Fishing Port Phillip Bay In Winter With Jack Auld

No need to put your boat away over winter!

Yes Melbourne Winters can be cold and miserable, but some really good fishing is also still available on Port Phillip Bay during winter. We tend to get some nice light wind days which are the perfect opportunity to hook up the boat, grab a couple of mates and go wet a line.

During winter, squid are always easy enough to catch when targeted with either baited or artificial jigs. Squid can be found over a variety of grounds and water depths – in saying that, the most consistent grounds would be broken reef or weedy ground in 4-6m. Examples of these grounds are Pt Cook, Indented Heads, Mornington and Sorrento to name a few. Just drift around and keep trying different depths until you locate them.

Whiting are always a great option during winter. Fresh squid strips, mussels or pippies are great baits for whiting. Use a burley cage with a light burley trail on or close to the bottom and keep working your rods. Work sand holes around weedy ground down the southern end of Port Phillip around a tide change and a tasty feed can be caught.

If you’re after a harder fighting fish such as gummy sharks or snapper, this time of year can be a bit hit and miss with the water being so cold. Gummys are still about once you sort through all the rubbish fish and the big seven gill sharks, as Hursty and Rich found out last week. They caught a number of seven gillers to approximately 120kg. If you really want a snapper, Western Port is a bit more consistent this time of year.