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You can count on calamari
  |  First Published: December 2015



The fishing around Port Albert is nothing short of sensational. More and more snapper are caught everyday, and for the light line fisherman, the pinkies have arrived and are giving the whiting guys a run for their money.

Snapper this month have been around between Port Albert and Port Welshpool, but a few rippers have been caught inside Port Albert. Multiple catches of reds in a variety of sizes anywhere from smaller table pinkies of 40cm+ all the way to 80cm models. Snake channel and Port Albert channel near the basket beacon are the two main locations. The water temperature is amazingly warm for this time of year with an average of 17°C now inside and offshore around the prom is up to 15-16°C.

Gummy sharks are going really well now inside with plenty of 3-4ft gummies caught an hour either side of the tide. The squid have been the standout performing species though, and chasing calamari has been a sure way to get a feed, with some anglers bagging out. The end of the run in tide seems to be the go for anglers now, provided conditions aren’t too windy. Those strong southwesterly winds do make it tough to catch the squid.

Again, the whiting went well this month and plenty of anglers caught up to 20 per session. The undersized ones seem to have disappeared for the most part now, but most anglers managed to catch up to 5 or 6 really big whiting of up to 43cm mixed in with the smaller ones. The good news is that the pinkies have moved into the whiting grounds now and there are weed beds, so you have a chance of catching pan sized pinkie snapper between 35-50cm and these fish will certainly let you know they are on when you’re using a 2-4kg whiting outfit and light line.

The big blue spot flathead came on the bite with that hot weather we’ve had this month and Mcloughlins would have to be the best place to try for the flatties. Anglers using vibe lures and soft plastics are doing the best during the run out tide. Plenty of flatties to 65cm are getting caught now and heaps of 40-45cm ones. Offshore Port Albert, the flathead are going really well in 30m of water on the drift. Use paternoster rigs or snapper snatchers and you can’t go wrong. Closer in, 20-25m the pinkie snapper are going well and there seem to be perfect sized models of 45cm mixed in with wrasse and rock cod. There are a few morwong and leather jackets as well. Offshore, Mcloughlin is still a little slow for snapper at the time of writing because of the colder currents but I guarantee they will be firing by the time this article comes out. There have been a couple caught towards the hedges already. The gummy sharks at Mcloughlins have been the main targets and anglers are bagging out often on 4ft models either on anchor or on the drift. Anchoring and berleying does seem to be working well though.

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