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.

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.

Whiting reports are still good at the minute, with Port Phillip Bay firing up a bit more over the last 10 days.  Most anglers are fishing for the Whiting around the Mornington Peninsula, with plenty of fish around from Mt Martha through to Portsea.  Customer Henry caught his fair share off Sorrento pier while targeting Squid.  He had a second rod setup with small piece of mussel on a Black Magic KL 1/0 wafting in the tide, and ended up catching 6 Whiting, up to 41cm.

Along at McRae, the Whiting fishing has been good with lots of school sized fish moving along the beaches.  Fishing near Anthony’s Nose at night is popular with anglers and is a good spot to catch Whiting on a run out tide.  Mussel and Pipi are the best baits.

Squid numbers around the same areas have been good, as well as further up at Mornington.  Customer Pat went and threw a few jigs around Mornington North and managed a bag of 17 Squid between him and 2 mates, with the biggest being 400g.  2.5 size Yamashita Lives in Red Shrimp and Pilchard patterns were the best.

Staff member George fished for the Squid around Mt Martha and also caught a few, with the size being slightly larger.  Yamashita and Breaden jigs in bright colours worked well around the weedbeds and rock patches. 

Customer Ryan fished from the rocks along from Frankston and caught 7 Squid in a morning session.  Yamashita size 2.5 in QSK was his best jig.

Squid reports have been good over the last few weeks, especially during the periods of low rain.  Most regular piers and locations fishing well.  Cowes local, Joe, gave us a report that San Remo pier was fishing well for Squid around slack water during the week.  His best jig was a size Pink 2.5 Yakamito.

Customer David took his kids down to Sorrento over the weekend and had a fish off the pier for Squid.  He caught 5 Squid all on his ‘go-to’ jig, his Harimitsu 2.5 in VE22-EBR.

Staff member Harley fished Flinders pier targeting Squid and did well, with Squid just over a kilo hitting the planks of the pier.  Yamashita Live shallow 3.5 in RDBRAR and basic 3.0 in NSBG were the jigs that caught all his Squid.

Customers Ky and Ryan fished from the rocks along Mt Martha to catch Squid, early in the morning being best.  Yamashita jigs in natural colours fished well along the rocks.

Staff member Dylan fished with a mate around Blairgowrie Yacht Squadron after work to catch 7 nice Squid up to 500g.  Yamashita Naory 1.8B was the best jigs for the smaller Squid, while size 3.0 BLGKO caught the other Squid. 

Tran fished from the little pier at Mornington well into the night after the summer crowds died off, and that is when he caught his Squid.  He ended up with 8 Squid in 2hours.  The only jig that worked was his Sutte-R Yamashita in the Grass Whiting pattern.

Staff member Dylan had an afternoon fish around Mornington chasing Squid and Flatties for a feed.  The Squid around Mornington north are in good numbers but in such shallow water, they can be a bit cautious.  Longer leaders and small, natural jig presentations will catch more over these clear weedbeeds.  Ecogear Flashmax in F10CG worked well during the afternoon sun.

Whiting are in good numbers and excellent size in both bays.  The Newhaven area has good numbers of whiting around the 43cm size with most taken on squid and pippies.  Hayden reported using frozen whiting berley which kept the fish around without attracting ‘rubbish fish’.   

Team member George tried his luck off Mornington and Mt Martha, landing whiting up to 38cm on pipi/squid ‘cocktails’, and using prawn based berley pellets to keep the fish in the area.  Mornington Pier over Christmas also proved successful for Andre, who reported landing whiting up to 37cm and Salmon to 42cm.  The whiting have been best on mussel and pilchard fillet and the Salmon preferring the whitebait.

Customer John and two friends launched off Hastings at the change of tide and landed 40+ whiting up to 50cm, with the average around the 35cm on squid and pippies.  John’s tip – if you have not got onto the fish within 15minutes – move onto a new spot.

Whiting are also in good numbers around Beaumaris Bay in 7 metres of water with reports of fish up to 41cm being taken on pipi/mussel combo. 

The Entrance to Gentle Annie Channel is also starting to fire with customer Simon reporting taking whiting up to 40cm on pippies.  Also good sized Rock Flathead taken on pippies.


Squid are starting to make a return with reports from good customer Ahmad landing 6 squid up to 1kg on Sephia Deep jigs from Portsea Pier.  He also caught Mackerel and Trevally on Storm Pro Minnows in white.

Mornington is slow on the squid at this point, however Team Member George is confident the full moon will also bring them on again.  


Portsea pier has also been good for Squid lately, with customer Joe heading down in search of a cracker. While he didn’t get the monster he was after, he did manage 3 nice Squid to 1.2kg, and the most productive jigs were size 3.5 Dartmax TR’s in orange while the current was running hard.

Customers have also reported that Mornington Pier has been good of late for the squid. While they are small, they are perfect baits for Snapper and Mulloway. Fishing yamashita naorys around the small pier especially at last light is normally the way to go with the squid here.

Garfish are still present around many of the piers along the Eastern Seaboard of Port Phillip Bay, however not as many people seem to be catching them. Rocky has caught his fair share of Gars off Frankston, and has noticed that the fish seem to be sitting a lot deeper at the minute. He is fishing his sliding floats down around the 2m mark and catching plenty.

Portsea has some very large Garfish being caught at night, and they have been better over the new moon period. Maggots have been the best bait from this pier.

Staff members Andy and George had a ‘gar-a-thon’ down at Mornington Pier recently, and using a few different techniques, they managed about 70 gars between them in a short space of time. Both of the guys still claim that they won, but for everyone’s sake, we’ll just call it even!