If you're a Melbourne fisho looking for the run of a 'Red' then Westernport Bay might hold your early season answers. The northern section of the bay normally produces a few Snapper early on, and this year is no exception. Try fishing from Corinella up to Spit Point and from Warneet back towards Joe's Island. Customer Jacob has only started Snapper fishing this season and already has 2 solid fish from 2 trips after following some of the boys' advice.
The northern section of Westernport Bay is currently producing a run of large Squid, with some being 3kg or so. Squid freak Paul managed to clean up on them along Quail Bank, with plenty up around 2kg.
Customer Matt has also been fishing the same stretch around Quail and Tyabb Banks and has had Squid up to 3.2kg in weight. Size 2.5 Haramitsu in AK did the damage.
Customer Greg has also been catching these massive Squid, with his largest weighing 2.7kg, caught in 4m of water just outside the Warneet channel entrance.
Good customer Ryan has caught some Squid in his time, and reckons the Squid he is getting out from Hastings are some of the best he's seen. Size 3 Haramitsus are one of his favourites and they aren't letting him down.
Plenty of Whiting reports again this week, and although the average size of the fish are modest, they are making up for this with sheer numbers. Customer Bruce has been fishing along Quail Bank and bagging out with fish to 38cm, all taken on Mussel.
Neil has caught some larger Whiting up to 46cm along Tyabb Bank around Yaringa, however these larger fish tend to be more solitary fish and generally don’t school up in big numbers.
Out from Hastings, Norm has had success on the Whiting fishing deeper along 9-12m along the main channel edge and along Sandstone Island. Fish around 36cm are common for him, and are biting well on Squid and Cuttlefish.
Regular Customer Trevor had a crack at the Whiting during the week after hearing some good reports from around Warneet. He ended up finding a nice little hole along Gentle Annie channel where he got his bag of Whiting, with 2 crackers of 43cm in amongst the school-sized fish. All Trevor’s fish came on the bite during the run-out tide and responded well to Gotcha Whiting berley pellets.
Across in Port Phillip Bay, Mario has also been getting his fair share of King George Whiting around St Leonards and Indented Head. During his most recent outing, Mario put out his first rod with some fresh Octopus and within 10 minutes the tip was bouncing. After feeling dead weight for the first few minutes, there was a mad rush at the side of the boat as a large Snapper surfaced. Once in the boat the scales revealed the Snapper to weigh just over 7kg. Not a bad fish as by-catch!
Customer Warren has been doing well on the King George Whiting, with heaps of school fish 32-39cm hanging around the Warneet area. He has been fishing popular spots such as Quail Bank and Brown's Reserve. He says to make the most of these fish, you must move around from school to school, as the boats that simply 'stay put' aren't getting the same numbers of fish.
Good customer Jacques has been getting his bag of Whiting on most trips, with some large fish up to 46cm, taking tenderised Squid/Pipi cocktails in 8m along the southern section of the Middle Spit.
Regular customer Bill has been fishing the spit as well, with similar sized fish roaming about, with fish 40-44cm not uncommon. Whiting snatchers tipped with fresh Squid and fishing late in the run-out tide are his tips.
Regular Customer Andrew also tried straight out from Hastings, around Sandstone Island and got his bag pretty quickly also. Aussie Pippis did the job, along with 2 frozen Whiting berley blocks.
T-Bob Pete had a Whiting session around the spit and Tankerton, to catch a total of 57 Whiting, with 15 of them 42cm or bigger. He also noticed some nice sized Squid following the hooked Whiting in at times, so he worked a few Yamashita jigs around the berley trail for a while and ended up catching some good quality Squid.