Moving to Docklands - Looking for Advice

[Andrews]

Hey Everyone,

As the title says it, this squid fisherman is moving to Docklands and chasing new waters.
The plan right now is for me to relocate to a Docklands apartment for a year (starting April) which will put me closer to my work in State Government, and help further my career progression.

Seeing this is a massive change of scenery from rural Bellarine Peninsula and being the keen fisherman, I'm looking for advice on the kind of fishing that will be in available in my new backyard and surrounds.

With the power of social media I've been pretty lucky to reach out to a few resident locals and they've recommended targeting pinkies, flathead and salmon for the chew as they're non-residential species, as opposed to the Bream who live in the brown all year round.
Seeing as there plenty of locals here, what do you guys reckon? What species should I expect? Would it be wise to eat them? avoid after a heavy rain?

Next question is gear, I'm wanting to run one rod, which I can use to target a good mix. I was thinking 2-4kg, 8lb braid, 15lb fluro, running soft plastics/hardbodies/slugs. Maybe 2 piece, 5.5" to 6" , Size 2500 reel?
Looking for input and recommendations.

Cheers everyone!

[e.welch]

Hey Everyone,

As the title says it, this squid fisherman is moving to Docklands and chasing new waters.
The plan right now is for me to relocate to a Docklands apartment for a year (starting April) which will put me closer to my work in State Government, and help further my career progression.

Seeing this is a massive change of scenery from rural Bellarine Peninsula and being the keen fisherman, I'm looking for advice on the kind of fishing that will be in available in my new backyard and surrounds.

With the power of social media I've been pretty lucky to reach out to a few resident locals and they've recommended targeting pinkies, flathead and salmon for the chew as they're non-residential species, as opposed to the Bream who live in the brown all year round.
Seeing as there plenty of locals here, what do you guys reckon? What species should I expect? Would it be wise to eat them? avoid after a heavy rain?

Next question is gear, I'm wanting to run one rod, which I can use to target a good mix. I was thinking 2-4kg, 8lb braid, 15lb fluro, running soft plastics/hardbodies/slugs. Maybe 2 piece, 5.5" to 6" , Size 2500 reel?
Looking for input and recommendations.

Cheers everyone!

What happened to your squidding sponsorship?

[happyfriggincamper]

Wow mate - that's a pretty big change for you! Hope you can get back to your home grounds often enough - best of luck with it.

There should be enough people able to give you some advice, but maybe one that hasn't come up on here but you have probably seen on Instagram - is that there are some cracking bream and monster EPs in the Yarra right through the cbd.

That set up sounds fine for most of the pan sized species you'd come across, except id maybe opt for a 7ft-7'6 rod for a bit of extra length to flick light lures and baits

[bowl]

Plenty of squid grounds not far from city.
If I had to choose one rod for everything ,prob be in 7-9 foot range.

[Sebb]

That's a big change.
I used to work in Docklands, fished there a lot, fished yarra and Nong many times as well as warmies, port melb. And still do.

You are right about the bream, they are resident fish and try not to eat them (though I did few times in the past and I'm still alive and well), but they are abundant and provide good fishing all year round (they go down deep in cooler months and all the way to the surface in summer). As well as the mulloway, they're residents there.

For a feed, yes, the pinkies, flatties and salmon (there was a school of kingfish few years ago) are likely travelers and okay to eat.

This time of year, you can get all the mentioned species in all three places (yarra, nong, docks). Move to warmies and port melb, you can also get snook/pike/trevally this time of year, on top of the mentioned three species. Also gummies and rays baitfishing at night.
Then winter is mostly salmon and bream, and mulloway if you're keen.

For years, my most versatile gear was 2-5kg 762 rod and 2500 reel with 10lb. Now for bream, I use 1-3kg 7ft regular taper rod, 2000 reel with 6lb braid and 4lb fluorocarbon, because metro bream are so hard to fool (lures ofc).

The 7ft up to 7ft10 is to give better casting distance, and sometimes you need to reach out away from the rocks etc. Ofc you can use as short as 6ft, but to me the 7ft-7ft10 rod gives extra edge, and most places have open area to cast long rods.

For bigger snapper on plastic, I use 5-7kg rod and 4000 reel with 15-20lb line. Occasionally though.

I also have 3-6lb fast 6ft8 rod paired with 2000 reel and 6lb line 8lb fluorocarbon leader. I use this for smaller pinkies, flathead, trevally, sometimes bream. But I struggle when the bigger fish hits the lure. Like the salmon that's currently around, they're about 1.5kg.

So if I was to pick only one, I'd take 2-4kg rod 7ft up to 7ft10 and 2500 reel with 10lb braid. Vary the leader, depends on the target species.

Note: EP has been around recently too in dock, nong and yarra. There's also Albert Park.
Happy to fish with you, we can set up a time at some point.

[Andrews]

Thanks everyone for the advice, it's going to be a huge learning curve!

@e.welch Still happening, but I'll be seeing what happens. I'm a few months in advance with squidding content and every few weeks I'll head down for a session, or may even try the other side of the day? who knows! This is more a chance for me to target some species that I've never chased before.

@happyfriggincamper, cheers, it's definitely a big, but right move for me. I have been keeping an eye out, and when things get closer I'll reach out to a few of the locals of Instagram to have a sesh (get tips). Pretty keen! I think you're right on the length, again that's my unfamiliarity with urban fishing haha! I think that length will play to my advantage.

@bowl, I think you're right, it's funny I woke up this-morning and hindsight hit me and I was like 'why would I want anything shorter than 7'5 minimum' haha. Yeah keep to explore and see what is happening up this way.

@Sebb, cheers for all the detailed advice Sebb. I think the mix between bream and EP's give me a good chance to chase some species catch and release that I would otherwise never have been able too. I really appreciate you saying which season I'd find different species and perhaps the behaviour, that is awesome insight. I think my go-to depending on what is around would be pinkies, flathead, trevally, salmon for chew, rest of fun.

I'm in agreeance with everyone's advice, definitely going longer towards that 7ft+ rod, I think that 2-4kg range is good mix, it lets me target those pinkies and then anything bigger. Good middle ground. I agree with stepping up the braid to 10lb, that gives me a little bit more strength and swapping the fluro for the species, easy done.

I'd definitely be keen to catch up for a session!

[Andrews]

I'd be keen to hear everyones throughts between these two rods, speaking with a few mates who fish the docklands + surrounds pretty often and they've recommended looking at two rods. They are the:

Daiwa 20 TEAM DAIWA BLACK RODS - Something in that 1.5kg-4kg range, ITCHY TWICTHY maybe?

or the

DAIWA TD ZERO - Longer than the black rods, 7'3, 2-5kg.

[Sebb]

Itchy twitchy is quite popular for the kind of fishing you will do, slightly to the light side of 2-4kg, especially the tip. You can cast 1/8 jighead nicely on that and lighter jig head if needed (e.g. for bream I use 1/28). I have a few TD/Gen Black, they're good, but to me they're not worth paying $199 rrp. When on sale at around $120-$150, yes they're worth it.

TD zero is better. The 2-5 kg is slightly on the heavier side. You can pull bigger fish should you hooked onto some. E.g. you can pull 1kg salmon/pinkie with no issue but you will struggle a bit with itchy twitchy. Not impossible though.

There's also NS Amped and Abu Garcia Veritas for around the same price range, they're often on sale and good spec on them. The other day I saw Veritas on sale for $99 down from $169.

Then you can go up a notch to Infeet. The list goes on.

[Texas]

Big move Andrew, the experience will make you appreciate
St Leonards even more.
Some non-fishing tips ...... Obviously make sure you have adequate off street parking. Some parking signs change to taxi or bus zones at night and are enforced, read the whole sign. Bourke street, near Harbour Esplanade is packed most nights. Good luck finding any on-street parking when the footy is on. The area is part of the "free tram zone", so that's a bonus.
Nearly forgot, those possums you will see, mainly at night, are actually rats, big rats
Cheers Gra

[potatoeater]

If you're apartment hunting, be sure to get one with a parking space. Otherwise it adds up and super inconvenient. The rental market has dropped dramatically over the past few months so you're going to get a great deal for a place to stay.

If actually suggest you don't actually stay in docklands itself. The entire CBD is within a free tram zone so it's largely the same commute wise.
The reason is that it gets super cold in Docklands in the winter. Apartment wise, flagstaff area (next to docklands) has as lot of apartments from newly completely high rises that offer really good deals (and a parking spot in the city center)