HOT SPOTS - Port Melbourne

By Peter Jolly
See Peter's weekly report for fishvictoria.com here.

Port Melbourne can be a very good place to fish whether it be during the day or into the evening. Working your way from Webb Dock around past Station and Princess piers and over to St Kilda Marina there are a few reefs scattered around and even though they are small they can be very productive.

Above is a local map of the area with some of the best spots marked with red dots. The marks from Station Pier to St Kilda Marina are in reletavily shallow water, some down to 1 meter. The majority of the bottom is muddy from the Yarra around to Station Pier so there will not be alot of whiting due to the fact they like sandy bottoms. There are flathead here but they taste like mud nearer the river.

Good places to fish here are along the shipping channel into the deeper water but please get your boat to anchor well out of the channels because there is a huge amount of shipping traffic coming in and out of the port. Also keep a look out for ferries that shoot around here especially into the night. Having good lights at night here is a must.

The fish you may catch around here range from whiting, flathead, leatherjacket, bream (from around the piers), snapper and the occasional hit from mulloway. Also if you berley up too much you will almost certainly get a banjo and, to the other extreme, an eagle ray. The later are good fun but waste a large amount of your time.

Don't be scared to fish very shallow here, you will be amazed at the size of some of the fish you may get.

Warmies Ramp
This ramp is almost 2 years old now. It has good parking and fees are paid via a ticket machine ($8). The ramp itself has a good angle both in high and low tides but is narrow. Care must be taken when launching and retrieving when there are alot of boats tied up coming in or going out, it can get very squeezy. Once in the channel stay to the right of the markers and have a good look when going into the shipping channel for various craft BIG and small, sometimes it's very busy.

(22 March 2001)


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