The fishing around Westernport Bay isn’t always easy, but the rewards justify perseverance. A stones throw to the southeast of Melbourne, Westernport is a prime destination for lure anglers, offering diverse fishing opportunities across its vast tidal flows, numerous channels, and rich marine environments. Phillip Island is one of two islands in the bay and is a notable destination for lure fishers. With prized species like snapper, mulloway, kingfish, bream, whiting, flathead, and squid, Westernport Bay and Phillip Island are well worth exploring for both locals and visitors alike.
Cowes Pier is a versatile location for the land-based anlger, offering deep water access and the chance to catch a variety of species. Boating anglers can launch from Cowes to access Phillip Island fishing spots and those in central Westernport Bay.
Rhyll offers a quieter fishing experience with opportunities to catch whiting, flathead, and bream.
Located on the Mornington Peninsula, Flinders Jetty is famous for its squid fishing.
Located north of Dickies Bay, Reef Island offers diverse fishing opportunities in shallow waters.
San Remo Jetty is a prime location for targeting Australian salmon, King George whiting, and calamari.
Located on the eastern side of the bridge, behind the police station, Dickies Bay offers excellent fishing opportunities in 1-2m of water, with patches of weed and sand providing habitat for key species.
West of the bridge, Cleeland Bight offers calm waters ideal for lure fishing when the wind is from the northwest.
Corinella is a top spot for boat and kayak anglers, offering excellent opportunities to target snapper, flathead, squid, and mulloway. Many of these species can also be caught from the Corinella Jetty, including snapper and mulloway at times.
Tortoise Head Bank, located on the southern side of French Island, is an excellent spot for boat and kayak anglers targeting snapper, kingfish, and mulloway.
A challenging yet rewarding spot for experienced anglers, the cape is just outside of Westernport Bay and is fishable by those with a seaworthy boat when the weather permits. The rugged coastline and deep reefs provide prime habitat for Australian salmon, snapper and kingfish.
The jetty and surrounding waters are known for several key species, making it a popular spot for both shore-based and boat anglers.
This area is renowned for deep water and strong flows mixed with shallow, calm waters. The recommended tackle reflects this variability, along with the wide variety of fish species and techniques that can be employed.
Light Tackle: A 7′ spin rod in the 6-14lb line class and capable of casting light lures from 3 to 20g is ideal for bream, whiting, flathead, silver trevally. This should be coupled with a 1500-2000 size reel and 8-10lb braid with a leader from 6-14lb, depending on conditions and the target species. This outfit is a little heavier than might normally be used for these species as it needs to be capable of handling Australian salmon, plus smaller snapper and mulloway that take a lure intended for smaller species.
Medium Tackle: A 6’6″ to 7’4″ spin or baitcast rod in 10-20lb line class (PE1.5) is a great option for casting soft plastics, hard bodies and squid jigs. Coupled with a 2000-3000 sized spin reel or 150 size baitcast and loaded with 12-16lb braid, this is a versatile and formidable weapon for targeting quality snapper, mulloway and kingfish around Phillip Island and Westernport. The Jabbers Urban Beats Deft Flicker is a great rod option for soft plastic fishing, whilst the Wanderlust is brilliant if you want a single rod that can be used for casting and jigging.
Heavy Tackle: Needed for casting heavy lures when fishing in strong currents, and also for the lrger snapper, mulloway and kingfish that turn up in some locations. A 6’6″ spin or baitcast rod in the PE2.5 to PE4 range gives the strength and control needed without becoming too heavy to comfortably cast over a full day session. Loaded with 25-40lb braid and tipped with a 25-50lb fluorocarbon leader, this outfit won’t be needed too often, but you’ll be glad to have it when it is needed.
Soft plastics prawns: Small prawns are deadly on bream, whiting and trevally. Larger versions are perfect for snapper and mulloway. These are best rigged on regular jig heads and fished with a “hop, hop, pause” retrieve, but can also be rigged weedless when working weed banks and rocky or snaggy areas.
Soft plastic grubs: Lethal on bream, whiting, silver trevally and flathead. Rig these on a regular jig head or a nedhead jig
Soft Paddletails: Smaller paddletails are very effective on bread and butter species like bream, flathead and trevally, whilst mulloway are suckers for the larger 4-6″ versions. Depending on the use case, these lures can be rigged on a jighead with an exposed barb or can be rigged weedless either unweighted or belly weighted.
Jerkshads: Jerkshads are great for deeper water and faster currents because of their fast sink rates and ability to be worked quickly. They’re deadly on snapper, mulloway and kingfish and are usually rigged on large, heaby jig heads. Jerkshads require a little more work from the angler to impact lure action than other soft plastics.
Yabbies: Small soft plastic yabbies can be lethal on whiting, bream and flathead. Rig these on either standard jig hooks or weedless, belly weighted hooks as required. Ned rigging on sand flats is effective, especially when yabby holes are visible or fish have been “mudding”.
Small Hardbody Stickbaits: Great during the warmer months when bream and whiting are taking prawns and baitfish from the surface, but also deadly on flathead and silver trevally. Work them with a continuous action for whiting or throw in occasional pauses for bream.
Large Stickbaits: These can be daedly on salmon and kingfish. Work them slowly with plenty of twiches and hang on.
Metals: It’s worth carrying a range of high speed metal lures ranging from 25g to 75g. These can be cast or trolled where Australian salmon and/or kingfish are feeding, cast into washes or even jigged in deeper water for mulloway.
Soft Vibes: The 90-100mm, 20g versions are the most useful and definitely worth fishing for mulloway and snapper, though some quality flathead will also jump onboard, at times. When fishing from a boat, work these lurese with hops and pauses, the bite usually comes on the pause and you’ll need to be alert and react fast to set the hook.
As the southern bluefin tuna fishery continues to improve off the Victorian coastline adventurous anglers are finding more and more ways to target them. In today’s episode Lee Rayner shares his strategy for targeting the mighty bluefin on cast surface poppers.
Squid are a great target at Phillip Island at any time of year, but today’s guest, Nev Hayes, reckons the winter months are when the really big squid come out to play. To qualify this statement, he caught a 50cm hood length squid just a week before this interview!
Looking for winter fishing options around Melbourne? Lee Rayner reckons southern fishing can be spectacular in the cooler months.
The kingfish fishery around Melbourne is improving every year and gun angler Lee Rayner is only too happy to share his tips with ALF listeners.
Squidding is a super popular pastime around Melbourne over the cooler months and Kosta Linardos’ tips will help make it even more productive and fun.
Lee Rayners Melbourne...
Melbourne’s Westernport and Port Phillip Bay’s are very different ecosystems that require different techniques. In Episode 124 local guru Jarrod Day unlocks the secrets to snapper fishing in both bays.