Altona Pier

Welcome to the Altona Pier Fishing Guide, a popular fishing location along Millers Road, roughly 25-minute drive from Melbourne. Altona Beach is a very popular spot, especially in summer, and this pier welcomes a large volume of foot traffic and nearby swimmers, so fishing can be challenging at times. However, Altona Pier can be a quality fishing location, particularly with its recent addition of an artificial reef roughly 50 meters beyond the end of the pier. It’s also closely located to natural reefs and rocks, which produce large snapper in the warmer months. Anglers often head towards the end of the pier and cast out as far as they can to get their baits amongst the artificial reef. This location is very popular with Kayakers who fish beyond the end of the pier, drifting for flathead and snapper.

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Altona Pier Reopened

On December 20th, 2023, Altona Pier reopened after being closed for over two years. The pier was rebuilt and redesigned after a state government tender was approved in December 2022. The original timber pier was built in the late 1800s; repair works were carried out in the 1980s. In 2020, it was deemed that the pier was nearing the end of its life due to signs of structural failure that posed a risk to public safety. In 2020, three designs were presented to key bodies and the general public. More than 60 percent preferred an angled pier as the final design. The Victorian Government has committed funding under the $24 million Piers and Jetties Stimulus Package to revitalise the precinct and improve accessibility for the future. It’s terrific to finally see this pier open again, as we lack land-based fishing options in the immediate area, especially with the closure of Wyndham Harbour Rockwall.

The new Pier reopened in December 2023

 

Things to do at Altona Beach

Altona Beach is an excellent spot for the whole family. Nearby adventure playgrounds, cafes, restaurants, and ice cream shops are nearby. The beach is a vibrant place that’s very popular in summer. Beachgoers visit to swim, wakeboard, sunbathe, kayak, and fish. Many families enjoy ice cream on the sand. Many also enjoy the Altona beach life-saving club. Parking is limited, and this can be pretty challenging during the peak of summer. You will need to venture in early to avoid the crowds. In 2017, thousands gathered at the pier to collect rare Pokémon characters playing Pokémon Go on their smartphones.

Check out this video recorded at Altona Beach kayak fishing next to the pier and run into a large school of salmon.

Fishing at Altona Pier

At Altona Pier, you can seasonally target

• Snapper
• Flathead
• Australian Salmon
• Trevally
• Mullet
• Bream
• Squid
• Garfish
• Leather jackets
• Gurnard
• Flounder
• King George Whiting
• Snook

Altona Pier has historically been a challenging fishing destination, mainly due to the volume of general walking traffic on the pier, swimmers in the immediate area, and people jumping off the pier into the water. So do take care when fishing here. Parking can also be very tricky during summer peak times. The most common catches at Altona are pinkies, flathead, and salmon, so you don’t need to fish too heavily. However, you should be prepared for the odd large snapper. If you’re bait fishing from the pier, a light to medium rod between 7 and 9 feet is ideal. Casting directly from the end of the pier out towards the artificial reefs. A 2-4 or 3-5 kilo rod will be enough. A good overall rig is a running sinker rig to a swivel and 50cm of strong leader finished with a pilchard tail or squid tentacles. Or a paternoster rig with pilchard, pipi, or raw chicken will fish well in the immediate area. When bait fishing at Altona Pier, we recommend staple baits like pilchards, pipis, blue bait, and squid. Using a basic running sinker rig or a paternoster rig. Soft plastics work great in this area, so we recommend small curl tail and minnow imitations. Either cast out and retrieved slowly with some lifts and pauses, or hard up against the pier’s structure. You’ll likely catch flathead, bream, and seasonally, pinkies and salmon.  We recommend you read our step-by-step guide on how to catch flathead with bait and lures.

In 2012, the VFA installed an artificial reef roughly 40 meters long at the end of Altona pier to improve fishing and encourage fish into the immediate area, as seen in the image below. Each reef consists of 99 hollow dome-shaped reef modules of different sizes arranged in three reef complexes of 33 reef modules each. The reef modules range between 170 and 340 kg in weight and 50 to 60 cm in height and have numerous external openings to allow the movement of currents and fish through the modules. By positioning clusters of reef modules within casting distance from these piers, fish species targeted by shore-based anglers become more available. The reefs also provide habitat for various other plant and animal species, increasing local biodiversity.

There are several outfit options, and it depends on the species of fish that you’re targeting. For bread and butter species such as pinkies and flathead, a 2-4 or 3-5 kilo rod around 7 feet in length coupled with a 2000, 2500 or 3000 size reel spooled with 6-10 pound line and equivalent leader. When targeting snapper a rod between 7 and 8 feet in 4-7 kilo class is perfect. Coupled with a 3000, 4000 or 5000 size reel spooled with a 15-30 pound monofilament line. When rigging for snapper, go with single or double-snelled size 5 or 6 hooks. You can fish these with a very small sinker or completely unweighted. This spot usually fishes well on the tide change, often seeing pinkies caught on the incoming high tide and flathead caught on the outgoing low tide. But the surrounding areas tend to fish well at dawn and dusk. Many anglers have reported having more success with large snappers during windy conditions. Remember that certain fish are seasonal. Snapper is active in the warmer months, and Salmon is active in the colder months.

Check out this instructional video guide on how to catch snapper with soft plastics filmed locally in Port Phillip Bay.

Altona Boat and Kayak Access

Altona is an excellent location for boat and kayak access. Firstly, the main boat ramp facility is at the end of Civic Parade and Altona Road. Launching is now free. The boat ramp has multiple launching lanes, toilet facilities, and fish-cleaning tables. During snapper season, this is one of Melbourne’s business boat ramp facilities. There is adequate parking; however, parking can be challenging in peak times. This is also a good launch facility for Jet Skis. Altona Pier Fishing Guide.

Kayaks have multiple options for launching around Altona. Firstly, a new purpose-built kayak launch facility on Millers Road between the main pier and boat ramp was completed in November 2019. This offers excellent access for kayakers and easy launching even during low tide. Venture only a few hundred meters out to catch flathead and snapper. Parking can be a little restricted here. Otherwise, there are other great spots to launch a kayak near the main pier of Miller Road and Apex Park. Just be mindful that launching alone in those areas can be challenging during low tide. Then, there is a kayak and launch access at the yacht club, which is closer to the boat ramp. You will need to be cautious of boats that will get close to kayakers in that particular area, and be mindful that there are yacht club members who should get priority.

Boat Ramps near Altona

At Altona, you can use the main Altona boat ramp, as mentioned above. Alternatively, the closest ramps will be the Werribee boat ramp or the Newport Warmies boat ramp, which are more suited for smaller boats. Otherwise, it’s a decent drive to St Kilda boat ramp or Kirks Point and Avalon.

 

Places to fish near Altona Pier

Not far from here, you can also try fishing at these destinations

• Albert Park Lake
• Campbells Cove
• Princess Pier
• Webb Dock
• West Gate Bridge
• Werribee River
• Williamstown

Best Baits Fishing Altona Pier

At this location, we highly recommend the baits suggested below. There are several ways to present baits, including a running sinker rig, a paternoster rig, or a dropper rig. The rig and sinker choice will depend on the species you target and conditions such as wind and tidal strength.

• pilchard
• pipis
• blue bait
• silver whiting
• salmon
• raw chicken strips
• prawns
• maggots
• squid
• mussels

Best Lures and Soft Plastics for Altona Pier

• Berkley Gulp turtleback worms
• Keitech Easy Shiners
• Zman slim Swimz
• Nomad Squidtrex
• Berkley Gulp Nemesis
• Squidge Wrigglers
• Gulp 3-inch minnow
• Zman grubZ
• Zman StreakZ
• Munroes 3.75 inch paddle tails
• Berkley Gulp Salty Nippers

Targeting Snapper at Altona Pier

 

Targeting Salmon at Altona Pier

Australian Salmon are such a fun species to target. They school up in huge numbers and punch well above their weight. When hooked, they go on powerful runs, leaping out of the water with vigorous head shakes. Australian Salmon will happily take a range of soft plastics, lures, and baits. We have had the most success casting 3 and 4-inch paddle tail soft plastics in natural colours and long-casting metal spoons and working them at a fast to medium pace. You can target them with light spinning gear such as a 2-4kg or 2-5kg spin rod and 2500-size reel. If you are targeting Australian Salmon on the surf, keep an eye out for gutters, which are patches of deeper water that Salmon will swim through in schools. The darker colour of the water can identify these, and you will likely jump up to a 5-10 kilo rod between 9-12 feet in length paired with a 3000-5000 size reel spooled with a 15-20 pound braid.

Check out this instructional video guide on how to catch salmon on soft plastics. Crazy action in this one.

Targeting Bream at Altona Pier

This is a great location to target bream with lures and soft plastics. The options available are almost endless so make sure you read our guide on the best lures to catch bream. Recommended options include crab imitation, shallow diving cranks, paddle tail soft plastics, curl tail soft plastics, minnow imitations, vibes, and blades. Also, try your luck with surface lures which is an exciting form of fishing with light gear.

Bream is all about finesse fishing, so you will need an ultralight spin outfit. We recommend a 7-foot rod in a 1-3 or 2-4 kilo class, paired with a 1000, 2000, or 2500 reel spooled with 2-6-pound braid and equivalent leader. There are so many amazing bream outfits on the market and budgets vary greatly depending on your skill level and spending habits. Bream resides within structures such as jetty pylons and stumps. Enticing them away from the structure onto your lure will take some time to master. Remember to work your lures and plastics slowly and mix up the retrieval techniques. If you are targeting bream with bait, we highly recommend sandworms, maggots, scrub worms, mussels, yabbies, & chicken. A 2-4 kilo class rod paired with a 2500 size reel would be a great option spooled with a 6-pound line. We would encourage you to read our detailed guide on Bait fishing for Bream.

Targeting Gurnard at Altona Pier

In Victoria, you have the Red Gurnard a stunning fish with colorful wings like a butterfly. Then you have the common gurnard a dull-looking fish with venomous spines that inflict a lot of pain if stung. Gurnard inhabit shallow, flat sandy, or muddy areas looking for small fish, yabbies and prawns to feed on. Gurnard are often bycatch when targeting flathead. This means you will generally be using a light 2–4 or 3-5 kilo fishing rod around 7 feet in length. Paired with a 2000, 2500 or 3000 size reel spooled with 8-15 lb monofilament line. If your bait fishing then you can’t go past a simple running rig. A small bean sinker to swivel, then roughly 45cm of 6-pound leader to a size 6 long shank hook.

Targeting Trevally at Altona Pier

Trevally, pound for pound, is one of the best fighting fish. In certain parts of Australia, surface popping for Giant Trevally is one of the bucket list fishing experiences you must tick off. However, you will mainly be catching the much smaller silver trevally in Victoria. Good bait options include blue bait, white bait, raw chicken, pilchards, pippies, squid and mussels. Trevally will also take a range of soft plastics, including worm and minnow imitations, small surface poppers, and small metal spoons. We recommend targeting trevally with a 1-3 or 2-4 kilo fishing rod coupled with a 2000 or 2500 reel spooled with 4-8-pound braid and equivalent fluorocarbon leader. If there are larger trevally in the area, then you can go heavier, moving up the scale to a 3-5 kilo class spin rod spooled with fine 8-12-pound braid and equivalent fluorocarbon leader.

Targeting Gummy Shark at Altona Pier

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 paternoster rig. You can use an Ezi rig, attach a sinker to the clip, and then tie it 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, & garfish.

Targeting Squid at Altona Pier

Targeting squid is a fun form of fishing that is 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 feet and 9 feet in length is ideal, and plenty of egi rods on the market fit for purpose. We recommend a 8 foot 3-inch rod paired with a 3000-size reel spooled with a 15-pound braid. Squid jigs are prone to snags in this area, and we have found that 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 required.

Check out this instructional video guide on how to squid locally in Port Phillip Bay.

 

Children will need to be closely supervised when fishing on the pier. The pier can be quite slippery, and there is a decent drop on the edges. There are also anglers casting quite close to each other, so they must watch for flying hooks. Often, there are rows of anglers, so the most significant danger will be avoiding line tangles or walking behind someone who is casting, so be wary of those around you. Also, you’re likely to catch toadfish, stingrays, and banjo sharks, which are pests. Just ensure you handle them carefully and put them back into the water safely.

Images of fish supplied by VFA and DEPI. All other photos and videos shown on the Altona Pier Fishing Guide are Fishing Mad originals. Thank you for visiting the Altona Pier Fishing Guide. If you feel this location guide is missing any key information or needs any corrections made, then please let us know by emailing our team at [email protected] with specific details in the email. Thank you