Land-based fishos rejoice

Anthony Pirrotina and Peri Stavropoulos with a haul of whiting.

The land-based fishing this past week has been sensational with St Helens rocks and Wangum walk producing some cracking snapper.

Launching baits off St Helens rocks has been very productive with anglers landing snapper to near 8kg which is a fantastic fish whether boat or land. Baits like fresh salmon, pilchards and squid are the best bet.

Wangum walk has been better with numbers but the fish aren’t as big but, still 5kg fish being caught which is fantastic. Soft plastics have been most popular but baits are working well.

King George whiting have been well on the chew with the Bellarine Peninsula offering anglers some great fishing all the way from Curlewis right through to St Leonards have been holding great numbers of fish. In particular the Curlewis bank has been a hot spot with great numbers and good size to the fish also.

Fresh squid and pipis are by far the best baits, burley is also an important factor to consider when targeting them too. Just simple, pilchard cubes and some pellets in a cage is more than perfect for them.

Calamari are starting to improve out from Queenscliff with the cleaner water starting to roll through with anglers finding good numbers. Although not big in size yet the average size should only get better over the next few weeks. Size 3.5 and 4.0 Jigs work well or if you’re after a giant run, a whole bait like King George whiting, silver whiting or salmon all work very well.

Offshore has had some good snapper reports start to roll through to those having a drift out in 50 metres of water with fish to around 2-4kg being the average size with plenty of fish smaller and still a few bigger than that again. Fresh calamari, salmon and pilchards are the best baits to be running out there or if you want to run lures, vibes and jigs are great options.