Western Port and Surrounds
24 April 2008

With Jarrod Day
See Jarrod's Profile here.

It is always good to come back from holidays and find out the weather and fishing at home has been extraordinary, but you can never predict that.

While the water temperature has dropped significantly, the winter species are becoming a more frequented catch, from salmon on the beaches to a nice run of pinky snapper in the Black Rock area, along with plenty of calamari on nearly every one of the inshore reefs in Port Phillip Bay.

WHY NOT FISHING ADVENTURES
I decided to take some holidays last week with a few fellow customers, Ben from Benny’s Garage Doors, Sam, Norman and Rob, and headed to South Australia. We fished with Why Not Fishing Charters on a live aboard 65ft ship.

Fishing around Pearson, Flinders and Ward Island we managed excellent numbers of samson fish to 55lb, more than enough bluefin tuna to 18 kilos, King George whiting to 55cm, silver trevally to 4 kilos, blue grouper to 60lb, nannygai, swallowtail, leatherjacket, amongst a myriad of other species.

Wile many fish fell to baits, the samsons were taken on jigs in the best 1.5 hour jigging session I have experienced; at one point 9 anglers were hooked up at once with no tangles. Even the quadruple hook up on tuna was spectacular.

To find out more on this trip or future trips with Why Not Fishing Charters, call Jarrod at the shop on (03) 5996 6500 or log onto www.whynotfishingcharters.com.au.

Nigel with a big blue groper.


Benny holding a very big samson.


Me struggling with this big brute.


Sam with a stocky little SBT.


That's all of 55cm and chunky.


Rob with a nice SBT.


Benny doing it on ultra light tackle.


Another nice tuna falling victim to a Richter skirt.

FLINDERS ISLAND TRIP 23-25 MAY
Adam Ring and I are conducting a trip to Flinders Island in late May, we just had two cancellations due to ill health meaning we have two seats available for anybody wishing to come alone. Call Jarrod or Adam for more information on (03) 5996 6500.

ANDERSON INLET
During the past week, Anderson Inlet has fired up with good reports of whiting, pinky snapper, salmon, and a few gummy sharks making up the bulk of the catches. The area known as “The Snags” is a good place to start with plenty of whiting and some trevally on offer for those willing to give it a crack.

GOLDEN BEACH
Matt fished the surf at Golden Beach last weekend. Fishing the high tide at 2am Friday morning he landed a gummy shark of 1 metre in length and good numbers of tailor. All fish were taken on red rockets.

KILCUNDA
I received an email from Peter this week who has been fishing from the beach at Kilcunda. Using blue bait and the Tackle World Cranbourne Vacuum sealed squid strips he has been catching good numbers of salmon to a kilo in weight. The high tide has been most productive. Peter said that during the low tide he caught plenty of yellow eye mullet also on the squid.

WESTERN PORT

CORINELLA
Corinella is fishing well and will continue to fish well for the next few months with plenty of fish on offer. There are schools of silver trevally everywhere around Corinella at the moment, and they provide excellent sport on light tackle for the entire family.

Greg Patterson fished Corinella last week and caught a mixed bag of trevally, gummies and 2 flatties, of course he also caught plenty of elephant fish. Best baits were pipi, pilchard and squid while fishing in 10 metres of water.

Another group of guys, David Gray and Rob Dylan, were fishing in the same depth (10m). Halfway through the flood tide their reel screamed off and a couple of minutes later they boated a nice little seven gill shark. The fish was taken on a mullet fillet and was weighed in at the shop at 18.5kg cleaned. Great fish guys.

STOCKYARD POINT
This is probably the report of the week!!! Now this is one for the land-based angler - who says you need a boat to get good fish?

Justin Tapner was fishing with his mates George and Scott from the sand at Stockyard Point. After rigging up a live salmon and casting it out, Justin hooked and landed a snapper of 10 kilos and it was weighed at Tackle World Cranbourne. The fish measured 90cm long and was caught on the low tide change. A 10kg snapper in Melbourne is a catch of a lifetime, but to do it land-based is something else. I’m glad I wasn’t the one that had to walk the fish with all the gear back to the car.

BALNARRING
Whiting are still being caught around Balnarring, with good sized fish from 40cm-45cm being caught on squid and pipi. This area seems to be a hot spot for bigger fish and it’s not uncommon to get a bag of 12 fish all over 40cm. 4-6m of water seems to be the go, but don’t discard the shallow water as the fish move up into water as it gets dark.

TYABB
Aaron and Tyler have been spending a bit of time flicking squid jigs around the Tyabb area this week. The boys have been doing very well catching plenty of calamari in 1.3 metres of water. They also had a session on salmon where they caught and released approximately 30 fish on assorted baits. Yo-zuri squid jigs in the 3.0 size have been best for the calamari during the low tide.

TOORADIN
Gary Dangaard was fishing in 8 metres of water in the Tooradin Channel on Sunday. Fishing the run out tide he rigged up some tuna fillet and cast it out. A short time later he hooked up to a solid fish which he battled out, eventually landing a magnificent mulloway of 40 pounds.

PORT PHILLIP BAY

BLAIRGOWIE
John has been targeting the King George whiting around Blairgowrie during the week. He has caught his bag on a few occasions with fish ranging 40cm-42cm. Best baits have been pipi and mussels.

BLACK ROCK
Paul Malov fished the Black Rock area on Wednesday in 6-10 metres of water. He had best success fishing during the early morning with excellent numbers of pinky snapper to 45cm, salmon to 1 kilo and calamari to 2 kilos. Paul found most numbers of fish came on a 3” Gulp minnow soft plastic.

I fished with Craig Seignior from Victorian Sport fishing charter on Thursday morning. We found the salmon busting up and managed to catch and release a good 20 odd fish around the 700g–1kg mark. We also managed snapper to 2 kilos and a nice bag of calamari ranging 500g to 800g. The plumb Hayabusa coloured jig worked well for the calamari, and 3” pearl watermelon bass minnow soft plastic for the salmon.

Craig from Victorian Sport Fishing Adventures with a nice early morning
snapper from Black Rock.


Salmon feeding on the surface amongst the birds.
1

Yours truly with a nice pair of local sambos.


MMM, dinner tonight!

MORNINGTON PIER
Louis has been fishing from the pier during the run-out tide. Using pilchards he has been catching good numbers of salmon ranging 25cm-28cm.

There has also been good numbers of calamari taken from around the red rocks area at Mornington. Most anglers have been bagging out, with calamari to 1 kilo not uncommon.

OUT OF TOWN

BERMAGUI
Simon Rinaldi drove up to Bermagui on Saturday. On arrival the weather was perfect so he headed out offshore. When he hit the 12 mile, Simon hooked up, landed and tagged and released a striped marlin estimated at 80 kilos on 15kg tackle.

Harry Charalanbous and mates have also been fishing Bermi this week with great success. They have caught and released 26 yellowfin tuna ranging 10 to 30 kilos and pulled the hooks on a marlin after 2.5 hours. They estimated the fish to weigh 150-200 kilos.
Purple Zuka skirts and red rocket tuna bullets have been working well.

USELESS INFORMATION
Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark’s stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.

For fishing club presentations, drop me an email.

Good luck and fish hard,
Jarrod Day

See Jarrod's previous report here.