All posts by WFS Admin

Who is WFS Admin? Over about 45 years I fished most of the Aussie mainland and Tasmania. I mapped Top End river rockbars, reefs and wrecks using early sonar mapping software. I published the North Australian Fishing and Outdoors Magazine (closed it when COVID took off), and still publish the biennial FISH FINDER book of fishing maps. I was Sunday Territorian fishing columnist for two decades. Perhaps more importantly, I have caught 20lb+ snapper off Adelaide's metro jetties :) Also have great memories of catching tommies, chow and slimies at Port Giles and Edithburgh with my dad, and fishing in England for everything from carp and grayling to cod and plaice. This site is pretty much a love job, so be patient with site issues. Fishos can help by posting useful comments, fishing reports and feedback. Fish on!

Melbourne landbased fishing spots

Most landbased fishing around Melbourne is done within Melbourne’s two large, shallow enclosed bays, Port Phillip and Western Port, but the city also has surf and rock fishing along the coast outside the bays.

Landbased fishing is generally done from jetties and rock walls, but there is beach and rock fishing to be had, and some riverbank fishing.

Some of the jetties have artificial reefs installed within casting distance.

Here’s some reliable landbased fishing spots in and around Melbourne.

– Cowes Pier, Phillip Island.
– Rhyll Jetty, Phillip Island.
– Newheaven Jetty, Phillip Island.
– San Remo Jetty, San Remo.
– Queenscliff Pier, Queenscliff.
– Barwon Heads Pier, Barwon Heads.
– Mornington Pier, Mornington.
– Sorrento Pier, Sorrento.
– Docklands, Melbourne.
– St Kilda Pier, St Kilda.
– Brighton Pier and Rock Wall, Brighton.
– Portarlington Pier, Portarlington.
– Flinders Pier, Flinders.
– Point Leo Beach, Point Leo.
– Patterson River, Carrum.
– Cunningham Pier, Geelong.
– Werribee River, Werribee South.
– Gunnamatta Beach, Fingal.
– Cape Woolamai Beach, Cape Woolamai.
– Cape Woolamai Back Beach, Cape Woolamai.
– Kilcunda Beach. Kilcunda.
– Stony Point Ferry Terminal, Stony Point.6. Altona Pier, Altona.
– Furguson Street Pier, Williamstown.
– Station Pier, Port Melbourne.
– Mordialloc Pier, Modialloc.
– Sandringham Rock Wall, Sandringham.
– Frankston Pier, Frankston.
– Princess Pier, Port Melbourne.
– Black Rock Pier, Black Rock.
– Balnarring Beach, Balnarring.
– Somers Beach, Somers.
– Mount Martha Rocks, Mount Martha.
– Shallow Inlet, Sandy Point.

Melbourne’s two vast bays are mainly sandy-bottomed, with seagrass beds. The bays produce flathead, king george whiting, pink snapper, yellowtail kingfish, black bream, Australian salmon, garfish, yellow-eye mullet, silver trevally, barracouta, mulloway, squid, flounder and leatherjackets.

Geelong’s jetties alone will keep family fishos occupied, with juvenile Australian salmon, squid and bream all reliable.

Elephant fish, gummy sharks, seven-gill sharks, school sharks, various rays and estuary perch are also caught.

What you catch will depend on where you fish, with the low-energy locations within the bays producing mostly smaller fish, and the surf and rock spots outside producing bigger fish.

You will need to gear up accordingly, with light spinning rod/reel combos with 4kg to 6kg line being ideal within the bays for smaller fish, and heavier surf gear required on the southside beaches.

Bigger fish can be caught from Melbourne landbased locations, especially at night, and you’ll need the right gear, such as a long gaff or drop gaff, to land big fish.

Elephant fish usually run in Western Port between March and May.

In the surf, Australian salmon prevail, with gummy and school sharks, mulloway, pink snapper and tailor adding excitement.

Gummy and school sharks are caught in the surf at night and are highly regarded as table fare.

Mulloway and snapper move in close after storms, and mulloway are targeted when rain flushes estuaries and creeks.

Melbourne landbased fishing sasons

In Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay, juvenile salmon bite all year, while bream are best from June to November.

Flathead, garfish and king george whiting are best in the bay in summer, with sand whiting biting through to April.

Silver trevally and snapper are best from October to May.

Mullet are from April to October.

Kingfish are best in summer.

Squid can be caught all year, but are usually best from June to October.

Mulloway bite well around Melbourne in winter.

Bait, lures and tackle

Pilchards, bluebait, prawns and squid are popular baits.

For pink snapper, fish fillets or small whole fish work well.

For those who make the effort, local bait such as worms and bass yabbies, can make all the difference.

Lure fishing is popular, especially for Australian salmon, barracouta and yellowtail kingfish, where chrome slices are a good all-round lure.

Bream and estuary perch are often targeted with small minnow lures and soft plastics.

Paternoster rigs are popular for bait fishing.

In Victoria’s estuaries, with small tides and often clear water, a light-tackle approach is crucial.

The fishing is easier in estuaries when the water dirties. Night fishing can also work wonders.

Melbourne landbased fishing weather

Victoria is the second wettest state after Tasmania.

At Melbourne Airport the mean wind speed is between 20km/h and 24km/h through the year, with April, May and June being calmest and August and September the windiest.

Melbourne winds tend to blow northerly in winter, and southerly in summer.

Easterlies are rare.

Winter fronts bring gales, while summer brings strong afternoon sea breezes.

Keep this is mind when planning your trips. Lee shores might be calmer for landbased fishing, but at times some wave action can be helpful when fishing.

Rock fishing outside the bays can be dangerous as wave action is far more severe.

Victoria’s tidal range is small, being near 1m at Portland and under 2m at the NSW border. Nonetheless, high tides tend to be the best time for Melbourne’s landbased anglers.

Melbourne landbased fishing holiday locations

Some of Victoria’s coastal towns are great destinations for landbased fishing holidays.

To the west some of the major stops are Lorne, Apollo Bay, Port Fairy, Portland and Nelson (Glenelg River).

To the east are Port Albert, Lakes Entrance, the Ninety Mile Beach, and Mallacoota.

There are many smaller communities with holiday facilities and good local fishing.

Book your fishing stay early at Booking.com


fish finder book

Melbourne (Williamstown) tides
Melbourne dam levels
VIC fishing regulations
VIC marine parks

Email corrections, additions, pictures or video here.

How to catch garfish

Garfish are a small fish but a popular catch because of their sweet flesh.

They are also superb baitfish.

Garfish are caught by rod and line and with dab (scoop) nets in Australia.

Where legal to do so, they can also be caught with cast nets.

Of the garfish species found around Australia, the most significant from an angling point of view is the southern sea garfish (Hyporhamphus melanochir) of Australia’s temperate waters.

This is found from Western Australia’s Kalbarri south to southern New South Wales. It grows to just over 50cm.

The smaller robust garfish (Hemiramphus robustus) is found in Australia’s northern waters and is often abundant. It is tasty, but is usually sort for bait.

Another abundant garfish in northern waters is the blackbarred garfish (Hemiramphus far).

There are a few tricks to consistently catching quality southern sea garfish.

They are a small-mouthed surface-feeding fish with good eyesight so use tiny hooks and the lightest possible line for best results.

Size 8 to 12 hooks are ideal, and 2kg or 3kg nylon line, used on an ultralight spinning rod/reel combo.

Garfish can be targeted using a small float or by drifting a baited hook out on the surface, try using Vaseline on the line to help keep it on the surface.

For bait, a tiny piece of squid tentacle, or maggots (gents), or peeled prawn can all work on these fish.

These ‘mini-marlin’ will jump when hooked and quite often get off the hook, so bring them in promptly.

Garfish are typically found over relatively shallow grounds close to the coast, particularly where there is abundant seagrass.

They are ideally fished from a boat as maintaining a steady berley trail is easier.

However, many coastal jetties produce garfish for skilled anglers, particularly in South Australia.

Garfish can also be caught from shore, and in shallow areas where they are abundant they are caught by scoop-netting at night while wading, using a bright torch to dazzle the fish.

Berley works well with garfish and it is possible to have them schooled behind the boat by using a fine berley of bread crumbs of similar base ingredient ground up with pilchards or other oily fish.

Big southern sea garfish are best targeted in the early morning, but they can be caught during the day, and at night.

Northern garfish species seems to be less fickle about time of day.

Filleting garfish is a definite skill, but well worth learning as the flesh is sweet and delicate, quite different from large demersal fish.

Garfish make superb skipping baits for sailfish and small marlin, and small gar can be applied whole to ganged hooks for catching large tailor.

Garfish also make a great bait for mackerel when used live, with the blackbarred garfish a popular baitfish in Darwin coastal waters.

Back to the NSW/ACT Fishing Map
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Back to the Queensland Fishing Map
Back to the SA Fishing Map
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Back to the Victorian Fishing Map
Back to the WA Fishing Map

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How to catch pink snapper

The pink snapper (Chrysophrys auratus) is one of Australia’s iconic fish, being a hugely popular catch across the southern half of the coast.

Pink snapper grow to more than a metre long and 12kg.

Their pink sides and pale blue spots make them an attractive fish, and the largest ones are truly impressive, sometimes forming a bulbous nose and forehead, earning them the moniker “old man snapper”.

The pink snapper is a slow-growing fish, and this is partly why it has been depleted in some areas, with tighter management regimes in place to restore stocks.

There are currently significant restrictions on catching pink snapper in South Australia, with ban in place in most state waters, and there are also severe restrictions in Western Australia around Perth and in Shark Bay.

Queensland has an annual pink snapper closed season in its waters.

In Western Australia, the pink snapper of Shark Bay formed a separate genetic sub-type that is separate from the pink snapper found outside the bay.

Strict rules were introduced to manage this Shark Bay snapper stock, which was historically overfished, and it soon bounced back.

The pink snapper is an interesting fish in that in different parts of the country the fish has different habits, growth rates and spawning times.

Near Western Australia’s Carnarvon, female snapper mature around 380mm in length and four years of age, but near Perth they mature from about 580mm and six years of age.

Spawning is between May and September in Carnarvon and October to December in Perth.

Clearly, how you target these fish depends where you are fishing.

As a general rule, pink snapper form schools and inhabit reefs, ledges and other underwater structures, and a boat is required to find and catch the bigger fish reliably.

On the NSW/South-East Queensland coast, pink snapper appear to move up and down the coast with the seasons.

In Shark Bay it is not unusual to catch pink snapper from the beach.

In South Australia stormy weather brings big snapper into shore where they off the metro beaches, with big fish historically taken from city spots such as Brighton jetty.

Huge snapper were also caught in shallow water behind Adelaide’s Torrens Island, usually at night.

Pink snapper form spawning schools which are often in the same place each year, which has made them vulnerable to overfishing.

In Western Australia, pink snapper are found around Karratha southwards.

They are found through South Australia through Victoria and New South Wales north to around Gladstone in Queensland.

Brisbane’s Moreton Bay and Hervey Bay to the north produce plenty of smaller snapper, with the wide reefs producing bigger fish.

The biggest fish are usually caught in the southern part of their range, however 90cm snapper have been caught in Queensland waters.

To catch pink snapper, find the fish on your sounder and then use the freshest possible bait.

Waters of 20m deep 0r more are usually most reliable.

Pink snapper will take baits of small fish, prawns, crabs, squid and octopus. They are omnivores, also being known to eat jellyfish, sea urchins, worms and even algae.

Baits should be fished on the bottom, but baits drifted out from a boat will often be taken at midwater, especially if using berley.

The turn of the tide will often bring the fish on the bite in deeper water, while a rising tide nearing the high will bring them on over shallow coastal grounds and rocky headlands.

Like many fish, pink snapper are most active in the early morning and late afternoon, and at night.

A good storm can bring them inshore when they can be caught from jetties and rock groynes.

Pink snapper are more active in the warmer months in the southern part of their range, but on the Queensland coast are considered mainly a winter catch.

If fishing in the southern part of their range you need sturdy gear as hooking a big fish is always possible.

Snapper are an excellent food fish.

Lastly, the pink snapper is related to black bream and tarwhine rather than true snapper, the Lutjanids such as mangrove jacks and fingermark bream.

Back to the NSW/ACT Fishing Map
Back to the NT Fishing Map
Back to the Queensland Fishing Map
Back to the SA Fishing Map
Back to the Tasmanian Fishing Map
Back to the Victorian Fishing Map
Back to the WA Fishing Map

Email corrections, additions, pictures or video here.

Book your fishing B&B early at Booking.com



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