Be prepared as the invasion has now begun! challenging and bigger, then fishing the Western Entrance is certainly worth the effort. The Western Entrance is a difficult location to fish due to the strength of the tidal pressure, but if you have a capable boat, preferably with an electric anchor winch, you’ll have no trouble. Ideally, you’d want
WESTERN PORT STH
Jarrod Day jarrodday@iprimus.com.au
Southern Western Port certainly is the place to be fishing if you’re looking for a fix over the next few weeks, and there are plenty of options. Of course, snapper are certainly the highlight, and they have swarmed in, infiltrating every nook and cranny. Continuing on from last month, the Corinella area has been the top pick of locations, mainly due to the high amount of potential food items that flood down from the top end with each tide.
Caterson and their mate Rhys Withers set off down the entrance to fish near the Flinders Bank. After a few drifts the boys managed a plethora of fish, including your typical reef fish, some cracking leatherjacket, with the highlight being a monster gummy shark tipping the scales to over
Darren Hamilton-Moore and Rhys Withers both cradling a monster gummy caught while fishing the Western Entrance. Photo courtesy of Matt Caterson. For instance, if you’re heading out from Corinella, make the run around Settlement Point to Coronet Bay and have a drift in 5m of water over the weed beds and flick a jig about for calamari. If you have no luck, run down to Reef Island and between the two locations – you’ll be sure to catch a handful, which is about as much as you’d need anyway. Speaking of Coronet Bay, the whiting have been quite plentiful of late. Fishing the high tides has been the prime time, with a lot of fish being caught from the mouth of the Bass River to Dickies Bay. This
A customer on a local charter with a healthy snapper caught recently. to be fishing either side of a tide change to limit the sinker weight required to get to the bottom, but there
30kg. For the number of gummies I have personally caught and reported over the past 15 years, you don’t
It’s not often you catch leatherjackets so big you could make a jacket from them! Photo courtesy of Matt Caterson. Anglers fishing Spit Point have been pulling some nice fish, while those fishing the banks from Lang Lang to Tenby Point have also seen plenty of action. In fact, there has been a considerable amount of fish caught in the evenings when the tide has been high and just about to abate. This area is a favourite of mine, not just for the snapper but the variety of species you can target or catch as a by-catch such as gummy, bronze whaler and seven gill sharks, as well as the highly sought-after mulloway. Although it’s snapper season, it is nice to know that while fishing in the Corinella you are a chance for some real big fish. Other anglers have also had some good success on snapper in the main channel out from Corinella Jetty. During the run-out tides, snapper move through the channel and, providing you’re anchored along the edge of the channel, you should attract few, however it always pays to sound them up before dropping the anchor.
Elizabeth Island has started to show signs of some good snapper coming through. Fishing here is a little tricky due to the strength of the current, but you should be able to nail a few fish while fishing two hours either side of a tide change. The same goes for Observation Point, where it retains a depth of around 13m. This area is known for producing solid fish from
now right up until around December. Of course, no matter where you’re targeting snapper, it always pays to use fresh bait if you can get it. I don’t mean from a local fish shop, I mean collecting it yourself along the banks of the port. There is plenty of calamari that you can catch and use, and it is only takes a solid 30 minutes to catch some.
The right bait, location and tackle equals solid snapper.
Matt Caterson with his arms full of Western Port gummy. Photo courtesy of Matt Caterson.
location is a great go-to area if you’re after a feed of calamari, though the tide can run hard at times, and a little berley in the water really spurs the fish on. The same goes for the southern side of the bridge too. Fishing in around 5-6m of water from the bridge down to Cleeland Bight can be very productive for whiting and calamari at this time of the year. If you are on the lookout for something a little more
are some monster fish to be caught. Although you can catch snapper, this section of the port is primarily gummy shark territory and by that, I mean from Buoy 14 down to the fairway buoy. In the vicinity of buoy 14, 12, 11 and 5, providing you’re fishing the right stage of the tide, it is common to be catching gummy sharks over 15kg at this time of the year. Local anglers Darren Hamilton-Moore, Matt
get to hear of many fish in this realm. It was a truly memorable catch by Rhys and a great effort by all those involved to land it. With the onset of warmer water temperatures and calmer weather, the fishing is only really going to heat up over the next few weeks. If you haven’t dusted the cobwebs from the boat just yet, I suggest you do, because Western Port has already begun to fire and it’s only going to get better! OCTOBER 2018
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