The fishing is still going strong

PPB WEST

Alan

Bonnici

alan@fishingmad.com.au

2023 has gone fast, and just like that, winter is here. However, the fishing is still very productive and I’m finding this season to be a little different from past seasons. Let me elaborate a little.

Historically, I have done incredibly well for breadand-butter species like pinkie snapper, flathead, squid and whiting between February and April. This year, even though water temperatures have been similar to previous years, I’m finding these fish are coming into peak bite times a couple of months later than usual. I have been catching big hauls of flathead, snapper, whiting, squid, salmon, garfish and so on in recent weeks. Generally, I keep only a few for a good feed, and release the rest.

It’s getting colder!

This good fishing will hopefully encourage more anglers to get out more often, despite the dip in water temperature and air temperature.

I’ve been staying local the past month, and for good reason – there has simply been no need to travel to catch big numbers of fish. This has included surrounding areas such as Port Melbourne, Altona, Werribee, Avalon, Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula. Some crazy sessions have happened at places like the Princess Pier Poles, Geelong waterfront, Avalon, Campbells Cove and

Altona Reef.

I’ve been fishing quite a lot with my mate Chris Chimo around Port Melbourne –he on his Hobie Outback and me on my Hobie Pro schools identified on the sounder, or hard up against structure, has been key. We both managed a good-size snapper or two amongst the chaotic pinkie action, which

Angler 14. We have fished around the Webb Dock rock wall, Princess Pier poles, Station Pier structures and out further. The volume of pinkies between 30-60cm has been amazing. Working soft plastics very slowly across was great and so welcome for this time of year.

It’s been amazing to see so many land-based anglers out at these spots frequently as well. I have seen a couple of big snapper landed on St Kilda Pier and Webb

Dock on the evening. It’s so rewarding to see landbased anglers catch good fish, especially as our local land-based legends often put in long hours waiting for that moment.

At this time of year, land-based fishing requires much dedication and patience. It can be cold and a bit slow, but thankfully the pinkies have been around in good numbers, which will hopefully keep you busy. If not, it’s a great idea to berley hard and throw out some small hooks, as the garfish have slowly come on strong. The land-based fishing has also been quite good for bream on the Nong and Yarra. I have fished with some good mates locally, and have caught some great size bream up to 40cm around Flemington, Essendon, Footscray and the fringes of the CBD. There have also been some great catches around the docklands. Most of the fish have been caught on baits, but we are also seeing a growing popularity of jigging lures slowly, including Cranka Crabs and Mussel Vibes.

Soft plastics for me continue to be a stand-out technique choice. It’s the pure simplicity of only needing one spin combo, a few jigheads and a few packets of soft plastics or scented soft baits. You can cover a lot of ground, working them slowly with subtle lifts and pauses. This simple technique requires less gear and less preparation, and yet brings in big hauls of fish consistently.

At this time of year I typically rig up quite light, with my go-to being a 1/12oz jighead in size 2/0. I use a variety of soft plastics, including 2.5” paddletails, 4” worm imitations, 2.5” grubs, yabby imitations, crab imitations. The array of choices is almost endless, and I love the experimental side of trying new profiles and colours, and catching a few fish.

Baits are also working really well. Locally at this time of year it’s very difficult to beat small strips of pilchard or squid on a running sinker rig or paternoster rig. It’s best to stick to smaller size hooks, anywhere from size 1 through to size 3.

The water temperature and outdoor temperature will start to decline fast from here. By mid-June, the water temperature usually hovers around 12°C, and that’s when things will start to get a little more challenging. The bread-and-butter species we are catching in big numbers now will slowly go off the bite. With that in mind, you should fish our local bays as often as possible now whilst the bite is still going strong. I will spend quite some time chasing king George whiting, squid and flathead, which should still fish well for a few weeks.

Once the cooler water temperatures really kick in then you can do a variety of other things, such as chasing trout (which thrive in the cooler water temperatures) in rural Victoria, or head offshore and chase some barrel tuna. There is always something to target if you are keen and don’t mind some cooler temperatures.

That’s it for this month. Don’t let the drop in temperature stop you from getting out there and catching some quality fish. I know I will be, and I hope to see you out there.

Until next time, good fishing everyone. Feel free to contact me directly to share your fishing experiences, photos and catches around Melbourne, Port Phillip

Bay and beyond which we can feature in next month’s article. You can contact me by email at alan@ fishingmad.com.au.

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