Port Phillip West

PPB WEST Alan Bonnici

alan@fishingmad.com.au

Our last snapper season was frustratingly inconsistent. One day the snapper would be caught in good numbers, and the next few days there’d be no action at all. It was a strange pattern that puzzled many local anglers, including myself, with countless hours on the water often going unrewarded.

Perhaps this inconsistency was due to outdoor and water temperatures which were significantly lower than previous levels during this time of year. However, so far this year the winter snapper have shown up in good numbers which is very exciting. The smaller annoying pinkies have seemingly disappeared and instead, we are welcoming many snapper between 3-6kg. Many big reds are

Darren Adams with a 5kg winter snapper.

being caught closer to the Port Philip Bay entrance in areas around the Bellarine Peninsula and Mornington Peninsula.

The runout tide and a well-presented chunk of mackerel or squid head on double snelled size 6/0 hooks has been a consistent recipe for success. We have been fishing a little old school by another day.

This past month I also spent time with good friend Steven Jurec on a mission to land some BIG gummy sharks around the magical 15kg mark. My first session out with Stephen was slow but ended in dramatic fashion. After tangling with countless banjos and stingrays, Steven’s reel started screaming. We immediately knew this was a good fish, which continued to take line. I frantically moved rods out of the way as the gummy went on several big, flighty runs, changing direction. The power and speed of these big gummies are incredible. Unlike myself, Steven was calm and controlled, and after a lengthy, intense battle landed a beautiful 15kg gummy shark. Landing a shark of this size isn’t the only challenge – so is controlling them as they come on board spinning and flipping around uncontrollably. After a couple of photos, this beautiful shark was released on its way.

My first session out with Steven highlighted some shortfalls in my tackle and setup, which is worth sharing. The snapper rod I was using was great for mid-size snapper but way too light to specifically target large gummy sharks. Also, the rod tip was too thin when fishing in high tidal flow areas that required sinkers up to 10oz. The next day was full of some much-needed retail therapy as I purchased some heavier outfits perfectly suited to this style of fishing. Your rods need to be flexible so you can enjoy the battle but strong enough to handle

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picking a trusty location and sitting on it through the entire tide change, as opposed to spending time on the sounder hunting for schools.

I recently had several productive sessions on the water with good mate Darren Adams. On one trip we were struggling through a king tide in what seemed like an unproductive day on the water chasing gummy sharks. However, we had a sudden change in fortune when we landed four snapper in 20 minutes. They were all good-sized ones too, ranging from 4-7kg, which created a lot of buzz and excitement on deck. You can see the footage of these catches on the FishingMad YouTube channel. It does highlight that good fish are around during the cold snap, you just have to play the percentages and stick it out until the fish come on the chew. We also landed many gummy sharks but most were under 1m and they were all released to fight Steven Jurec with a winter gummy.