New to the area and chasing tips

[Liamjp]

Hi guys and girls

I have just moved to Albury from yeppoon qld and I am keen to do a bit of fishing in the western port area or out in the bay.
I was just hoping to pick your brains a little as I am taking dad down in a couple of days for a fish.
We are planning on dropping in at Hastings and we are keen to chase flattys. (They are dads favorite fish). Also I will be hoping to get a squid or two.
I usually use plastics for the flattys up in yeppoon but dads not the best at flicking so what baits do you recommend. And what areas should we focus on. Any tips would be awesome
Cheers guys merry Christmas Liam

[rb85]

Gday Liam the flatties in WP are probably a little bit smaller than what you catch further up Nth if you are fishing out of a boat I would suggest heading offshore and drifting at different depths until you find a patch of fish using bait instead of lures. As for squid just find a nice little weedy bank/drop off and start casting Jigs.

[chris srsc]

Get a good map and stick to channels..it gets very tricky at low tide. .

[skronkman]

The waters on WP are often a bit dirty for soft plastics but I've had great success in port Phillip on them with flatties. I don't think I've pulled very many reasonable flatties out of WP. If you head out to the 40m mark off shore from cleelands bight and drift using a paternoster rig I've got on to good patches of good size flatties using squid strips.

If using bait in ppb just go with squid on a running sinker and give a bit of action to it, either drift, slow retrieve, a few bounces and Pause. In PPB I like a small bean sinker run down to the hook but in WP you need to use big lead to hold bottom usually and I use an ezyrig with a swivel and bead with about 50cm of leader. I'm usually anchored in WP too and don't use any action, just sit and wait but like I said I haven't pulled many out of WP. Be careful not to let your bait spin in the current in WP too.

Welcome to Victoria mate, enjoy our lovely weather!

Cheers

[Scraglor]

Like the others have said, typically I find less Flatties in WPB, versus PPB. Having said that I caught one off Hastings this morning that was nearly 50cm, and I got one the other day at 64cm, but I probably wouldnt head there if I was targetting them, Hastings I would more be after KG Whiting or snapper/gummies.

If you insist on Hastings, i would do the following;

KGW - try around the various banks, up middle spit, tortoise head bank, quail bank in 5-6 meters or so of water, keep moving every 15-30 minutes if you dont get a bite, when you find them, you will know fairly quickly, and can usually knock a few over in pretty quick succession. Use Pippy/Mussels/Squid strips as bait, on a running sinker or paternoster rig. Size 6 long shanks or 1/0 circles are the go. It can also pay to berley with chicken pellets and tuna oil, although this can attract hordes of rubbish fish.

Pinkies/Snapper - I would be fishing deep on the edges of the channels in front of Hastings, all the way up to the top end, try and sound up some arches, anchor up and soak some baits. Fresh bait is best, you can usually catch some near the pier to the right once you come out of the Hastings channel, past the submarine. Fresh yakkas, slimeys, couta, etc all work, as well as squid. If you dont feel like catching your bait, frozen pillies/squid work, and some of the guys here swear by banana prawns from coles.

Squid - do some drifts along Tyabb bank in 4-6mtrs of water, I would have a couple of baited prongs out, and throw a jig around.

Let me know if you have any questions, Im no guru, but I fish Hastings fairly regularly, and I am happy to help out where I can (This morning between two of us we got 4x snapper about 45-50cm, 32x whiting up to 48cm and a 50cm or so flatty. )

PS: If you plan on fishing Hastings, make sure you go out in day light the first few times, have a good GPS with charts - and no how to read it. There are a lot of channels and sand bars that are exposed at low tide, its very easy to get high and dry if you arent careful.

[Liamjp]

Awesome. Thanks heaps guys. Appreciate the tips and will let you know how we go. Have a great Christmas