Yes, you heard right! Snapper in winter in Port Phillip! The fish have been quite good through the last few months, and are still there for anglers to catch. Fishing out wide from anywhere along the peninsula is the shot, depths of 20-22m are the go.

Customer Mark has been smashing them, and he got a few more nice fish last week. Sitting in 21m off Mornington with baits of pilchard and squid, Mark bagged fish from 4.5 - 6.5kg. Mark also got a few small Gummies in the same area on the same baits.

The Salmon are still going very well in Port Phillip Bay at the moment with Mordialloc pier being popular, especially in an onshore wind.  Customer Joel caught fish up to 35cm using the MIH coloured Maria Duplex hardbodies, after seeing a few others catching on the same lure.  He also caught 2 Salmon from Beaumaris pier as well.

Customer Zoran has been catching plenty of Salmon out from Mornington and yet again got onto them with a few mates, and mainly getting them on 3'' plastics like Reaction Minnows and Bass Minnows.  Late in the day Zoran said the Pinkies started showing up, with fish to 44cm taking the same plastics.

 

Good customer Bob has also been having fun with the Salmon along the beach at Mt Martha.  He has been fishing small pieces of bluebait under a float and as a result catching Salmon up to 900g.  Bob also said that some rather large Squid followed his hooked Salmon back in.

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.


Port Phillip Bay from Black Rock south has fished well for Snapper over the last 10 days, with plenty of good size fish coming in.  Customer Slav pulled 5 fish in 14m of water off Frankston around daybreak, with all fish between 4.5kg- 6kg and all on Pilchard.

Good customer Lee has also caught some lovely Snapper off Mt Martha recently, with all fish taking Pilchard and biting from 4am through to 9am.  Lee’s caught and released 9 fish between 4.6kg-5.2kg.

Daniel went out over the weekend and fished for Pinkies around Mornington using soft plastics and within 2 hours he and a mate boated an estimated 50 fish, with plenty of size fish and some larger 2kg+ fish as well. 

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.

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.

Over the last week the Snapper have come back on the chew in both bays.  Port Phillip has been the slightly better bay to fish though, with fish coming from Mornington, Carrum, Black Rock and St Leonards.  Staff member Chris has been fishing Mornington/Mt Martha, in about 19m of water and has been getting good results fishing first light around the Mussel farm.  Silver Whiting on 2 snelled 4/0's fished with a small ball sinker running right down to the hooks has been the way to go.  Customer Jacques has also been getting his bag of Snapper from around the same area using the same techniques, with his fish ranging from 1.9-4.6kg. 

Out from Carrum, the Snapper bite has also been good. Customer Billy had a good session over the weekend with Snapper up to 3kg in the boat.  Fresh Squid was the best.  Good customer Pat also went out with a few mates after hearing the reports and the boys caught 4 fish ranging from kilo pinkies through to fish of around 4kg.

Up along Ricketts Point there have been plenty of Pinkies for anglers to get amongst.  Fishing along the reef edge with baits of Pilchard and Squid have seen plenty of anglers catching Pinkies around first and last light.  Some of the Pinkies can be small but there have been plenty of fish in the 35-45cm bracket.  Customer Sammy caught a heap in 9m using his Whiting Whacker rigs wit small pieces of Squid.  Out a bit deeper from Black Rock there have also been some nice Snapper getting caught, with 2 customers speaking of fish up to 6kg, fishing 16m of water out from the Clock Tower.

Westernport Bay has also had a small run of Snapper on the bite, with some good reports coming from Corinella, Hastings and off Cowes.  Casey caught 3 small Snapper all around 1.5kg fishing deep off Cowes.  All fish too Squid heads while he was targeting Gummies.  Along Lysaughts/Long Reef the Pinkies are schooling in good numbers, while not many people are targeting them, anglers like Geoff are being rewarded with plenty of pan sized fish on Pilchard and Squid during the flow, and the odd bigger fish up to 3kg as the tide slows.

Well, at long last the Snapper have come back on the chew for anglers in Port Phillip Bay.  This will be the last good time to target them before most of the school fish head back out through the channels into Bass Strait.  While most anglers have been focusing on fish such as Whiting, the keen fisherman have been putting the time in for these Snapper over the last week and they have been rewarded with some lovely fish.  Good customer Pat and his cousin went out and fished in 18m off Mornington, and ended up with 3 Snapper from 4-7kg.  Squid was the best bait.  Staff member Chris also went out searching for these fish, and also tried the Mornington area.  Launching early morning, Chris and the guys went out and tried around the Mussel farm in around 19m. The boys ended up with 9 fish from 2-4kg and a handful of smaller fish.  These Snapper hit the Silver Whiting and Squid aggressively. 

If you are keen to get out and try your luck on this run of Snapper the best areas to try would be between Mount Eliza/Mornington North through to Mount Martha Spoil Ground.  Early morning seems to be the best time, especially if there is a coinciding tide change.  Silver Whiting and Squid have been the stand out baits but the humble Pilchard is still worth taking out as well.  'Cubing' is also a must when fishing for these Snapper, as it draws fish into the area and keep them there and looking for your baits.  If you need any assistance with anything Snapper, call in to the shop and ask the boys for a hand.  

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