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Pinkies and inkies all over the place
  |  First Published: July 2013



The past few weeks have seen some amazing fishing with a lot of anglers saying it’s the best fishing for this time of year they can remember.

Loads of pinkies on the reefs, salmon in good numbers and the truck loads of squid are keeping everyone happy.

Mordialloc To Black Rock

The fishing off Mordialloc Pier has been exceptional over the past weeks with the rough weather producing plenty of pinkies between 30-40cm while the calmer conditions have seen an endless supply of squid. Salmon of 500g-1.5kg have been moving through with some regularity, so make sure that if you are heading to the pier you have a spare rod rigged with a metal lure or plastic, just in case they come past.

It’s pretty much the same story for boat anglers with Parkdale Pinnacles and all the shallow reef that runs in the area known as the Horse Paddock producing pinkies and squid on a daily basis.

In Beaumaris Bay it’s now time to get serious with working plastics slowly across the bottom between the mussel farms and the Parkdale Pinnacles as the better-sized flathead move in at this time of the year. Best lures seem to be the Squidgy 70mm fish in poddy and grasshopper or the Rippers bass grubs in pumpkinseed and tomato core.

Land-based anglers have also been having a ball off Beaumaris Pier with a great run of squid along with pinkie snapper being taken to 2.5kg. The real surprise packet however has been some gummy and seven-gill sharks being caught over the past month.

Ricketts Point and towards Black Rock is right in the thick of pinkie season with anglers finding good numbers of them on a daily basis. The biggest issue it seems is being able to hunt out the bigger fish with those anglers fishing with bigger baits such as squid strips, whole pilchards or with larger 5” plastics generally finding the better pinkies, which tend to be in the 40-45cm size.

Sandringham

The inside edge of the breakwall and the public wharf at Sandringham Yacht Club has been producing some lovely bream and big mullet over the past few weeks with the bream taking baits of peeled prawn or small plastics, while for the mullet a bit of fine bread berley and small baits suspended under a float has seen plenty of action.

Out wider off the Anonyma Shoal I haven’t heard a lot about the pinkies on this reef system but if you are after a bit of fun them try trolling small divers around the reef or cast plastics along the drop offs as there are plenty of good snook to be found with this month often producing fish up to almost a metre in length

Further to the north there has been some good land-based fishing off the rock Groynes at Hampton with plenty of squid holding on the broken ground that lies to the sides of some of the groynes.

During this month if we got a good blow from the south or south west then the area along the front of the groynes and even in between them can and will produce some exceptional pinkie fishing with the occasional genuine snapper often getting into the mix as well. Just remember to give the land-based crew a bit of room.

Off Brighton the boat and land-based and boat fishing has been great with everyone getting a share of fish. And while the pinkies are going very well it’s the big numbers of squid and the decent salmon lurking around that are the focus of anglers in the area.

If you are after the squid the reports I am hearing of are lots of little squid in the 1-4m areas. Push out into the deeper 6-10m areas of reef and fish with larger 3.5 sized jigs, to find some better sized squid around 700g-1kg.

As a change of pace putting a solid berley trail down on the inside of the breakwall can see you getting seriously stretched by some big trevally that will move around the moorings this month. Best baits for them are just peeled prawn or pilchard fillet fished unweighted.

Further along the North Road area is a hard one to beat this month if you are after a feed of squid, with plenty of shoreline that is perfect for land-based fishing; if you are in a boat then the reef areas extend for kilometres. One tip in this area is that there are lots of shallow reefs and while there are lots of small squid there are also plenty of bigger ones, so try using larger light jigs like the evergreen 3.5XS. This will allow you to fish a 3.5 sized jig in 1-2m of water.

St Kilda to Port Melbourne

Cooler weather this month should see the trevally move in around the boat moorings so bait fishing or throwing soft plastics on light tackle will see you getting stretched. Working the reefs that run along from St Kilda breakwall to Lagoon Pier will see anglers busy with pinkies.

Lets hope it’s like last July and August where land-based anglers got some solid fish in the 2-3kg bracket off Kerford Road and Lagoon piers when the wind blew from the south.

Station Pier has been getting the usual assortment of flathead, pinkies and I have even heard of some mulloway being hooked, however most are lost on the pylons.

While in the bay between Station and Princess piers I have heard sneaky reports of the odd snapper and some big mulloway being taken at night by boat anglers.

So there you have it, the days are short and the air is cold but the fishing is still hot to trot.

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