Welcome to the Gunnamatta Beach Fishing Guide. Gunnamatta Surf Beach is a popular surf beach within the Mornington Peninsula. It’s located near Fingal, heading towards Cape Schanck and Flinders, roughly a 90-minute drive from Melbourne off Truemans road. This sandy beach is popular with visitors and surfers due to its quality waves, strong rips, and inshore reefs. It’s also very popular with anglers looking to flick metal lures and baits for schools of salmon throughout winter.
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Things to do at Gunnamatta Surf Beach
Gunnamatta surf beach is an excellent location for surfing and fishing. It’s a nice spot to bring the kids to play in the sand and in the shallows, but be warned: there are large waves and a strong rip, so you must keep a close eye on them. You can follow Gunnamatta weather and wave forecasts here. There is ample parking available at the beach entrance.
Fishing Gunnamatta Beach
At Gunammata surf beach, you can catch
- Australian Salmon
- Yellow eye Mullet
- King George Whiting
- Snapper
- Gummy Sharks
- Pike/Snook
- Trevally
Gunnamatta Surf Beach offers excellent salmon fishing in winter and, in the warmer months, snapper, gummy shark, and whiting. When arriving, look for the gutters, which are breaks in the waves and colour changes you can see from a distance. Indicating a change in water depth, these deeper pools or channels are where salmon swim through. Gummy sharks like them as well. You can catch salmon with bait and lures. Our favourite form of targeting them is flicking long-casting metal lures. Please read our detailed guide on surf fishing around Victoria for Salmon. Using a rod between 9-11 feet in length and a 5-10 kilo class is an ideal choice when flicking metal lures between 30 and 60 grams. I usually have a 3000 or 4000-size reel spooled with 10-15-pound braid, which works great. Plenty of good options in this range cover many different budgets, so give some thought to your desired lure weight, and they will put you in the right place.
When bait fishing, bluebait and pilchards are the bait of choice in this area. We recommend a Paternoster rig with a large star sinker to allow you to cast far. The rig will generally hold two full blue baits or two half pilchards. You can buy pre-made surf popper rigs, which are a great choice, and don’t forget to add a surf popper to the top of your rig, which surprisingly gets plenty of bites. A good surf bait rod is generally between 10 feet and 15 feet in length. Using a fishing rod of this length lets you keep your lines high above the crashing surf. It also allows you to cast longer distances with heavier sinkers. Rod and reel selection depends on whether you are bait fishing or throwing metal lures. At least a 10-foot rod is required to cast far and to keep the line above the crashing waves. For flicking lures a 12-foot rod, with a 4000 size reel spooled with 12-pound line and a strong leader is a great option. If bait fishing, use a 12-15 foot rod, coupled with a 6000 size reel spooled with 20-pound line and a strong leader.
When bait fishing for salmon, we believe the best setup is a Paternoster rig with a star sinker, as shown in the image below. This gives you two separate baits at different heights. You could also attach a surf popper if you wanted to increase your chances further.
Another great variation is to present one whole bait with double-snelled hooks. This rig is perfect for targeting multiple species, such as salmon, mulloway, and gummy sharks.
If you plan on fishing the one spot, berleying up is a great idea. You can buy pre-made berley or make your own with pellets, pilchard and tuna oil mixed up. This can be placed into a bag or sack and left for the surf to do all the work. Following the tides is best; the incoming High tide is always good for Salmon. Also, sundown and sunrise seem to bring on the bite. Watch for surfers who often stray from the pack and end up close to fishing lines.
Other great locations to fish near Gunammata Surf Beach
Not far from here, you can also try fishing at these destinations
- Blairgowrie Pier
- Dromana Pier
- Flinders Pier
- Gunamatta Surf Beach
- Mt Martha Rocks
- Mornington Pier
- Portsea Pier
- Rosebud Pier
- Rye Pier
- Sorrento Pier
Boat Ramps along the Mornington Peninsula
Along the Monrington Peninsula, you have several boat ramps to launch from along this beautiful coastline. Sorrento boat ramp off St Aubin’s Way, Rye boat ramp off Pt Nepean Road, Mornington, Schnapper Point, Martha Cove, Olivers Hill and Safety Beach of Marine Drive. You also have smaller ramps, such as Tootgarook and Anthony’s Nose.
Best Baits Fishing Gunnamatta Surf Beach
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 are targeting and conditions such as wind and tidal strength.
- Pilchard
- Pipis
- Bluebait
- Silver Whiting
- Australian Salmon
- Prawns
- Squid
Lures and soft plastics for Gunnamatta Surf Beach
- Savage Gear Missile
- Halco twisty
- Ecogear Teibo
- JM Gilles pilchard baitfish
- Rapala X-Rap SXR
- Lazer spoons
- Zman slim swimz
- Halco Laser Pro
- Daiwa Bait Junkie 2.5 inch grub
- Berkley gulp turtleback worm
- Daiwa Bautjunkie 4 inch grubs
- Zman Slim Swimz
- Berkley powerbait grub
- Zman grubZ
Targeting Salmon at Gunnamatta Surf Beach
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 target Australian salmon on the surf, watch for gutters and patches of deeper water that salmon 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 Snapper at Gunnamatta Surf Beach
Locally, Snapper season starts around October and finishes towards April. The big reds migrate inshore due to the warmer water temperatures, which provide ideal spawning conditions. The best times to catch snapper are Dawn, Dusk, and tide changes. Snapper will take a variety of baits and soft plastics. When bait fishing a 3-6 or 4-7kg rod that’s 7 to 8 feet long paired with a 3000, 4000 or 5000 size reel spooled with 15-30 pound line is excellent. Good bait options include pilchards, silver whiting, squid, and salmon. A 2-5kg or 3-6 kg rod around 7 feet in length paired with a 3000 size reel is great when soft plastics fishing. Suitable soft plastics include jerk shads, whip baits, curl tails, or paddle tails between 3 and 5 inches in various colours. We encourage you to read our detailed guide on how to catch snapper.
Check out this instructional video guide on how to catch snapper with soft plastics filmed locally in Port Phillip Bay.
Targeting Whiting at Gunnamatta Surf Beach
Whiting is a bread-and-butter species that is fun to catch on light spinning gear and tastes great. Whiting school is up in big numbers, and they respond well to Berley, so Berley is 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 feet long. 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 two 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 Gummy Shark at Gunnamatta Surf Beach
Gummy sharks are a welcome catch in this area. They are magnificent-looking sharks that fight well and also taste great. We recommend targeting gummy sharks with a 7-8 foot rod that’s 5-10kg or 8-15kg paired with a 6000 to 8000 size reel spooled with 40-60 pound line and 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, attach a sinker to the clip, and 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 Flathead at Gunnamatta Surf Beach
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, watch for depth drop-offs, which are excellent locations for an ambush predator to wait. 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 go for various soft plastics and lures. We 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 or running sinker rig. Using a small ball sinker to swivel, then 50cm of 8-12 leader to a size six long shank hook. Good bait choices include pilchards, mussels, squid, chicken, whitebait, Pipis, blue bait, and prawns.
Images of fish supplied by VFA and DEPI. All images and videos shown on the Gunnamatta Beach Fishing Guide are Fishing Mad originals. Thank you for visiting the Gunnamatta Beach 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
