Fishing Reports for Victoria, Westernport and Port Phillip Bay

If you're after a snapper Westernport has still been the better of the options at the moment. Port Phillip's snapper are a touch less consistent at the moment - but Westernport's top end has a much better chance currently. The region from Corinella through to Hastings is all worth a look especially if you have been previously been sounding or catching fish in the area. The real 'zone' at the moment is the Lysaughts region, from Esso through to crawfish rock. Customer Damien fished the area earlier in the week and scored a nice fish of around 6.5kg on freshly caught squid.

Customer Rocky also fished the same region just recently and scored a similar sized fish. Rocky was fishing closer to eagle rock and landed a snapper of 6.5kg on a ring of recently caught squid - using a  single circle hook. This method of rigging is far superior in Westernport and handles by-catch like large gummies and rays easily, for easy release.

While the fishing here in Melbourne is starting to warm up, some lucky anglers have been holidaying in warmer climates with hot fishing action. A popular holidaying location with excellent fishing is the South-East Asian region around Malaysia. Holidaying in Kuala Rompin last week customer Mark managed to sneak in some fishing and get out on a charter in search of sailfish and other pelagics. Mark took his favourite multi piece Nitro snapper rod and managed to catch all his fish on it. 

During the trip Mark caught 4 sailfish to 55kg, some nice cobia and a bull shark estimated around 60kg all on the same rod. A good quality rod is able to be used in a multitude of scenarios and makes your fishing more enjoyable also. Holidaying in the same area was customer Phil. Phil and Mark must've only just missed each other, as Phil also fished out from Rompin. Phil managed a heap of nice sailfish to around 40kg. Phil and crew caught most of their sailfish trolling small tuna sized skirts with stinger hooks.

While snapper are mostly on the cards for Westernport's angling community - the whiting fishing has been heating up over the past few weeks. While the whiting fishing isn't crazy hot for numbers of fish, the fish that are around have been excellent quality. The north arm has been fishing well for the whiting, with good bags of fish coming from the middle spit and around tortoise head, with a few more up the top around Warneet. Staff member Don fished on the whiting over the weekend with mate Sam and scored 18 fish. The guys fished the run out tide around Warneet and caught most of their fish on fresh squid.

The big squid have been worth a look for anglers fishing the southern end of the port again this week, with some proper spring monsters getting caught. Customer Justin fished the bottom end of the port around Newhaven and just offshore and caught some solid squid to around 2.5kg in water from 3 - 10m deep. Size 3.5 jigs in red foil and grass whiting green were the most productive. Cloudy light conditions helped the rainbow base in the grass whiting patterns reflect light and attract the squid.

Across the other side of the port customer Angelo has again been catching some nice squid from Flinders pier. Angelo fished the pier earlier during the week and did and afternoon session to land 2 nice squid up to 1kg. Angelo fished a couple of different jigs for his results, with Hayabusa 'red whiting' and Yakamito 'lemon' both being successful. Angelo noticed a few more anglers fishing size 2.5 jigs to no avail - with larger jigs getting the squids attention a lot easier here. Just be sure to select your sink rates correctly as jigs that sink too fast will simply snag up in the kelp with your first couple of casts. Standard or 'slow' sink rates are perfect for Flinders pier.

Whiting season is apon us! While not the norm for many at the time of year, the whiting fishing has been excellent for the past 5 weeks or so. At the moment there are plenty of whiting about to be caught, and while they are still a bit of work in the cooler water the quality has been excellent - whether you're fishing in Westernport or southern Port Phillip. If you think big squid grounds - think big whiting also. Customer Thomas has been fishing around the bottom end of the middle spit and Tortoise head for fish up to 41cm. The outgoing tide has been the most productive time for him.

The region around Tortoise head has been excellent for customer John. John has fished the area for the past few weeks and has consistently found good bags of fish, especially when fishing late in the afternoons. Many of John's fish have been either side of 40cm and have been taken on pipi and mussel.

Southern Port Phillip has been excellent for whiting also. The southern end from around Rye through to Portsea and Queenscliff has been the area to target. Fishing water from 2 - 7m has been where most of the bites have been coming from. Customer Josh has been catching some good bags of fish around Rye and again just wide of Portsea pier in about 6m. Pipi and fresh squid have been the baits of choice.

Customer Aaron also fished southern Port Phillip recently around the Sorrento area and further back to Blairgowrie and landed a good haul of fish. Pipi and mussel have been the better baits, with some better size fish coming through just on or after dark. Small amounts of berley have been a good way of turning a couple of fish into a solid bag. Small size whiting nuts have been excellent berley for whiting, mixed in with a small amount of mashed pilchard or fish oil to create a small slick. Just don't over-do the berley down here and schools of salmon and trevally will overrun your whiting school.

The bream fishing around the local haunts has been good, as is pretty consistent if you're heading out towards Gippsland. The local systems such as the Patto have been tricky as usual but there are some quality fish coming out. Customer Tony fished the canals earlier this week in search of some black bream and he was rewarded with fish to 41cm. Tony landed all of his fish on small live freshwater yabbies. The best method was to fish the yabbies pinned through the back of the shell on a snagproof 'wacky' hook. This method doesn't restrict the yabbies movement and also stops them from crawling around timber and rocks and getting stuck - but a crunch from a bream pops the snag guard off and the fish is hooked!

A bit further down on the Tambo customers Thao and Ange have both been getting into some bream land based. Thao has been fishing the lower river landbased and has landed fish to 38cm on yabbies, shrimp and small vibes. Ange has been using a finesse baitcater setup to cast small soft plastics around the edges and he has been landing plenty of fish to around 1kg on curl tail and creature patterned plastics. The numbers of fish active along the edges should only heat up over the next 5 weeks or so.

Customer Morgan has been out in the kayak getting amongst the bream in Gippsland also. Morgan has been catching fish in the mid 30cm size range on a few different lures, with slow twitched deep diving hardbodies one of the better methods. Small sinking stickbaits are excellent in the same scenario also, along with subtly hopped plastics, especially if they imitate small worms or shrimp.

In the same area customer Jordan and wife Hannah have been catching bream, tailor and flathead. With mainly flathead on the agenda for some fresh fish and chips, bigger lures were being used. Soft plastics in the 4 inch size were fished along the drop offs and resulted in some solid table sized fish. As soon as the shallow muddy bays were encountered the hardbodies came out.

Daiwa double clutch in 90mm were effective when slowly twitched through the mud, with duskies to around 55cm happy to eat the lures along with some large tailor. The tailor have been big in the Gippsland estuaries, with many fish getting close to 65cm and even bigger. At this size they are line burning fun, but if you're chasing them make sure sure bring more lures than you need!

While there has been some activity on the snapper front, the real 'hot' action for Port Phillip is still around 2 weeks off. Water temperature and rainfall at this time of year play a crucial part in when the fish 'fire' and looking at the weather we are around 10 days to 2 weeks off. There have been a few solid fish caught by searching anglers but overall the bulk of the fish are yet to enter the bay. James from Unreel Fishing Charters has caught some small fish over the past week but also landed a cracker fish of around 80cm just a few days ago, so make sure you're prepared!

There have been a few fish scattered throughout the bay however, and the bulk of the fish caught are coming from landbased anglers. Fishing any of the shoreline around Mornington and Mount Martha has been the go, along with the top end of the bay between Mordialloc and St Kilda. Customer John got out during the week and managed a couple of nice fat school fish from the shore after dark on pilchard. John has been fishing a few locations and has found the fish biting late through the night after or during a strong 20 knot onshore wind.

At the moment the top end of Westernport has been producing the lion's share of the snapper reports. While Western Port normally fires up before Port Phillip, there seems to be good numbers of fish spread right through the port. Scattered reports have come from the Corals, Silverleaves, Corinella, Joe's Island and also through Bagge Harbour and the North arm. Customer Johnny got out on to the port during the week and landed 3 fish to around 3kg in the north arm on fresh squid. The region around Lysaughts and Long Reef in 15 - 18m has been producing quite a few school fish on squid, couta and pilchard.

The squid fishing again this week has been very good for anglers out there on both bays, especially down the southern end of these bays. This week again customer Angelo has done well from Flinders pier with mates. Angelo and mates have been catching some solid squid on both baited jigs under a float, and also artificial jigs under the same floats. If you fish a simple sliding spring float system you can chop and change between cast and static jigs by a simple pinch of a spring.

Silver whiting were responsible for the large squid from the pier, while the numbers of small squid were all taken on size 3.5 jigs in Haramitsu and Owner Draw 4 brands. In amongst the squid fishing there were good numbers of grass whiting taken on bait among the pier pylons. Fishing small pieces of prawn and scrubworm on a paternoster rig suspended just above the weedbeds is the best method of finding these fish. If they are reasonable size they make exceptional baits on for squid on the spike style jigs.

Not to be outdone customer Travis also fished Flinders with artificial jigs in size 3.5. Travis landed a couple of crackers around 45cm hood length. Not far from Flinders in deep waters of the entrance customer Steve has been landing some quality squid. Steve fishes offshore and regularly catches solid squid on large jigs. These squid grow large in the deep cold water and don't get fished for very much in these areas. Tip run style jigs are also very effective in the deeper water or heavier currents.

Jumping across to Port Phillip Bay and the southern end has been producing both numbers and size of squid. Customer Bashir has been fishing the Dromana area of the bay and has been doing best on size 3.5 Yamashita jigs. The better colours for this region have been the keimura or 'daytime UV'. Customer Josh has also been fishing the same areas between Dromana and Rosebud to land squid to around 1kg. Josh has been fishing the shallower banks and ledges into water around 5m and is finding the better squid in the same water. A multitude of colours from UV white through to natural whiting and wrasse colours have been the best in the region.

On the piers of the southern peninsula customer Kenny has been catching squid to around 1.5kg. Kenny has been fishing both Sorrento and Portsea piers for the best results, but has also caught some smaller squid from Blairgowrie at night. The squid from Blairgowrie have been more prolific but smaller in size, and have been liking aggressive colours and glow colours from Yamashita. Young gun Lewei has been nailing some nice squid from Sorrento pier recently too. Lewei has landed squid to 1.7kg during the day and has been using a few different jigs but his last couple of squid have come on size 3.0 gold foil jigs, especially with mixed cloud cover.

The southern end of Westernport has been experiencing some quality squid fishing with some of the larger Spring spawning models moving about. The southern end the port is producing the larger squid, with it's cold ocean water providing the right climate for them.

Customer Angelo has been getting down to Flinders a bit of recent, with a few trips in the last week all being successful. Angelo has been fishing the pier with some mates along with his father, to land quality squid to around 1.5kg. Angelo has been using both Clicks and Yamashita jigs in red belly and natural grass whiting patterns to secure his squid. Size 3.5  jigs are his favourite when fishing Flinders.

Customer Tony also got down to Flinders pier for a long overdue squid session. Tony managed 2 nice squid around the 30cm hood length on Yamashita jigs during a morning session on the pier. Customer Jameel has also fished the pier a bit over the past week or so, and has caught some nice squid on a mixture of jigs. Jameel has found size 3.0 Yamashita jigs along with a couple of Haramitsu colours in size 3.5 have been the best for him during the run in tides. 

A bit further out, customer Steve has been fishing with a mate in search of some quality squid around the entrance to the port. The guys have been fishing the small patches of reef and weed around the eastern entrance along with a few other weedbeds and they have been rewarded with some nice squid to around 1kg. Yamashita gold foil jigs were teh most effective for them on the day.

The annual snapper run is just about to kick along with warmer bay temperatures only a matter of weeks away. While Westernport has been producing a few more fish than Port Phillip that is generally the case earllier in the season. For those looking around in Port Phillip the areas to look are around Mornington or right up around Port Melbourne and Williamstown. Customer Will scored a lovely fish out wide from Mt Martha during the week. Will was cubing and fishing pilchards as bait and the big fish took a whole pillie on twin snelled 4/0's.

The top of Westernport has seen a bit more boat traffic due to the fact that the fish are 'on' a bit more. If you're fishing the 'finger' channels region or around Joe's Island you have a good shot at some lingering fish soaking up the warmth, while further around towards Hastings there has also been a few as well. Customer Chris fished Joe's last week and managed a few nice over a couple of sessions on the water. Chris has been making the most of the fresh bait in the area with couta, trevally and pike all making the baitboard and the snapper haven't rejected them.

The Hastings and Long Reef area has seen a few boats during the week with fish to around 6kg coming in. Customer Steve fished the area last week and landed a couple of nice fish to around 3kg with fresh squid being the most productive bait. Fishing the smaller tides along the reef here will normally see you land a few school fish, while moving up the banks and sitting shallower gives you a good shot at the larger fish.

If you're into trout, cod, or yellowbelly fishing at the moment then Eildon is the place for you. With the coming weeks the yellowbelly will really fire up in the lake, while the Murray cod are actively hunting lures if you're out casting them. The pondage and Goulburn is the spot if you're after a trout or two as well.

Customer Jozef has been fishing the Goulburn river with his wife and friend Colin. Jozef has been moving about sections of the river from Breakaway through to Alexandra and has been catching rainbow trout to around 8lb during most trips. Jozef has been fishing powerbait and trout dough in these sections of the river to catch all of his fish.

Using the same tactics on the pondage has been a good way of successfully catching the trout also, as customer Nick has been doing. Nick has been fishing the pondage with nephews and showing them the ropes on coarse style trout fishing. Fishing small nuggets of trout dough under a fine float in the calm backwaters in conjunction with sinking trout pellets has seen him catching his fish. Customer Zoran has also been landing plenty of trout around the 'Football Oval' in the pondage using specialist trout dough on a feeder rig. Zoran's last session saw him land 3 fish in under 5 minutes on the dough.

If you'd prefer to spin lures around the rivers in the region, the Goulburn between Thornton and Eildon has been producing a good number of smaller river fish if you're targeting the slower backwaters and current seams. Customer Izzy fished the river last week with a handful of lures and managed a couple of stream browns to around 2lb along the edges. Further down river where the Rubicon confluence is there have been some solid brook and brown trout. Customer Anel and mates have been fishing the area with small mid diving hardbodied lures around the timber and rock edges. Some of the larger fish have been up to 5lb and generally have been found in small groups or pairs. By using aggressive colour patterns these fish can be triggered into striking.

The main lake has been fished quite a bit for the cod over the past few weeks and some nice fish have come out, but as usual the hard effort sees the results. Customer John got his results just recently, with a lovely big lake Eildon cod on lure. John has worked hard in the lake and has put in plenty of casts and these fish shows his dedication well. John's cod measured 1.05m and took a deep diving hardbody cast through some steep timber and rock on a point in the lake.