Here come the snapper

We have well and truly started to turn the corner after winter with a wide variety of reports starting to filter in over the past week. At the top of the tree are some very encouraging snapper reports, both in size and numbers of fish - it looks like it's going to be another bumper of a season.

Port Phillip Bay
Staff member Eren and good mate Adam fished off Ricketts Point on Saturday. The boys managed four squid to 500gms caught on Yamashita 2.5 MIH and Harimitsu 2.5 EPC. Later in the afternoon they tried for some pinkies and Eren did it again, catching a snapper of 3kg. The fish was taken on a Berkley 3" Gulp Smelt. Top effort!

Adam headed out again on Sunday with his good mate Brian. The boys fished out of Black Rock and caught 12 squid to 600gms. Adam and Brian tried some new colours on the squid. The gun jigs on the day were Harimitsu 2.5 in EMR and Yamashita 2.5 AJK, used in about 3m of water.
Good customer Alex Matic fished on Sunday afternoon in 8m off Ricketts Point. He managed a nice snapper of 3.3 kg on a pilchard - his second for the season.

Richard Brabner fished Beaumaris bay and caught a nice bag of garfish. Stimulate ground berley was the key to bringing on the gars. Rich said a very light float was the answer fished with silver fish as bait.
Sunday morning two young boys popped in a told us that they had been fishing Beaumaris Pier. They caught around 30 gars on silver fish. They also managed five squid on jigs around the 500gms. Their jig of choice was a YoZuri 1.8 in blue.

Matt Cini and Matt Boulton of Reel Time Charters have been out catching good numbers of snapper over the past week with fish ranging 1.5-4.5kg.
Eren headed down to Mordy creek Sunday afternoon for a quick session. He pulled 10 salmon around 600gms on soft plastics, with the top lure a 3" Powerbait in grey ghost.

Customer Spiro reports the Queenscliff area is fishing well for whiting and squid. The key is to move around until you find them, then just keep a steady berley trail going. Top baits have been squid and mussel cocktail. Squid range 1kg with the odd one going 2.5kg. Tommy roughs and silver whiting fished under floats proved the best.

Spiro has also been taking them on 3.5 and 4.0 jigs. He has been using the new deep Harimitsu in EWC and Yo-Zuri 3.5 in PNF.

The snapper have arrived! This week we have had several reports of snapper taken all along the eastern side of the bay. Some boys have bagged out on the inner and outer artificial reefs. The guys are marking plenty so it is a matter of getting out a giving them a go.
Matt Hunt called Tuesday morning and a couple of his mates pulled 14 snapper in 17m of water off Mordialloc.

Western Port
Lee fished early Friday morning off Flinders Pier and had great success on big squid. While fishing baited jigs with tommy roughs and silvers under floats he caught three big squid of 2-2.5kgs. Lee also threw Harimitsu 3.5 jigs in colour AR and their new color AY. Casting the jigs saw him catch five more quality squid in the 1.5-2.5kg size.

Lee and good mate Quinn headed out in the boat the following day back to Flinders for another session. The boys managed to catch eight more squid casting jigs. Again the larger jigs worked best. They also tried a few new colours.

Good mate and customer Jim fished Flinders Pier Saturday - after hearing what Lee had done the day before. He caught five cracker squid on baited jigs.
Scott from A'Lure charters rang Monday morning and reported they had a great trip. After catching some squid off Tooradin they headed down to BHP for snapper. They caught six pinkies around 1kg as well as some big 'couta that measured 1m.

Paul and Paul fished out of their kayaks on Tuesday afternoon with great results on the squid. Paul landed a ripper of 2.5kg on tommy rough fished under a float. The boys also did well casting jigs, with  great success on Yamashita 3.0 in QSK and Harimitsu 4.0 in KN.

Tuesday night Lee, Morne, and Eren headed down to Flinders Pier for a squid fish. The boys threw baited jigs with tommy roughs and silver whiting. While baits were out they threw jigs and had results using both methods. A nice squid was taken on a Harimitsu 4 jig in MN and other squid were taken on the baited jigs.

Out Of Town
Gippsland Lakes
Good mate Lucas Smith reports that the jetties around Lakes Entrance are fishing well for trevally and tailor. Best baits have been small pieces of pilchards and bluebait fished near the bottom. Some of the trevally are 1.5 kg, so hang on as they will try and bust you off on the poles!
Some anglers are doing well fishing 2 inch Gulp Grubs and 3 inch Power Minnows in natural colours like pearl watermelon and pumpkinseed.

The tailor have been taken the on the same methods but it is worth throwing metal slugs as well.
Lucas also reports that the Tambo has been going off at first light for guys throwing lures and plastics. Best areas have been along the edges with Jackall Chubby, Teimco stick minnows, and Zip bait Khamsin Jr. Once the sun gets up the fish are moving deeper when it's time to switch to vibes.
The bait guys have been doing well fishing live shrimp and sandworms in the same areas.
The beaches have been producing salmon and tailor. Try fishing between Grange and Pettemens Beaches. The fish have been taking pilchard and bluebait. Spinning metal slugs have also seen results.

Lake Tyers
If you are after a trophy flathead Lake Tyers seems to be the place at the moment. Fishing up around Brunt Bridge area with 4 inch Gulp Minnow and 5 inch Jerkshads has resulted in some outstanding fish over the 90cm mark. There are school sized flathead mixed in with the big girls, but remember the big ones are breeders so take photos and release them and ensure futurs stocks. One fish of 94cm was taken on a 2 inch Bulky Hawk while fishing a snag for bream.

Cape York
Ryan Boekhorst and his much better half have just returned from fishing with Greg Bethune's Carpentaria Seafaris Charters. The two had a great time catching all manner of fish including a 30kg Cobia, an 80+cm barra and a few good queenies. All involved had a great time as did most of the fish that where released.

Good Fishing
Lee, Morne, Adam and Eren
Send your fishing reports and photos to info@fishingfever.com .au

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