Port Phillip Bay fishing over Winter

During late autumn and winter we did quite a bit of fishing in Port phillip Bay, mainly concentrating our efforts on the verges and its main tributaries the Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers. At times the rivers were too dirty to fish so we concentrated on the numerous marina’s, rockwalls and jetty’s which can be found around the north end of the bay.

At times the fishing was great, but as the weather gets colder it can get quite tough and challenging, and without the numerous Australian Salmon that frequent the bay over the colder months some of our trips would have ended up fishless.

Its not all doom and gloom though, for those that put in the hard yards and spend time on the water the rewards and fish can be great. Pinkie snapper, Jewies, bream, flathead and Salmon can all be caught fishing this area of the bay and up into the rivers.

We found the following techniques the best to find winter fish in PPB.

• Fish structure where possible, pylons, rockwalls, bridges and moored boats.
• Use your sounder to find fish, especially big schools of salmon, pinkies and Jewies.
• And be persistent.

This is how you learn to know where fish will and won’t be, trial and error can be the best way to learn, but if something isn’t working then move or change it up and try make things happen.

Soft plastics are our main go to lure when fishing the bay, especially if we are searching new areas. Most fish cannot resist a well placed and worked soft plastic. Plus they are easy to swap and change weights and sizes to suit the conditions or species targeted. A good searching plastic would be a 2-3″ curl tail grub on a 1/8 jighead, this can be fished around pylons, bounced along the bottom or fished midwater for sambo’s. We have caught good pinkies, salmon, bream and flathead using this technique. Bigger plastics are better suited to jewies, but will still catch salmon and pinkies no worries.

Its a great fishery, and is nice and close for most people, so next winter get out and have a go.