Fishing Port Phillip Bay: Geelong's Angling Tradition

Port Phillip Bay, the enclosed bay that Geelong sits at the southwestern head of and that the Bellarine Peninsula and the Mornington Peninsula frame on the west and the east, provides one of Australia's finest bay fishing environments for the recreational angler who targets the snapper, the flathead, the King George whiting, and the calamari that the bay's diverse habitats sustain in the populations that the Victorian Fisheries Authority manages for the sustainable recreational take. The bay's enclosed nature, providing the calm water conditions for the recreational boat angler who does not want the offshore exposure of the open coast, and the diversity of the fishing environments from the shallow sand flats of the Bellarine coast to the deep channel water of the shipping lane that the commercial channel dredging maintains, creates the range of the fishing techniques and the target species that sustain the bay fishing as one of the most popular recreational activities in the greater Geelong region.

The Geelong boat ramps, at Rippleside and at St Helens, provide the public launching facilities that the recreational boating and the fishing community uses to access the bay from the western shore. The ramps' facilities and the parking for the boat trailers that the weekend fishing run requires sustain the recreational boating access that the bay fishing depends on for the anglers whose boat is the primary tool for reaching the productive snapper grounds of the central bay and the flathead country of the mud flats that the bay's shallower western areas create. The boat ramp usage peaks during the snapper season of the autumn and winter months when the snapper move into the bay's shallower water from the offshore grounds and create the high-quality bay snapper fishing that Geelong anglers pursue in the pre-dawn starts and the dusk sessions that the snapper's feeding patterns require.

The shore fishing from the Geelong waterfront and the Eastern Beach pier, while less productive than the boat fishing for the larger pelagic and demersal species, provides the accessible fishing experience for the angler without a boat and the family fishing outing that the pier's safety and the accessibility of the bait fishing from the pier structure create. The calamari that the pier's drop and the nearby seagrass beds produce during the squid season, and the small whiting that the sandy bottom adjacent to the pier holds, provide the target species for the shore angler whose equipment and access requirements the pier environment suits. The Eastern Beach pier also serves as the social fishing gathering point for the Geelong community that uses the pier for the recreational activity and the community connection that the shared fishing space creates.

The Queenscliff and Barwon Heads fishing precincts at the entrance to the bay and the Barwon River provide the complementary fishing environments to the open bay fishing that the Geelong angler accesses from the western shore. The Queenscliff Harbour and the Point Lonsdale pier provide the access to the rip country at the bay entrance where the seasonal runs of snapper, salmon, and the pelagic species create the high-quality recreational fishing that the exposed location and the strong tidal flows through the rip demand the fishing skills and the appropriate equipment for. The Barwon River estuary at Barwon Heads provides the bream and the flathead fishing that the estuary habitat sustains in the tidal waters below the weir that the freshwater fishing regulations end and the marine fishing regulations begin.

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