Fishing

Well what a great start to spring, after a very wet and cold winter, we have

already had days reaching 29 degrees. And the fishing has started with a bang!!

September in Melbourne is all about the AFL football finals and although I’m a diehard Geelong fan, not even I can stay away from fishing to watch the footy.

Down at Sorrento and Queenscliff, the calamari fishing has been awesome, with plenty of anglers catching their bag limits of calamari (10 per person in Victoria) and some of these beauty’s weighed in at 3kg.

The shallow weed bed’s have been producing plenty of

calamari. Caught on jig’s, with a silver/sand whiting under a float, doing the damage on a lot of the larger squid.

All the smaller jigs such as the Harimitsu 2.5 have worked very well also on the smaller bait sized calamari.

The King George whiting have also been in huge numbers in the same areas as the calamari, in over the shallow weed beds.

These beautiful eating table fish are one of the best fighting fish on light tackle. With huge numbers of them around, they have been fighting to be first to get the bait. So when they have been feeding they have been going crazy.

“Myself, I just love the early morning snapper trip.

Nothing beats being out in Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay an hour or so before day break.

With your baits set, a burley trail going and just waiting for the sound of the first screaming run of big red, as he takes his first power run.”

Brought to you by Simon Rinaldi

Luke Spierings, showing me a very nice early season Snapper around the 4 kg mark.

Although it’s only early day’s for the snapper season, the signs are fantastic with plenty of snapper being caught between Mornington, Frankston and Carrum.

The current water temp is sitting at a cold 13.3 degree and as we start to get more warmer days this will change as will the feeding habit’s of the migrating snapper.

When the water hit’s 14.5 to 15.5 this is prime snapper time, and any given time is a good time to go and catch some of these awesome fighting sportfish.

Myself, I just love the early morning snapper trip. Nothing beats being out in Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay an hour or so before day break. With your baits

set, a burley trail going and just waiting for the sound of the first screaming run of big red as he takes his first power run.

I think it is one of the best sights, having a rod tip buckling towards the water as the sun starts to poke it’s nose up for another day.

So many people over the years ask the same questions when it comes to snapper fishing in Port Phillip Bay.

“Where do you catch them?

How do you know where to find them? and

How long do you give it in one spot, before moving to another spot?”

Most people like to use the humble pipi for bait, but down in this area they feed best on fresh strips of calamari.

These fish once located, can be caught quite easy, it’s just a matter of a light nibble tip rod, a small reel with 2kg line and a padonoster rig with a small 2 ounce sinker.

A lot of these whiting are in the 35 to 40 cm range, but there have been days where the larger models around 45 cm have been smashing the baits first.

These fish have been feeding well on the run in and run out tide, but in saying that, some day’s it just hasn’t mattered because when there on there on.

Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay is just about to be full of boats for the annual “Snapper Season” as I write this, I have just received a text message from good mate

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patten. I fish unweighted most

times in Port Phillip Bay, this is to allow my pilchards to float down to the burley trail. With hand full of cubes being thrown over the transom every 2 minutes.

To locate these fish we use our fishfinder, zoomed in on the bottom 5 metres. We keep looking until we find half archers coming out of the bottom, this is a true sign of snapper feeding on the bottom.

Once we have located the snapper, it’s time to set the anchor. I then go up wind some 50 metres before dropping the anchor and using my GPS.

I keep letting rope out until I am 20 feet away from where I located the snapper on the trusty Furuno 585. The burley process start’s and you are then snapper fishing.

“Where to start looking to find snapper?”

That’s the easy part, always take notice of the day’s prior to your fishing trip. If there have been huge strong winds from the west for at least 3 days, you don’t have to go far.

Well, here are some handy hints, that over 30 years of fishing the waters of Port Phillip Bay, have worked time and time again.

Snapper are a schooling fish, therefore once located, you can hold them under your boat for long periods of time.

I use pilchards cut into small cube sized chunks and throw hand full after hand full, this will hold them under your boat for as long as you want them to keep taking your baits.

The way I fish for snapper is easy, I use a 7ft 6inch ugly stick 6 to 8 kg rod, with Shimano 4500 Baitrunners, spooled with 20lb mono line. I use a size 10 swivel and a 50 lb mono trace down to a twin hook rig known as a “Snelled Hook”. Set up hook choice is dynatec 5/0 octopus

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Eastern side of Port Phillip Bay and are always happy to hear from anybody wanting to find out where they can have a chance of finding some fish in their own boat. Or if you would like to book a charter, you can call Simon at:

If you head out after a big blow has passed through, start to look in the shallows, as the strong winds chop up the water, the snapper get in as close as 4 metres of water off the beaches. Anywhere from 4 metres out to 11 metres, will be prime areas.

As the water gets clean and clear you need to keep moving out deeper as the snapper will slowly keep moving to the deep until the next big windy blow sends them in close again.

“How long do I fish in the same spot before I move to another spot?”

This is the hardest part of snapper fishing for most people and this does change throughout the whole season, You really need to read the signs and those signs are your baits.

If you are constantly winding up your baits, (such as pilchards as a prime example) and they have been in the water for approximately 10 minutes and they look as good as when you first threw them in.

That my friends is a true sign that Big Red is there. You just have to keep winding your baits in and keep casting them back out as well as throwing cubes in non stop. Before you know it, one of your rod tips will disappear over the back of your transom, as the snapper takes it’s first screaming run.

On the other hand if your bait is being picked at non stop by flatty’s, it’s time to make a move. Just remember if you or your mates have caught some snapper in that area don’t move to far, as they might only be 50 metres outside of your burley trail.

So as soon as your anchor is in the boat, start sounding around the area and you will be surprised. Sometimes you might of only gone 100 metres and found them on your sounder.

It is all systems go for me as a charter boat skipper. “Snapper Season” means 3 trips a day, 7 days a week aboard my charter vessel Red Hot Fishing Charters. We will be operating out of the

RED HOT FISHING

CHARTERSPH: 0409 188 751

redhotfishingcharters.com.au

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