Reel Life | Chase the reds, snapper season is on

Snapper are biting along the inshore reefs off the coast, and can now be found along the reefs up to and north of Mornington to St Kilda, Altona and Werribee.

The mature snapper develop a large bump on the front of their head, and smooth-headed ones mainly in NSW and southern Queensland are also known as squire. Why? I don’t know — but they are the same fish.

Now the Caulfield Cup has been run, we are coming up to the race that stops the nation, the Melbourne Cup. My dad, who started me off fishing, always says cup time was snapper time.

I can remember catching the number 15 tram from where we lived in Carlton all the way to St Kilda, getting off at the yacht club and then walking to the pier and stone breakwater carrying rods and gear, and fishing for hours on end. All this happened on the Melbourne Cup Day holiday. These days, that area of the bay has been declared a habitat for the fairy penguins, and as such all fishing has been banned. Yes, many memories, but very few fish — but all good.

While on the subject of saltwater fishing, Rod said he had been bagging good hauls of snapper. Some large fish were among the catch but they were mainly pinky size, both inside the heads and off Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads.

Snapper were also on the eastern side of the heads on the back of Corsair Rock and the back beach of Point Nepean, caught mostly on bait but some on soft plastics. All in all, the fishing around the heads, according to Rod, has been as good as it has been for many years and if the weather permits, anglers should go home with plenty of fish. Rod said Western Port Bay had also been fishing well, with plenty of snapper, leatherjacket and flathead, as well as good catches of gummy shark and other table fish.

While I like fishing in Western Port Bay you must always be careful of the tides. It is a shallow waterway, and it is easy to be stuck on a shallow sandbar. If you can’t be towed clear you could spend 12 hours waiting for a high tide to float off into deeper waters.

Further down from the heads, there is always good fishing at Anglesea and, of course, Portland — and most places in between. Most of the fish species are the same in those areas, but further south it is better for tuna, while snapper prevail further to the north.

Let’s head over the border to Eden in NSW. According to John Liddell, the boys from Freedom Charters have been catching plenty of snapper and morwong on the inshore reefs from Boyd’s Lookout to Green Cape — all on bait, mainly striped tuna and pieces of squid.

They have also been catching good-sized flathead off the sandy bottom, and the occasional kingfish.

John said it had not been good for off-the-shelf fishing, and the winds and storms had limited the fishing days to just one or two per week.

It was similar at Narooma, according to Graham Cowley, but the only bonus was fishing in the lake and around the oyster leases for bream and flathead.

In Bass Strait at Flinders Island, James Luddington reported good hauls of flathead, gummy shark, whiting and salmon. He said that off the shelf there were reports of albacore and trumpeter.

Local fishing has seen redfin in Waranga Basin, Greens Lake and the Hume Weir. Other catches include yellowbelly in both the Murray and Goulburn rivers and many other waterways.

Lake Eildon can still be fished for cod, as well as redfin, yellowbelly and trout. Dartmouth Dam is producing trout, but mainly early in the morning or down deeper during the heat of the day.

Good fishing — and most of all, stay safe.