Angling.Our angling season has started with a number of fish landed. Congratulations to Rob Raffa who landed the first snapper of the season; his next year’s subs will be paid. Mick Sass and Richard Muscat are showing that our Club championship this season is going to be a hard-fought battle, with both of them landing nice fish. Richard slightly ahead with the largest Snapper landed so far, measuring 65 cms with Mick’s at 64cms. Plenty of bait in the freezer at last seasons prices. Remember if booking bait to your fob make sure you have enough credit to cover it. Flathead study. We are still proceeding with helping Latrobe University with their Flathead study. Grab your kits in the Langdon Room, and downstairs near the sign-out book. Swabs are to be returned to the Esky in the boat house near the sign-out desk. Again: swab as many flathead as you can, size not important, make sure you return all undersize fish to the bay. Flathead are on the bite. They tend to be in 2-4 metres of water. We believe a paternoster rig, sinker at the end of your line with one or two droppers above the sinker, is best. Start with a 4/0 or 5/0 hooks. Cut pilchards, squid, or fillets of any fish are great bait, they will also take soft plastic lures. Drift over sandy areas from Black Rock to Port Melbourne. Once you catch a few go back over the area as Flathead tend to school-up in waves on the bottom. Out the back of the Club, 100 metres out from the pier end can be productive. Weather. The weather has been mixed for boaters and anglers, it has been warmer during the day, some very strong northerlies, light winds, smooth seas and gale warnings —a complete mixed bag! The Bay water temperatures are on the rise at last, since the last edition (12.61 C top end of the Bay, 16.63 C Mid Bay, 13.53 C in the Ocean) We are looking for 14+C and the Snapper will be back. Reports. Big numbers of snapper have pretty much left the Bay, there are always resident fish in the bay, but they can be hard to find. However there have been large pinkies and snapper caught in the Williamstown / Altona area. Gem Pier Williamstown, Kerferd Road Pier at the club, Brighton Pier and Sandringham breakwater and Lagoon Pier have had some nice fish caught from them. Snapper prefer shallow water this time of year so fish close inshore 1.5-4 metres deep. The ‘warmies’ has been producing good numbers of pinkies and the odd snapper up to 8kg, if you can find room to get a line in. There are good size Gummy Sharks at many of the deep (12-20 metres) channels near the heads. Best baits seem to be Silver Whiting, Australian Salmon Fillets, Pilchards, Garfish and Squid. Whiting have mostly been missing from the usual marks around the Club and reports are not great. There are reports from that the very southern end of the Bay, St Leonards is producing good numbers of whiting. Fish grassy areas 2-5 metres deep and keep moving if you are not catching them. Best baits, Pipis, mussels and squid strips. Whiting areas are also squid areas, and they are generally plentiful in the winter months so if chasing whiting keep a few squid jigs ready it may be well worth trying for them. Try Werribee, Point Cook and Campbell’s Cove. A couple of our members boated 18 between them down towards Point Cook. Keep an eye out for birds working as there are still very large schools of Australian Salmon up the Club end of the bay although they have been quieter lately. Many good salmon caught around the red stick near Altona, a giant school reported out from Williamstown footy ground and near Kerferd Road Pier. Any smallish slivery or pilchard-looking lure dragged through, or cast into the area the birds are diving-in, should produce fish. Snook also have been caught up our end of the Bay. Garfish are plentiful in the Bay so if you see them, a light rod with a quill, or similar float, and a small hook with Silverfish (very small almost clear fish about 1-2 cm long), Prawn slivers, or bread dough works. They are being caught off most piers as well. Rug up, morning and evening temperatures are still cold, check weather forecasts, keep an eye on the actual weather, do not take risks, give it a go and take care!
Fishing is like dating; it’s all catch and release until you land a keeper. - Unknown.
John Spragg
Image: Richard Muscat from last season. | 
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