Melbourne fishing spots
Brendon Hogg and Karl Wilkinson, better known as Krakka Yakkas, have been kayak fishing along the Victorian coast, particularly near Melbourne, for many years. In this article, they share their favourite fishing spots and some tips and advice to have a successful day out on the water. This article applies to kayak and boat anglers.
EARLY SEASON LOCATIONS
During the early season, August -September, we focus on a number of different locations around Port Phillip Bay and Western Port areas. We choose our locations due to spawning times, water temperature and weather conditions. Early season from August to September we fish areas such as Ricketts Point, Black Rock area due to snapper coming in close to spawn.
“Before fishing the area just make sure you are up to date with the current rules and regulations. There is a marine park that is clearly marked by marker poles which you are not allowed to fish in. Also it is a nursery for small fish so make sure you know the size and bag limits of fish you are targeting.” – Fishing Monthly
Also, we will fish the top end of Western Port launching out of Tooradin, Lang Lang or Grantville and fishing in the channels as it is shallow water so the water temp is warmer. There are some great size snapper to be caught at this time of year.
When we fish these locations we use a running sinker rig on one rod and a paternoster rig on another. We find [Black Magic] rigs are perfect for setting up and leaving in a rod holder as they’re designed to hook fish themselves which allows us to focus on our rod with running sinker rig.
GEAR SETUP
We tend to use lighter gear due to less tide flow in these further inland areas, so we will use a 6 – 8kg rod and a 5000 size reel.
We use [Black Magic] 30lb Rainbow Braid Elite with 60lb Fluorocarbon leader because we love the quality and we like to know where we are in terms of depth.
For the running sinker rig we use [Black Magic] KLT® 6/0 hooks, and the paternoster rigs we choose are Snapper Snacks® or Snapper Snatchers® with the KL hooks in size 5/0.
On the paternoster rigs, we use squid or Gotcha Bait pilchards for bait… or sometimes a bit of both.
MID SEASON FISHING
As the water temp rises past 14 degrees the snapper will start to spread out to deeper waters. At this point we will change our location to deeper water such as Hastings channel and Coronet Bay channel.
We will fish with 50lb Rainbow Elite Braid 8x and 80lb florocarbon leader as the water is deeper with more tide and bigger bycatch. wWe will go to a paternoster rig with lumo beads to 7/0 KLT hooks on 1 rod and Snapper snatcher 6/0 or 5/0 snacks on the other. We will also go to a bigger bait such a half a pilchard or a full gotcha california squid.
Make sure your baits are on the bottom for the snapper so your sinker weight may need adjusting. We use 3 to 6 oz sinkers.
GEAR SETUP
We will up size our rod size to a 6-10kg rod and our reel to a 6500 – 10000 size, this is to accompany the heavier braid and leader we need to use.
We up size to [Black Magic's] 50lb Rainbow Braid Elite and 80lb Fluorocarbon leader because the water is deeper with more tide and there is also bigger bycatch available.
In the deeper water we will switch to two paternoster rigs as we like to have two baits down on each rod to increase our chances of a hook up. We will either tie our own paternoster rigs with KLT 7/0 hooks and lumo beads on the 80lb Fluorocarbon leader or use KL Snapper Snatchers in size 6/0-8/0 or Snapper Snacks in 5/0-7/0. We will also go to a bigger bait such as a half a pilchard, butterflied yakka or a full Gotcha California squid.
PEAK SEASON FISHING SPOTS
As the season is in full swing we like to try areas such as Mount Martha, Mornington and Western Entrance of Western Port.
It's important to note that Western Entrance is a dangerous area to fish due to the high current, especially from a kayak. We don’t fish the main channel, we instead fish between Flinders and Somers predominantly targeting water between 10-12m depth.
We do more fishing at dawn or dusk to get target big snapper as they leave the bays for the day period.
Remember to always wear a life jacket!
GEAR SETUP
The fish feed hard as they are leaving for the open ocean so we tend to just use [Black Magic] 5/0 or 7/0 Snapper Snacks® and 6/0 or 8/0 Snatchers® as we’ve found the snapper during this time are far more attracted to the flashers and coloured rigs with bait compared to just a simple bait.
Still using a 6-10kg rod and our reel to a 6500 – 10000 size, spooled with [Black Magic] 50lb Rainbow Braid Elite 8x.
