Fishing Reports for Victoria, Westernport and Port Phillip Bay

The squid fishing has been good during the spell of warm weather we've had lately. The warm and clear conditions have kept the water clarity very good and the bait has been plentiful in the shallows around the reefs. The better areas continue to be the southern end of the bay but there have been some good catches coming from the top end around Black Rock and Beaumaris. The best areas to head before the big deluge of freshwater are from Mornington or Mt Eliza further south.

Customer Ryan fished from the shore up around Beaumaris during the week to land a good bag of squid and a couple of pinkies. Ryan was fishing with a newly purchased 'Black Water' squid rod and felt that the rod performed exceptionally with all jigs sizes. Ryan found that gold base jigs in size 2.5 were the most effective for him fished in the darkness. A second rod with fresh squid strips accounted for the pinkies, which came from no more than 2.5m of water around the broken reef.

Around Mt Martha the squid fishing has been good, with customer Bryan catching some nice squid and cuttlefish out from Martha Point. Bryan was fishing out of the kayak and found that larger jigs were more successful, especially in natural colours. Whiting and yakka patterns with silver foils were the best. 

Customer Tas has been catching some nice squid around Mornington and Mt Martha recently. Tas has been catching squid to around 1kg on a variety of jigs and has just started using the EZ change clips, letting him change through jig colours/size very quick and making the most of the bite.

Snapper reports have slowed up a little from the port as anglers flock to Port Phillip - but the fish are still there to be caught. They are spread around the port fairly well at present, and you can find a quiet pocket to target them in easily enough. Customer Frank fished out from Corinella and landed snapper up to 6kg on pillies recently. Further south around Rhyll the fish have been going fairly well out from Observation Point and across on the Corals. Customer Bart fished out off Observation in 17.5m during the week and landed fish to 4kg on pilchards.

The gummies have been turning up on snapper bait as usual for anglers in the port. Customer Chris landed 2 table sized sharks during a snapper session recently up around Joe's Island. The myriad of smaller feeder channels and gutter in this region of the port are home to a large amount of smaller gummies, and they can easily be intercepted by sitting along the gutter edges on a run out tide as they move back through the channels. Fresh squid and yakka are very effective baits in the murkier water.

On the gummy front, customer Tony caught a nice one while out on the snapper over some shallow reef not far from the corals. The nice gummy weighed around 9kg and took fresh squid. For anglers out on the banks in the same area, the whiting have been biting quite well. The shallows of Coronet Bay have been producing school fish to 32cm, while the top end banks have been holding better sized fish. The deeper water off the banks has been the holding ground for the big fish, but is hard to fish unless you're fishing smaller tides.

On the squid front Flinders had been producing some nice models up until the heavy rain. Customer Angelo has been caught some nice squid to around 1.5kg on his last outings to the pier. Angelo has caught on a mixture of silver whiting baited jigs and the Clicks 'Black Opal' in size 3.0.

Squid reports have been good over the past week even with the rain that has washed into the bays. Westernport has seemed to be consistent with the squid fishing and there have been some big squid caught. Customer Justin caught some nice models around the 1kg size up along the shallower banks of the top end.

Customer Chau and his brother fished out from Hastings recently to land some thumping squid on the banks. The guys managed squid to 2kg on a mixture of jigs, with blacks and greens working - along with jigs baited with silver whiting. 

Customers Stan and Stephan fished the Sorrento and Blairgowrie area of Port Phillip recently with some big squid landed. Covering ground from 4m to 10m in depth they found some good patches of squid. Size 3.0 jigs were most effective when fished with small chin weights to get down faster, with red, UV clear and UV black the best performers.

The rocky sections of the bay's shoreline have been producing average sized squid as per normal. Ledges such as Mornington and Mt Martha have had squid in the 20cm size range caught on size 2.5 and 3.0 jigs. Some anglers fishing slow sinking 3.5 jigs have also been luring in larger squid with the extra distance on the cast, so if you haven't used a jig like this it may just land you that big one from your favourite land based location.

The run of large squid has lasted around Mornington of late, with local angler Mario landing a good bag of big squid from the area. Again size 3.0 and 3.5 jigs have been the go, covering the water more effectively and catching the attention of the bigger squid. Customer Jo also caught some nice ones at Mornington and also Beaumaris. The Beaumaris region is very shallow and rocky so size 2.5 or 3.0 shallow jigs are the go.

Port Phillip's snapper bite has picked up over the last few weeks, and even moreso this week. The fish have been more active and bites have been occurring around first light and also in the afternoon. The northern section of the bay has been more productive with Patto - north the real better section. Customer Harry and mate Stephen fished around the reef off Black Rock in 7m during the week to land a couple of nice table fish on silver whiting. Silver whiting has picked up dramatically over the last week as a bait also.

Customer Sam got out on Thursday morning and scored a nice fish in 15m off Frankston in flat conditions. The Frankston - Seaford area has been holding smaller patches of fish but certainly not as much boat traffic as further north around Black Rock. Customer Danny has been bagging fish to 3.7kg off Black Rock himself with both pilchard and garfish working well.

Staff members George and Chris fished out from Black Rock on Sunday afternoon. With sloppy southwest conditions and a late tide change the fish were going to bite. The guys found some small reef ledges in 13m that were holding fish nearby so started berleying. After about 15 minutes a few rods went off and the guys had a decent bite for about 2 hours, with 8 fish to around 4kg coming aboard. The smaller fish were around 40cm but still happy to nail a whole silver whiting on tandem 5/0 and 6/0's.

Out from Carrum on the mud there have been fish to be caught. With a lot more moving about to find active fish and a bit of intuition as to which direction to head in, there hasn't been as many boats. The areas that seem to be holding numbers of fish seem to be around the 15m line from Carrum, 13m off Seaford and again 15m out from Mordialloc. Customer Zoran got out with his Dad a couple of times over the weekend and scored some nice fish to 4kg out in 15m from Carrum. Silver whiting and pilchard worked equally on these fish.

There have still been some quality squid on offer in the bay, especially from Frankston south. Around Mornington there have been some better than average squid about, so upsizing to bigger jigs is a very good idea. Around Sorrento and Portsea the large squid have been about, with slack water producing more for anglers the shallower water. Across at Queenscliff the big squid have still be about, as staff member George found out. George fished with mate of the store Bruce and AFL footballer Bachar Houli. The boys fished just outside Queenscliff harbour over the grass beds in 3m of water to land over 20 big squid. Hayabusa and Shimano jigs were the best performers of the session.

After cleaning up on the squid the guys targeted whiting just north of Queenscliff. Fishing the tide around last light in 3 - 6m of water some nice whiting were caught on pipi and fresh squid. With the bite a bit slower than normal changing to lighter leader and smaller hooks converted a few extra fish.

There has been a fair bit of action happening on the land based fishing front. All along the shoreline of the bay there has been activity from a few different options. Squid and salmon have been plentiful and the landbased pinkies and snapper have been good.

Customer Brett took his young fisher mate Walter down to the local piers on the peninsula where some big salmon had been spotted. Casting small metal lures around the current lines and drop offs resulted in some super fat salmon hitting the deck of the pier. Some of the locals were even getting belted on large squid jigs, so the competition between fish is fierce. Keep an eye out for the bait schools if you are fishing the piers, as large numbers of pilchards and small anchovies are in the bay at the moment, as these fish are gorging themselves on them.

The peninsula around Mornington and Frankston has been producing some super-sized squid over the past few weeks, which have been much bigger than usual. Size 2.5 jigs and small squid are the norm in the area, but at the minute there are plenty about that area a kilogram or bigger, and size 3.5 jigs have been the go. Staff member Don fished Mornington pier during the week to land some of the bigger squid, using bigger jigs. Staff member Dylan also caught some similar sized squid in the area over the weekend, with size 3.5 jigs in UV lemon and pilchard patterns getting the job done.

On the land based snapper front, there hasn't really been a standout spot - moreso if you have a location that has produced for you it is worth fishing at the moment, especially with some strong wind forecast over the weekend. Customer and APL local ninja Cipto fished from a couple of the piers around Black Rock during the week to land a ripper school fish just before dark on bluebait. 

While normally an early season location, customer Frank has been catching snapper from the rocks on Phillip Island. Frank has been catching fish to over 70cm on pilchard on the surf gear, with some solid fish getting back in to the reef. If you are fishing the local rocks just be mindful of the swell and tide conditions, and fish heavy mono instead of braid if you can. Mono will give you a bit more resilience around the rocks and a some more shock absorption during those final headshakes and lunges.

From the local Port Phillip piers there have been some varied size snapper caught. There have been some large fish caught, with customer Peter reporting fish to 5kg from Mordi pier. These fish are not uncommon and it is just a matter of persistence and picking the conditions for them. Customer Connor also caught some nice pan sized fish from Mornington pier. Connor has been out early braving the wind and rain to catch his fish, which have taken bluebait. One thing's for sure, you won't catch fish like these sitting at home!

The school snapper have even been hanging around some of the piers in the southern end of the bay. While not normally a common catch from the piers around the Rye and Rosebud area, customer Eisa reports of some nice table sized fish from Dromana pier. Fishing with pilchard and slimey mackerel Eisa caught 5 nice fish to 46cm and a good flathead. The first few hours of night were the most productive during the incoming tide.

The squid fishing around Port Phillip has been good over the past week or so, and there has been some quality squid on offer. After presenting an information talk on squid fishing at the store, Eisuke Kawakami from Yamashita got out and did some fishing with Kosta from 'Hooked Up' magazine and Victorian Yamashita representative Mitch. Fishing the southern end of Port Phillip the guys managed some serious size squid, on a mixture of jigs and techniques. 

Some of the best action was had fishing deep in 15+ metres of water using the 'tip run' method. Many anglers would not even contemplate fishing this depth for squid but years of squid fishing knowledge led Eisuke to suggest this technique. If you missed out on the Yamashita squid talk or want to get in on some of the deep water squidding, pop in store and talk to the guys about the 'tip run' method.

Staff member Dylan got out into the bay during the week and fished around Frankston and Olivers Hill for squid. After getting some aggressive bites on smaller jigs, Dylan changed to size 3.5 and 4.0 jigs and proceeded to land some serious squid, for the area. 10 squid was no problem as the bite was aggressive in 4m of water, with many of the squid around or over 1kg in weight. A mixture of colours were successful but the Yamashita 'K' series in red mullet and DTD in the same colour pattern were the standouts.

Continuing on the theme of big squid, customer Mario has been catching some thumper squid from the Mornington area. The size of the squid along the Frankston - Mornington area has been excellent over the past week, with some of larger models topping 1.5kg which isn't common for the area. Many different coloured size 3.0 jigs have been working well, as the larger squid seem to be more aggressive.

Meanwhile the King George whiting have been going very well for anglers fishing the Portsea - Queenscliff area again this week. The Lonsdale bight through to Queenscliff has been the hot spot, with Portsea shallow producing some quality fish also. Friend of the shop Bruce fished out from Queenscliff over the weekend to land a bag of quality fish on freshly caught and pipi.

The whiting have been going well in Westernport also, with the top end starting to produce good numbers of fish. Tyabb and Quail banks have been producing fish to 40cm on pipi, and staff member Don has been getting amongst them. Don fished out from Yaringa over the weekend and found some nice fish to around the 40cm. Fresh squid was the most productive bait and the fish bit best during the top half of the run in tide.

There have been good amounts of squid about for those interested in collecting fresh snapper baits or for a tasty meal, with both bays running as clear as ever and going well.

Friend of the shop and Victorian sale rep Bruce fished with mate Bachar Houli out from Queenscliff to get stuck into some quality squid and whiting. Fishing close inshore around Queenscliff around 'Cottage by the sea' was the hot spot for all the squid and whiting, with the Lonsdale Bight being a popular area for both large squid and quality whiting.

The whiting reports have started to go in the port, with the 'normal' banks producing fish. Quali, Tyabb and the spit have all been fishing well, with a few moves the norm, but some quality fish about. Customer Barry fished with his father over the weekend to land a nice bag of fish from the middle spit. Barry found the run in tide productive and when the fish wanted to feed, with pipi and squid cocktail baits getting the job done. Not far from the same area staff member Don also caught some nice whiting with mate Sam. The middle spit and Tyabb bank fished well in about 12ft of water for fish to 42cm on elongated strips of squid and pipi.

Not far from the same area customer Steve has been catching some nice squid. Steve has been fishing the Tyabb-Quail banks and just working different depths until the squid are found. Steve has also been trying a good number of jigs, with Yamashita UV whites a favourite, and some of the new Owner draw 4 jigs also producing well. Steve picked up on some handy hints regarding jigs cloth and foil colour from our last Yamashita info night which has been earning him a few extra in the boat!

Down at Flinders customer Angelo has been catching some good squid and plenty of grass whiting. Angelo has been copying the jigs patterns with the grass whiting and catching well, with a few other black jig patterns also working well in the mix. The size 4.0 and 3.5 'Black Opal' colour has been producing some big squid around the outgoing tide from the pier.

The Spring squid fishing has been good with some excellent sized squid about. While Westernport has been producing it's usual large squid, Port Phillip has been even better. The northern end of the bay has been a bit quieter than usual but with less anglers fishing the area it's no surprise. The southern Mornington Peninsula has been the go, with Rye onwards to the heads producing excellent squid.

James from Unreel Fishing Charters has been catching some very nice squid in between snapper trips lately, with most of his squid coming from the Mt Martha area. James has been finding solid white jigs to be productive during bright sunny conditions. Staff member Dylan also caught some smaller squid around the Mornington area over the weekend, with bright orange jigs working the best in around 3m of water.

Around the southern end of the bay, customers Benny and Christian have been catching some good squid. The boys have been working the Portsea - Queenscliff area and have found the better squid in the deeper water. Using 'tiprun' style jigs the boys have been able to get down fast and deep to the larger squid, with purple cloth killing it down deep. Tip run style jigs are designed to be held down in depth and current and respond to the slightest movement which helps lure the big squid to them.

Reports of big squid would be incomplete with mentioning Flinders. The pier has seen some nice squid hitting the planks over the last few weeks. With some of the big spawning models coming inshore to breed in Spring, Flinders is always a good chance for a true monster. While not super consistent with wind and swell taking affect, this time of year you have got a real shot. Fishing big jigs like 3.5 or even size 4.0 you are getting the attention of the biggest squid.

Having a baited jig out under a float is also a good way to increase your chances. Silver whiting or grass whiting are excellent bait for the big squid, but tommy rough and salmon are also good. Customer Tuan has been landing some proper squid on the baited jigs of late, with some of them hitting the 50cm mark!

 

 

Some of the school holiday crowd head out towards the east coast of Gippsland and into NSW over the school break. With beautiful scenery and even better fishing, there's no wonder so many Victorians head out that way. Down around Bemm river in east Gippsland customer Mark got into some lovely bream fishing the lake. The lake here will continue to heat up over the next month or so, and perfect timing with many anglers heading out this way around Cup Weekend. Mark caught most of his fish between fresh prawn and sandworm on light running sink rigs.

Around the southern NSW coastline, customer Lilong camped out and fished with some mates from the rocks and wharves of the area. With a large offshore algae bloom the fishing was slower than usual, but the guys caught plenty of couta, pike and salmon using a variety of lures. Casting slow jigs and smaller plastics accounted for most fish between Tathra, Merimbula and Eden. The squid fishing in the area has also been good, with the same wharves producing both calamari and arrow squid around last light on size 3.0 jigs.

Staff member Dylan was also situated around the south coast for a few days with a couple of rods packed. With cold water temperatures, there were plenty of silver trevally, tailor and salmon around in the estuaries. Dylan spent a bit of time studying the habits of some nice luderick in the area and tried a few methods of catching them on the fly rod. After a few days of different methods, he managed to work out their feeding habits a bit and got into some. Fishing home tied 'weed' flies to fish around 1kg on the sand flats was the best method, with a handful making their way home to the table. Among the luderick, he also caught flathead, tailor, silver trevally and salmon on fly in the local estuaries around Merimbula and Eden.

Further up the coast, customer Hendrik has been putting slabs of chrome on the rocks. Hendrik has been fishing around Southwest Rocks, and has been getting cleaned up by some mulloway. Along this part of the coast the mulloway range in size from big to huge! Using a few techniques, Hendrik has landed fish to around 1.1m. Fishing live baits of mullet and pike has been getting the attention of the fish, with scary big fish earning their freedom back in the reef also. Another popular method along this part of the coast is casting big hardbodied lures and swimbaits to likely areas where these predators hunt.

Squid reports have been good over the past week, with clean water in both bays. The southern end of both bays has been the most productive with both numbers and size, with the rye – Portsea are very good, along with Flinders and Shoreham in Westernport.

Customers Damien, Carlo and Thao have been fishing around Portsea and Queenscliff. Some of the better squid from the area have been up to 50cm in hood length, which are proper calamari! The jigs that have been producing have been size 3.5 Haramitsu and Yamashita in blacks, greens and also natural green baitfish patterns.

Customer Angelo regularly fishes Flinders pier and this week he has done exceptionally well. Angelo has been catching a load of grass whiting from the weedbeds under the pier, with pipi and trout worms being the most effective when suspended just above the weed. The best way to rig these up is by using a paternoster rig with long sinker dropper and small size 6 circle hook. Amongst the grass whiting the squid that Angelo has been catching have been quality, with many over a kilo. The most successful jigs for him have been the size 3.5 and 4.0 Black/red Clicks jigs.