Damien, Eric and Michael did some bait collecting over the Melbourne cup weekend, the fished along hastings and Tortoise Head and managed a good mixed bag of mackerel, whiting, salmon, squid and trevally.
The winning snapper in the Tee Tree completion came from this bay again. A whopping 9.88kg caught by Leigh Johnston. 883 snapper were caught in Westerport Bay during the comp.
Nigel and Tawya caught a nice 4 foot gummy and a 3kg snapper off Rhyll last night on pillies and squid
Staff member Dylan took advantage of the conditions today and did a quick pre-work Snapper session in Port Phillip with his Dad. Knowing that the fish had been going off pretty early they got out and set up a good berley trail in 17m off Chelsea well before light, however the fish didn't come on until 7am.
A quick half hour frenzy before heading in saw a good school move through, with 4 fish between 1.5-3.5kg kept. All fish took whole silver whiting and were loaded full of cubed pillies they'd picked up from the berley trail.
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.
Sorrento pier has also been good for Squid, especially during the slack tide periods. Frank went and fished it and caught 9 Squid, all around 300g, on small baited jigs suspended with a paternoster and float rig. The sinker holds the bait still in the current, while the float is the strike indicator. Staff member Dylan also fished Sorrento for a few hours during the week and caught 6 smaller Squid on Breaden and Yamashita jigs.
The Squid have been good around Flinders lately as well, with some large models being caught at night off the Pier. Slow sinking jigs such as Yamashita ‘Shallow’ type are very effective. Customer Jordan caught some lovely Squid one night over the weekend and also managed a few nice size Snook as well.
Bill has been catching lots of Whiting from Mornington North over the last 2 weeks, with plenty of fish 33-38cm. All fish are being caught on pipi and mussel. The biggest fish have been 42cm and not as common lately.
Customer Fred tried for Whiting off Stony Point pier and got 7 fish all between 30-36cm, and all on a beachworm/pipi mix during the run-in tide on Monday.
Angelo and a mate fished for Whiting off Werribee and while they only managed 3 Whiting they did still manage a Seafood basket, with the Whiting, Garfish, Flathead and Snapper all taken fishing the same 7m ground. They said that nearby boats all did similar with large Garfish all around the boat.
Staff member Dylan fished around San Remo during the week and caught a nice bag of Whiting, with all fish 35-42cm. All of the fish took fresh Squid fished on small circle hooks.
Customer Zoran has been catching good numbers of large Whiting off the beach in Port Phillip, but is yet to reveal his ‘secret’ spot, all we know is that most of his fish are 40cm+ and have a liking for pipi and Squid fished in shallow water.
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.
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.
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.