Port Phillip West

PPB WEST Alan Bonnici

alan@fishingmad.com.au The previous weeks and months have been incredibly inconsistent, with plenty of hours spent marking up masses of fish that just weren’t in an eating mood. This year the season seems to be about a month behind, with colder than normal water temperatures, but rest Land-based anglers have had success with varied baits and soft plastics, however whole pilchards seem to be the stand-out choice. I would encourage land-based anglers and kayakers to get out as frequently as possible during this window before the snapper head into deeper waters, which generally happens as the water temperature rises above 18°C.

Glenn Moss has been fishing regularly in his Hobie kayak in the shallows around Altona, fishing around the 6m mark before the reefs. Glenn has been anchoring up and using full pilchards on his own snelled and paternoster rigs, which he created after watching some of my FishingMad YouTube tutorials. Glen landed three snapper in his first three trips, all between 65-75cm. The excitement is hard to describe when you’re sitting on your kayak anchored up putting in the hours, and then without warning one of the rods buckles and the reel screams. It highlights that at this time of year you don’t necessarily need a big boat to venture into deep waters to catch quality fish.

Billy Gunning has been land-based fishing quite a lot on the piers around the Mornington Peninsula. He opened up his snapper account for the season catching a beautiful 4.2kg snapper off Mornington pier using an Ezi rig (aka Westernport rig) and a full squid head. Landing fish of this size elevated on a pier isn’t an easy task, and neither is navigating through other anglers’ fishing lines, but some of the locals helped Billy land this epic land-based fish. As mentioned earlier, Sandringham break wall, Mt Martha Rocks and all scattered piers across the Mornington and Bellarine Peninsula are starting to fish well if you’re prepared to put in the hours to land a fish like this. Anglers fishing on days after strong winds have been doing quite well.

Stephen Vessey has been fishing around Campbells Cove on his kayak targeting squid in the shallows. Depths between 2-5m have been fishing well. Stephen spends time scoping out the weed lines and drifting across the edges working one jig in hand whilst also having a sleeper drifting along. This has been a very successful technique. Red jigs have consistently been the stand-out colour, particularly shallow diving ones which don’t get snagged in the shallow weed beds. Stephen has had a few consecutive bag-out sessions so these tips are very worthy of replicating. He has some vids highlighting this on his YouTube channel ‘Fishing With Steve’, which is worth checking out.

Whiting fishing has been very inconsistent, but we have finally been starting to see some numbers caught around the usually productive grounds such as Wedge Spit, Corio Bay, Sy Leonards and Clifton Springs. In terms of setup, it’s difficult to go past a light 2-4kg rod and 2500 size reel and light line. Justin Craig was fishing with his good mate Steven Jurcec when he landed a beautiful 50cm whiting using a squid and pipi cocktail. 50cm seems to be that magical size that we dream about for many local species. This fish was caught in Westernport around Middle Spit, however whiting sizes are on the increase around Port Phillip Bay too which is exciting. Many good changing tactics and drifting with soft plastics around the shallows reefs, followed by drifting around known weedy grounds to pick up a few squid. In fact, the squid fishing has been excellent with multiple bag-out sessions. Nothing of great size in our local areas,

Billy Gunning with a nice snapper from Mornington Pier.

assured we are just about to venture into peak fishing time around Melbourne, and the fishing is about to get very exciting. For our local waters this means consistent catches of snapper, squid, flathead and whiting. Even our lake and estuary species will be caught in good numbers and sizes.

This time of year is particularly good for landbased anglers and kayakers. The snapper venture into shallow waters and it’s this time of year that we see some epic land-based catches on social media. The snapper will be spread far and wide around Port Phillip Bay, with areas such as Altona, Port Melbourne, Sandringham and Mt Martha all producing. Steve Vessey with a pigeon pair of squid.

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Glenn Moss has been getting into the snapper from his Hobie.

Justin Craig with a Middle Spit whiting.

size ones are being caught regularly around Corio Bay and closer towards the heads.

My travels out by boat and kayak have been very inconsistent. One day the fish will be going crazy, followed by quiet days of marking good schools of fish that just aren’t biting. The first light bite has been the most productive, often followed by quiet periods. It means that when you hit the water you need to have a Plan B and a Plan C. I have generally been targeting snapper on sunrise and peak tide changes, then but the squid have been pretty much smashing everything and congregating in numbers. If you catch one quickly, get a squid jig out right behind it and you’re almost sure to land another. Drifting has been the preferred technique, and using the plotter to mark productive spots on your sounder when going over a patch is a technique that will help greatly. This allows you to continually re-drift over an area that’s productive, as opposed to just drifting and hoping. • Until next time, good fishing everyone. Please feel free to reach out to me directly to share your fishing experiences and catches around Melbourne, Port Phillip Bay and beyond which we can feature in next month’s article. You can contact me by email at alan@fishingmad.com.au. Please consider becoming a FishingMad member at www. fishingmad.com.au/member for fishing workshops, detailed reports and exciting monthly giveaways. Also don’t forget to follow my fishing adventures on the FishingMad YouTube channel www.youtube. com/c/fishingmad and on social media on Facebook page www.facebook.com/ fishingmad.com.au, Instagram page www.instagram.com/ fishingmad.com.au.