Welcome to the Port Welshpool fishing guide. Port Welshpool is a small fishing town located in the South Gippsland region roughly 200 kilometres from Melbourne. It’s a terrific fishing destination with so many species of fish available. On December 21st 2018 the famous long pier was reopened after a 4.8 million dollar restoration. This is Victoria’s longest jetty spanning over 900 meters. This provides land-based anglers with opportunities to catch kingfish, snapper, squid, whiting and much more. The fishing only gets even better for those with a boat. Small runabout boats will be able to target break and butter species such as whiting, flathead and squid with ease. Fishing from a runabout boat will be comfortable as it’s quite shallow and protected from the wind. Those with slightly bigger boats will be able to target big sharks, kingfish, snapper, squid, and more.
**BECOME A FISHINGMAD MEMBER** Exclusive Fishing Workshops, Exciting Monthly Giveaways, In-Depth Fishing Reports with GPS Coordinates, Members Podcast, Interactive Maps, Catch of the Month Competitions, Kayak Club, Gear Guides, Rigging Tutorials, Tackle Talks, Sounder School, Fishing Tips, Fish Cleaning tutorials, Behind the scenes content & more.
Things to do at Port Welshpool
Port Welshpool is roughly a 2 1/2 hours drive from Melbourne or 220 kilometres. Its located near popular areas including Wilsons Promontory and Venus Bay. No doubt the main attraction and hero here is the long jetty. It was built in the 1930s, extended in the 1980s, and closed in 2003 from fire. Then officially reopened in December 2018 after a massive renovation carried out by SMC marine. This state of the art pier is 900 meters long and has been carefully constructed with a timber structure and concrete deck finish. There are lovely touches such as lighting, disability access, side rails, fish cleaning tables and rod holders built in for local anglers. It’s a great spot for photos, walking and fishing. The pier was once used for shipping and industrial vessel access but is now solely used by pedestrians.
Nearby you can explore the waters and marine life by jumping on a cruise. There is also the Port Welshpool maritime museum. A short distance away you have local attractions including Strzelecki Ranges with the amazing Agnes Falls Scenic Reserve. You also have the great southern rail trail. You can also go camping or hiking around Wilsons Prom. There are many local accommodation offerings to allow you to stay awhile and enjoy many of the surrounding scenic townships.
Fishing Port Welshpool
At Port Welshpool, you can target many different species of fish including sharks, kingfish, snapper, whiting, squid, flathead, salmon, and trevally. Good bait options here include pilchards, silver whiting, squid, salmon, scad, bonito, raw chicken, mullet, pippis & prawn.
There are literally so many options and it really depends on the species of fish that you’re targeting. For bread and butter species such as flathead and whiting a 2-4 or 3-5 kilo rod that’s between 6 foot 6 and 7 foot in length coupled with 2000, 2500 or 3000 size reel spooled with 6-10 pound line and equivalent leader. This is also a prime location to target squid. Looks for signs of weed or squid ink on the pier as giving away spots to target. To target squid ideally, you would use a longer outfoot and slighter heavier line and leader. Click here to read our detailed guide on how to catch squid at Port Welshpool.
When targeting snapper a rod between 7 and 8 feet in 4-7 kilo class is perfect. Coupled with a 4000 size reel spooled with 12-18 pound monofilament and single or double snelled size 5 or 6 hooks. This would also be a suitable outfit for targeting small kingfish and gummy sharks. However, if you are chasing bigger model kingfish and gummy sharks then we would recommend a heavier outfit. Perhaps a 7 foot 10-15 kilo rod spooled with 20-40 line and equivalent leader. There are also big sharks in this area and that again would require something substantially heavier. Port Welshpool is a year-round fishing destination. Many of the fish species are seasonal so gummy sharks will be more active in the cooler months and snapper and kingfish will be more active in the warmer months. bread and butter species such as squid and flathead can be caught all year round.
Baits Port Port Welshpool
- pilchard
- blue bait
- silver whiting
- garfish
- salmon
- raw chicken strips
- prawns
- maggots
- silverfish
- squid
- mussels
Lures and soft plastics for Port Welshpool
- Daiwa Baitjunkie 5 inch jerk shads
- Berkley gulp turtleback worm
- Savage Gear Fat Curl tails
- Daiwa Bautjunkie 4 inch grubs
- Zman slim Swimz
- Berkley powerbait grub
- Gulp 3-inch minnow
- Daiwa Bait Junkie paddle tail minnow
- Zman grubZ
- eco gear ZX40
- Daiwa Double Clutch
- EcoGear SX40
- Squidges biotough grub
- Zman StreakZ
- Munroes 3.75 inch paddle tails
- Kietech swim impact fat
- Zerek fish trap
- Samaki Vibelicious
Targeting Kingfish at Port Welshpool
Kingfish are unparalleled sports fish that possess immense power. Kingies can grow over a meter in length, have amazing fighting qualities, generally school up in big numbers, are also a renowned table fish and are a very welcome bycatch for those who may have been out in deeper waters targeting species such as Tuna. A heavy-duty setup is required starting with a 10-15 kilo rod paired with a 6000-20000 size reel. Some good options include the Penn Slammer, Shimano Saragosa, Daiwa Saltist, Daiwa Saltiga or Shimano Stella spooled with 20 to 50-pound line.
Good bait options include squid, pilchard, and garfish. Or live baits such as yakka’s, squid, and mackerel. From the boat, vertical jigging metal lures is one of the most successful techniques. You can also target them with large soft plastics. Kingies are generally active between December through to March and can be located during most hours of the day. Kingfish love swimming and patrolling along structures such as rock walls, so it pays to keep your lure or jig close to the structure.
Targeting Snapper at Port Welshpool
We encourage you to read our detailed guide on how to catch snapper. Snapper season locally starts around October and finishes after March. The big reds migrate inshore during this time of year because water temperatures have increased providing ideal spawning conditions. With dawn and dusk are generally considered the best times to be on the water. The most common snapper rods are 7 foot 6 inches in length with a weight class of 4-7 kilos paired with a 4000 or 5000 size reel spooled with 15-30 pound braid or mono and 40 pound leader. You can choose to fish lighter or heavier. Recommended bait options include pilchards either full or half, silver whiting, squid, garfish, mackerel and mullet. The best soft plastics are large jerk shads, whip baits, curl tails or paddle tails. Most between 4 and 7 inches in size generally coupled with a ½ or ¼ ounce jig head. Some good options include Savage Gear Fat Curl Tails, Daiwa Bait Junkie Jerk shads & Berkley 7 inch turtleback worm, Zman curl tails.
Targeting Gummy Shark at Port Welshpool
We would recommend targeting gummy sharks with a 7 foot 8-15 kilo rod paired with a 4000 to 6000 size reel spooled with 20 to 40-pound line. Finished with a strong leader ranging from 40lb through to 60 pounds. Ideal rigs include a running sinker rig single or double snelled rig or a paternoster rig. You can use an Ezi rig attaching a sinker to the clip and then tying on a pre-made double snelled rig. Octopus or circle hooks from 5/0 to 7/0 are preferred for presenting chunks of salmon, trevally, squid, mackerel, Eel, mullet, pilchard, yakka’s, & garfish.
Targeting Flathead at Port Welshpool
We encourage you to read our detailed guide on How to catch Flathead. Flathead is a year-round prospect that can be caught at any time of the day. They are an ambush predator that waits in disguise for smaller fish to swim by for an easy feed. This highlights the importance of keeping your baits and soft plastics towards the bottom. If fishing from a boat or kayak we would recommend drifting around the sandy flats until you find a good patch of them. Also, keep an eye for depth drop-offs which is a great location for an ambush predator to be waiting. We recommend targeting flathead with a 7 foot 2–4 or 3-5 kilo fishing rod paired with a 2500 or 3000 size reel spooled with 8-12lb braid and equivalent leader. You can go lighter, but flathead has bristly teeth that can compromise your fishing line.
Flathead is not fussy and will happily have a go at many various soft plastics and lures. We would highly recommend reading our detailed guide on the best lures and soft plastics to catch flathead. Top choices include worm and yabby imitations, paddle tail soft plastic, curl tail soft plastics, deep diving hard body lures, vibes, swimbaits, and blades. If you are targeting flathead with bait, we recommend using a paternoster rig or running sinker rig. Use a small ball sinker to swivel, then 50cm of 8-12 leader to a size 6 long shank hook. Good baits choices include pilchards, mussels, squid, chicken, whitebait, Pipis, blue bait and prawns.
Targeting Squid at Port Welshpool
Squid is a frequent catch on the pier towards the front and mid parts of the pier. Just look for the squid ink which is a great indicator of where to target them. Anglers do well-suspending squid jigs with the use of a float. Targeting squid is a fun form of fishing growing in popularity with the reward of fresh calamari. Squid can be caught all year round, you will find them in shallow weedy areas and they respond well to jigs in clear water conditions. We recommend reading our detailed guide on How to catch squid around Melbourne. An egi rod between 7.5 foot and 9 foot in length is ideal and there are plenty of egi rods on the market fit for purpose. We recommend an 8 foot 3-inch rod paired with a 3000 size reel spooled with 15-pound braid. Squid jigs are prone to snags in this area, and we have found using slow sinking jigs in the smaller size of 2.5 and 3.0-gram jigs will help avoid this problem. Cast your squid jig to allow time for the jig to sink then do a series of lifts and pauses to imitate a wounded prawn. The natural temptation is to strike Instead, a subtle lift to keep line tension and a constant slow reel is all that’s required.
Check out this video a master class on Kayak fishing for squid in Melbourne.
Targeting garfish at Port welshpool
Garfish or mini marlins are a fun local fish species to target. Generally caught between 20cm and 40 cm with no minimum legal-size limit but a daily bag limit of 40. Garfish have large snouts but very small mouths so the key to catching them is to use very small size hooks. Small long shanks between size 10 and size 14 are ideal choices. The preferred rig setup should consist of using a pencil or quill float, then having a small split shot roughly 20cm above the hooks to keep the bait down. the floats will help suspend baits such as glacies, maggots or small pieces of fish flesh. berleying is a very important tool when targeting garfish, You can purchase premade berley pellets or powder from your local tackle shop or make your own use tuna oil, chook pellets and bread.
Catching gars is all about finesse and an ultralight 1-3 or 2-4 kilo nibble tip rod that’s 7 to 9 foot in length Paired with a 1000, 2000 or 25000 size reel spooled with 4-6 lb line will be a great choice.
Targeting Whiting at Port Welshpool
Whiting is a bread and butter species which are fun to catch on light spinning gear and tastes great. Whiting school up in big numbers and they respond well to berley, so berley an isolated area with a mix of chicken pellets, Tuna oil and pilchards. Whiting fishing requires finesse, so we recommend a light 1-3 or 2-4 kilo spin rod around 7 foot in length. Coupled with a light 1000-2500 size reel, spooled with 4 pounds or 6-pound line and leader. When bait fishing a simple running rig with a small sinker to swivel, then 40cm of 4-pound leader to a small baitholder long shank hook or a paternoster rig with 2 hooks and a size sinker depending on your conditions.
Watch our 25-minute whiting masterclass as we guide you through everything you need to know to catch whiting.
Targeting Salmon at Port Welshpool
Winter is a great time to target salmon as they’re active and schooling up in big numbers. Salmon is a powerful sports fish that punches well above its weight. When hooked they produce strong bursts of speed, powerful runs, and vigorous head shakes. Do keep an eye out for gutters which are patches of deeper water that Salmon will swim through in schools. These can be identified by a darker colour of the water. When bait fishing picks a surf rod between 12-15 foot in length which allows for long casts with heavy sinkers and to keep your lines high above the crashing surf. These will be 6-10 kilo class. We recommend a Paternoster rig with a star sinker. Giving you 2 baits at different heights. You could also attach a surf popper above. Port Phillip Bay Fishing Guide
When lure fishing first consider what weight lures you are likely to be casting. We would recommend rods between 9-12 foot in length in 5-10 kilo class paired with a 3000 size reel spooled with 15-pound braid. Good lure options include Savage Gear Missile, Halco twisty, Ecogear Teibo, JM Gilles pilchard baitfish, Rapala X-Rap SXR, Lazer spoons, Zman slim swimz, trick swimz, Halco laser pro
As with all pier fishing be careful of those around you when casting.
Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. Header from visitpromcountry.com.au All other images and videos shown on the Port Welshpool Fishing Guide are Fishing Mad originals.
Thank you for visiting the Port Welshpool Fishing Guide. If you feel this location guide is missing key information or needs any corrections made, then please let us know by emailing our team at enquiries@fishingmad.com.au with specific details in the email. Please also feel free to share any fishing pictures you have from this location with us. Thank you
