Fishing Victoria Forum

Been out a few times since GF weekend and caught jack **** expect one smallish gummy, need helps like tides, times, areas. We have been using fresh caught salmon and mullet and have had one buckle on it. Should we be heading out before first light and when does snapper season roughly slow down. We are on a boat btw

LachyBell wrote:Been out a few times since GF weekend and caught jack sh*t expect one smallish gummy, need helps like tides, times, areas. We have been using fresh caught salmon and mullet and have had one buckle on it. Should we be heading out before first light and when does snapper season roughly slow down. We are on a boat btw

Get yourself the AFN Fishing guide to Western Port map or book. That helped me out a lot when i was just starting out and forums and facebook reports weren't a thing. It wont guarantee you fish on the spots but it will teach you what ground/structure to look for which will prove invaluable to your fishing.

Cheers, Anth

LachyBell wrote:Been out a few times since GF weekend and caught jack sh*t expect one smallish gummy, need helps like tides, times, areas. We have been using fresh caught salmon and mullet and have had one buckle on it. Should we be heading out before first light and when does snapper season roughly slow down. We are on a boat btw

As Anth said.

Regarding tides, either side of high and lows are best. When the tide is racing I usually find a quiet spot to catch some squid. At slack water don't expect much either, tho yesterday at that time I was getting squid on my snapper rig bait at 18m.

Times - I don't believe this is as important in WPB as on PPB. Plan your day (or night) around tides, not times.

Areas - Look for reefy areas. Sound up fish if you can. One of my best sessions was when I sounded up a school of bait - dropped lines over the side and we had bagged out within about 20 minutes. If you can't find a school and drop anchor randomly its likely to be slow. This might annoy a few, but watch what is happening on other boats. I was sitting amongst a heap of boats recently but just one of those seemed to be catching most of the fish. They had bagged and I think I saw them throw a dead one overboard, so they may have been upsizing. I was keen to investigate more closely but me deckie didn't want to. On approach to the high tide we move in behind them, not close, maybe metres. When the tide swung around, we were then on to the same school, and bagged out pretty quickly after that.

Fresh caught salmon is good, tho best for gummy imo. Try using fresh squid and pillies.

^banana prawn is a pretty underrated bait for wpb too. Yes, snapper take them.