Fishing Reports for Victoria, Westernport and Port Phillip Bay

There have been some nice squid of offer if you're able to find a break in the average winter weather we've had recently. Both bays have been fishing well for the calamari, the only real factors worth keeping an eye on are the wind and rain. Once the banks and shallows become stirred up and slightly cloudy the squid can be a bit of a struggle, but as soon as these areas clean up they will be back on the chew. Customer Justin got a few nice ones out in Westernport just recently, with the 'nemo' coloured jigs working the best up on the shallow banks. The area around Hastings produced the goods for him. 

Port Phillip has seen it's share of nice squid as well, from the top end around Brighton right the way down to Portsea. James from Unreel Fishing Charters has been getting some large squid around Sorrento and Portsea with many over 1kg. Small but fast sinking jigs have been doing well when fished during the faster stages of the tide. Staff member Dylan fished out from Mornington during the last calm spell in search on some squid using fly gear. Armed with just one fly outfit and a handful of flies that he tied up, he found small patches of squid along the rocky drop offs just out from the shoreline. While there were no monsters caught or bag limit quantities, catching them on fly tackle proved to be a fair bit of fun in itself.

Even though this time of year isn't really known as being the most productive time of year to target Murray cod, they can still be caught if you're willing to brave the cold and put in the time. During the cooler months of the year Murray cod cod generally slow their metabolism down and don't actively hunt as much, but they can still be caught. Between the lure vs bait debate, lures come into their own for triggering a strike from a cod during cooler weather. Even though they might not actually want to hunt for food, by repeatedly casting or running a lure over a likely looking snag you can tap into the cod's 'territorial' nature - whereas they are virtually annoyed into striking the lure.

Staff member Ian took his kayak up to Eildon just recently in search of a big winter cod. Ian spent a bit of time looking for likely cod water and then strategically worked these areas over to be sure he maximized his chances. After a long day on the water, Ian managed to land a 93cm 'barrel' cod from around the Frasers area. Ian landed the fish on a size 1 Stumpjumper in a redfin pattern.

Customer Ivan also had a taste of Eildon native fishing recently. Ivan caught this nice little cod from the timber in the background on a purple Yakamito lure. Fish of this size are very common to catch in the lake this days, and will only get bigger with plenty of prey items available for them. 

While some sections of the Murray river have been affected by blue green algae, this hasn't stopped the fish from biting. The section down stream from Yarrawonga is the worst affected at present, with a small amount still affecting upstream from Yarrawonga towards Corrowa. To prove that the algae hasn't made fishing pointless, customer Mario fished the section of river from Corrowa down towards Bundalong - where he caught around 60 cod in 5 days. A lot of the fish were in the 40 - 60cm size range, with a few like this 80cm fish taking lures also. Trolled stumpjumpers and cast spinnerbaits did most of the damage.

Staff member Dylan has also been caught a few cod recently. Dylan has been fishing the section of water around Bundalong and has caught fish to around 75cm on surface lures during the afternoon. Customer Travis also fished for the cod recently and managed his first one which he was rapt with.

Not to be outdone, the golden perch have been quite active in the Murray around Mulwala recently. Dropping water temperatures have kicked them into gear and had them feeding actively, with staff member Dylan and mates catching a few nice ones over the Anzac weekend. The goldens have been hitting 3/8th and 1/2oz spinnerbaits along large bankside snags, with purples, whites and red skirt colours being the standout colours recently. These fish should be reasonably active over the next month and then slow off as the water gets substantially cooler towards June.

Most of the Gippsland estuaries have started slowing down over the past month or so as the water starts to cool down. Bream, flathead and most other species are still being caught but not in the numbers compared to the warmer months of the year. This time of year however can be good for quality size bream, with some of the larger fish feeding up before the winter pre-spawn.

Staff member Dylan has been paddling around some of the eastern estuaries recently, where some nice flathead and bream have been caught. Most of the larger flathead have been sitting on the flats late in the afternoons with some sun to warm the water, while a lot of bream have been caught fishing shallow drop offs and ledges with small hardbodies.

Customer Brett fished out in the Gippsland lakes recently in search of some bream, with a few nice school fish around and eating the lures. Most of the fish were hovering either side of 30cm, and were hitting small hardbodies like Daiwa Double Clutch 60's with gusto. Slightly warmer water temperatures have had these fish feeding right up along bankside structure still.

The Eastern estuaries of Gippsland have been fishing well for bread and butter species such as bream and flathead. The estuary of Mallacoota has been a bit inconsistent as a whole, but still big enough for most anglers to find some quality fish. Customer Ryan fished Mallacoota in his kayak recently and had some fun with some nice model black and yellowfin bream caught on lures. During overcast and rainy weather conditions Ryan found the bream to be more inclined to hit the lures when compared to bright sunny weather. 

Amongst the bream there have also been some quality dusky flathead caught as well. Customer John fished the Gypsy Point area and caught flathead to 68cm like this ripper. John used a reasonable piece of tailor fillet to catch and release this nice fish. The Gypsy Point section of the estuary has also been producing some nice size bream for anglers using baits like sandworm and prawn around the deeper water.

The local Melbourne rivers and estuaries are fishing well for bream at the moment with the warm weather and intermittent rain. The Patterson and Maribyrnong rivers are producing some nice bream for bait and lure anglers, with the lure fishing really turning it on recently. Customers fishing bait in the main river channels of both rivers have caught bream to 42cm, with freshwater yabbies, scrubworm and frozen prawn doing the job. When fishing the main flow try and mix up rigs between unweighted baits through to heavier sinker rigs to see which method is working on the fish. The main section of the Patterson river has also produced the odd flathead before the rain, with staff member Dylan landing a 51cm fish over the weekend on a lure.

Staff member Dylan has also fished the lakes in his kayak over the weekend and has caught some school sized fish on a mixture of lures. Hardbodied lures like Ecogear SX40's and atomic cranks have been good when cast alongside floating pontoons and rockwalls and let sit around the structure. A few fish have also taken smaller subsurface offerings as well, with plenty of small mullet around the system for the bream to prey on.

West gippsland is a fairly large area with lots of freshwater fishing options. At the moment there have still been some nice trout to be in the local rivers, while some of the dams in the area can produce some good results on carp, redfin, trout and Australian bass. Customer Jordan has been flyfishing some of the rivers in the region during the week to land some nice brown trout to about 500g. Jordan has mainly been fishing nymphs on the local trout, with a couple also taking wet flies.

Customers Rene and Brad fished down at Blue Rock dam recently using their Old Town canoe. The guys had a bit of fun with redfin and bass in the dam using a variety of lures like Gillies wide body jigs. Customer Mick took a few of his mates down to Lake Wellington near Sale recently in search of some carp. Fishing the lake and also the Avon river the guys caught some chunky carp which they took home to use for a European fish soup. The best rig for the carp was a small ball sinker fished right down to a number 6 baitholder hook loaded with a bunch of juicy troutworms. 

The bream fishing around Melbourne has been good over the last week or so, with some nice fish being caught. The Patterson, Werribee and Yarra rivers have been fishing well with some nice fish coming from around the docks as well. Customer Jayden has been fishing the Patto again in his backyard using baits on light gear, with some thumping bream to 43cm coming in. Jayden took his brother out for a fish as well and his brother caught a nice 32cm fish, and Jayden landed a 42cm fish which were both released. Customer Andrew fished the Patto over the weekend using small lures to land bream to 34cm. Most of the fish were around 30 - 31cm and the best lure of the day was the small Strike Pro Micro Vibe in black. Andrew coated the lure in scent first which seemed to help.

Customer Ryan fished for the bream over the weekend in his kayak around the Yarra and docks and he caught some very nice fish. Ryan found small soft plastics were the most effective when fished on lightly weighted jigheads. A couple of Ryan's better fish were around 40cm in length, which took some persuading to get out from under structure. Light leader no heavier than 6lb also helped trick the bigger fish. 

The Gippsland Lakes systems are very popular holiday locations at this time of year, both for fishing and other watersports and even just to unwind. The fishing is really top notch at this time of the year, with the only negative impact being the sheer amount of people on the water. At some stages the fish get a little bit spooky, but they can normally be found not far away with a bit of searching around.

Customers Ryan and Luke got away to the Eastern estuaries just last week in search of some bream luring. The guys threw their kayaks on the roof and headed out to the Gippsland lakes where they started looking around. The guys ended up having a solid weekend session with plenty of quality fish caught, on all manner of lures. Small soft plastics up to 4'' in size were effective, along with lipless crankbaits and hardbodies. Black and yellowfin bream were caught, along with a few reasonable size tarwhine as well. 

As snapper season starts to heat up more and more the fish (especially more so in port phillip) will have longer and more frequent bite 'windows' which is good news for all snapper anglers. Most anglers out there will be targeting the reds with bait fishing techniques, but artificial lures also work very well on them when used in the right scenario. You can catch snapper on plastics and other lures in virtually any area that you would normally catch them on bait, the trick is to use the right equipment. The main feature for catching snapper on plastics consistently is having a high quality, light weight graphite rod and compact but powerful reel spooled with quality braid. Snapper will soon find faults in your outfit, so having a very smooth drag along with good quality fluorocarbon leader and quality jigheads is the only way to go. 

Customer Alex has been landing fish to around 4kg on lures while out in his kayak from the northern end of the bay. Alex has also had larger fish on that have rubbed him off and chewed through heavy leader. Recently Alex has had to use 40lb leader to keep hooked fish from hitting structure. Soft plastics have been the order for Alex, with 4'' flickbaits and worm patterns doing well. 

Customer Daniel has also been out during the week chasing the snapper on plastics. Most of the fish Daniel has been catching have been around the Ricketts Point area, with 4'' plastics getting hit more often than larger presentations.