naory jigs.  The Squid here seemed to bite better just after the top of the tide.  The same session yielded some nice size Whiting 34-37cm from the shore at McCrae, on fresh Squid during the run out tide.

Customer Phillip says that Rye Pier has also been good for Squid lately.  Most of the Squid are getting caught here at night, and on full glow jigs like Yamashita RWF.


Over the last few weeks, anglers have found the Mornington Peninsula has been fishing well with plenty on offer.  Water temperatures have dropped a few degrees, with the Snapper bite still good, along with schools of salmon on the bite off Mornington through to Dromana.  In close, the Squid and Whiting fishing has still been good also.

Staff member Chris has still been catching Snapper to 3kg in 18m off Mornington, with the majority of the fish taking Silver Whiting baits fished on ‘Citer Skirt’ rigs.  Chris also says that there are still large numbers of Garfish and Mackerel around in the deeper water.

Customer Ahmad has also been catching lots of Pinkies, with the larger fish being around the 2kg mark.  Ahmad has been fishing just off Schnapper Point.

Customer Cam went out and got on to some nice Salmon off Fisherman’s Beach recently.  He found that the smaller metal slugs matched the Whitebait schools that the fish are eating.  Customer Damian also fished around the same areas and found that again smaller metal lures, along with small soft plastics in natural or white patterns did the damage.  The bigger fish in the schools have been close to 2kg.  The boys also caught some nice Flathead up to 45cm in the shallows, on soft plastics.

Pier anglers Mark and Henry have also experienced some Salmon action.  While the fish haven’t ventured close to the pier much, the guys were lucky enough on one occasion with schools of fish boiling on the surface just within casting range.  Henry caught most of the fish on Bluebait fillets while Mark caught some on Squid strips.

The Squid action has heated up at Mornington, with the small pier fishing well.  Lots of locals are doing well on the Squid around last light and then again later during the night.  Most of the Squid are being caught on the smallest jigs available, Yamashita Naorys in sizes 1.5 and 1.8, in pinks, reds and gold/brown base colours.  Larger jigs will work but when the Squid here are timid the smaller jigs work much better.  Staff member Dylan caught a few from the pier during the week, all on the Breaden 2.5 ‘carrot stick’

Customer Laszlo spent a few hours on the pier and caught 5 Squid on the Yamashita Sutte-R in ‘coke bottle’

Customer Ryan has still been catching good Squid from the Rocks around Mt Martha, with the biggest being over a kilogram.  Yamashita Live size 3.0’s and Yo-Zuri Ace in 2.5’s have been his best jigs, with blues and oranges working well.

Mornington through to Mt Martha has still been good for Snapper over the last week; and while the weather hasn't been all too kind, when it clears up the Snapper will feed voraciously.  Staff member Dylan got out before work during the week, and landed a few fish around 3-4kg.  Different baits were used, with Red Rocket, Whiting, Squid and Trevally all getting attention.  The hot area has been close by the Mussel Farm in 18m of water.

Customer Joe also reports of plenty of Pinkies off Frankston, most averaging about 30-35cm.  Joe has been catching all of his fish on pieces of Garfish, which are also very prolific in the bays at the minute.

If you thought Snapper Season was well and truly done, then think again!  If you want a chance to tangle with some late season Reds, get out along Mornington-Mt Martha now!  Good schools of fish are being caught in southern Port Phillip Bay, around the areas along the Mornington Mussel Farm, with a few more fish scattered right through to southern Mt Martha/Dromana.  Most of the action is over by about 9am, so it pays to get out on the water and set up before first light.

Staff members Ian and Chris went out on Wednesday morning to tally up 7 nice fish, with the biggest going around 4.5kg.  All of the fish took Whiting, while Red Rocket is also a good bait to try.

  

If you are into collecting fresh baits, the area between Frankston-Mt Eliza-Mornington has been good for Squid over the shallow beds, while Mornington Pier has been fairly good for Squid on smaller jigs and Garfish on Silverfish early and late in the day.  Out from Schnapper Point, there have been some nice schools of Slimeys and Horse Mackerel also to keep the bait jigs busy.

Other species in good numbers around Seaford have been Gars.  These have been taken off the Seaford Pier mostly late afternoon and on Silverfish.   Mornington has not been quiet either, with Wayne taking good sized squid, 30cm hood, in good numbers from the Mornington Rocks area.  Dartmax UV colours working best.

Team Member Dylan, had a good days success on Portsea Pier landing squid around the 1kg mark.  Best jigs where Harimitsu 3.5 in red/gold base jigs colours.  Peter also reported great success the Shimano Keimera squid in 3.0 and 3.5, also in red based, brown jigs.

Over the other side of the bay at Queenscliff, customer Ryan had good success with squid being taken off the pier.  He also reported good numbers of Salmon and Pike around the Harbour.  Dartmax bumble bees and Berkley bass minnows working best for results.