Welcome to the St Helens Rockwall Fishing Location Guide. St Helens is located in Geelong on Swinburn street. This is a very popular land-based fishing destination within the Bellarine Peninsula along Corio and Port Phillip Bay. This spot allows you to drive your car right up to the Rockwall and fish. This is very handy when fishing during cold or uncomfortable weather conditions. Seasonally, it fishes very well for snapper, whiting, and trevally. It’s also a great location to target big flathead with hard body lures. Generally, this is an all-year-round fishing destination, only 1 hour from Melbourne.
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Things to do in Geelong
At St Helen’s, this is a large ample car pack, public toilets a jetty and a rock wall. The greater township of Geelong is located 70 kilometres away from Melbourne, offering a range of shops, parks, piers, restaurants, cafes, and adventures. The town is home to roughly 75,000 residents, making it a large township within Victoria. Some of the local attractions include the beautifully maintained Geelong Botanic Gardens. It offers amazing landscaped gardens for the whole family to enjoy. If you’re after a bit more excitement, then look no further than Geelong Adventure Park, which has world-class rides and waterslides, including the new Tsunami waterslide. There is also the Serendip Sanctuary, which is not far from Lara, and offers free access to Australia’s wildlife and gardens. The Geelong waterfront area is a lovely, vibrant spot full of piers and great for walking, picnics and eating. There are also several local breweries, markets and art exhibitions.
Fishing at St Helens Rockwall
At St Helen’s Rockwall, you can seasonally target
- snapper
- flathead
- whiting
- salmon
- snook
- gurnard
- squid
- trevally
Watch this video of fishing at St Helens Rockwall
This location can fish well with both soft plastics and bait. Historically, we have caught some good-sized flathead, flicking shallow and mid diving hard body lures such as double clutches for flathead and casting out whole baits for snapper. Take some time to study the weather and tides before fishing here, as this can significantly impact your casting distance. Fishing on low tide can be very challenging as the waters will be shallow, however, can be productive for catching a few flathead during this time. Otherwise, it’s best to fish during a rising tide. Be prepared to bring multiple outfits, as you’ll inevitably lose some gear along the rocks to snags. Over the years, many good-sized snapper have been caught here. Check out our guide on targeting snapper around Melbourne. The best time to target snapper here is between October and March, after a few windy days. Ideally, use a 9 to 12-foot surf rod and a heavy star or bomb sinker to allow you to cast a squid or pilchard out far into deeper waters and productive snapper grounds.
The whole area is surrounded by weedy vegetation, which makes productive grounds for squid, whiting and garfish. King George whiting is a very common catch here in the warmer months and at night. Look for clearings amongst the reef, which are spots where whiting will often reside. Pipis on a running sinker or paternoster rig will be very productive during the right time. For Garfish, good bait options will include glassies, silverfish, maggots or small pieces of pilchard or chicken. For garfish, a light and sensitive rod is essential. Ideally, an 8-foot fishing rod with a 1-3 kilo rod with a 2000 reel spooled with 4-pound line is ideal. Then suspend your baits from a float and hook small enough to fit in a gar’s mouth.
Geelong has 2 boat ramps located within town, giving local anglers excellent boating and kayak access to Corio Bay. One is located at the start of Geelong near St Helens, and the other is towards the end of town as the main boat ramp. The vast array of land-based fishing is also terrific, with many piers and jetties, including Cunningham pier and St Helen’s rock walls, which are the most popular locations. In Geelong, you can target Snapper ( pinkies ), Snook, Flathead, Salmon, Whiting, Snot nose Trevally, leather-jackets, Mullet, Gummy Shark, Gurnard, and Eels. Click here if you would like to know more about how to catch snapper in Corio Bay
Geelong also has great land-based fishing at night. Many of the piers along the waterfront area including Cunningham pier is lit up at night time and a great place to target pinkies, whiting, trevally and more. However, many pest species come out at night, such as sand eels, scorpionfish and stingrays.
If bait fishing, it’s hard to go past staple options including Pilchards, Chicken, Squid and Silver whiting. Paternoster rig works well with sinker options to suit your desired casting distance. However, I have fished here really well with soft plastics, hard body lures and Blades when fishing from jetties and piers. This has worked a treat for snook, flathead, pinkies, mullet, and even Trevally. I generally use an all-around rod setup, which will allow me to target a wide range of fish and sizes. Usually 2 – 8 kilo class rod capacity, with a 4000 size reel. I’ll generally have a line around 8 pounds, with a nice, strong leader. I prefer most spots around Geelong in the early morning. High tide usually sees a big run of pinkies in summer, and low tide generally produces a healthy amount of flathead.
Best Baits fishing at St Helens Rockwall
- pilchard
- pipis
- silver whiting
- blue bait
- raw chicken strips
- prawns
- maggots
- squid
- mussels
Lures and soft plastics for St Helens Rockwall
- Berkley Gulp Turtleback worm
- 2.5″, 3″ and 4″ curltails ( Gulp Nemesis, Daiwa Wave Minnow, Zman grubZ, Squidges Wrigglers )
- 3″ and 4″ paddletails in natural colours ( Keitech easy shiner, Zman StreakZ, Munroes 3.75-inch paddle tails )
- 4″ and 5″ inch jerk shads ( Zman scented jerk shads, Berkley Gulp
- Squid and Yabbie Imatations ( Nomad Squidtrex, Berkley Turbo Shrimp, Clone Prawn, Nomad Jerksquid )
- Shallow mid diving hard body lures ( Daiwa Double Clutch )
- Vibes and Blades ( Zerek fish trap, Samaki Vibelicious, EcoGear SX40 )
Targeting Flathead at St Helens Rockwall
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 ambush predators that wait 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 out for depth drop-offs, which are great locations 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 highly recommend reading our detailed guide on the best lures and soft plastics for catching flathead. Top choices include worm and yabby imitations, paddletail and curl tail soft plastics, deep diving hard body lures, vibes, and blades. If you are targeting flathead with bait, we recommend using a paternoster rig or a running sinker rig. Good bait choices include pilchards, mussels, squid, chicken, whitebait, Pipis, blue bait and prawns.
Targeting Snapper at St Helens Rockwall
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. Dawn, Dusk, and tide changes are considered the best times to catch snapper. Snapper will take a variety of baits and soft plastics. For bait, a 7 to 8 foot rod with a 4-7 kg rating paired with a 4000 or 5000 size reel spooled with 15-30 pound line is excellent. Good bait options include pilchards, silver whiting, squid, and salmon. For soft plastics, a 7-foot rod with a 3-6 kilo line weight paired with a 3000 size reel is a great setup. Good soft plastics include jerk shads, whip baits, curl tails, or paddle tails between 3 and 5 inches in a variety of colours. We encourage you to read our detailed guide on how to catch snapper.
Watch this instructional video on how to catch snapper with soft plastics in Port Phillip Bay.
Targeting Whiting at St Helens Rockwall
Whiting is a bread-and-butter species which are fun to catch on light spinning gear and tastes excellent. Whiting school up in significant 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 feet in length. Coupled with a light 1000-2500 size reel, spooled with 4 pounds or 6-pound line and leader. When bait fishing, use 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 Salmon at St Helens Rockwall
I prefer targeting Australian Salmon with light spin gear. It makes the experience enjoyable and easy to use. A 7-foot 2-5kg spin rod paired with a 2500 or 300 size reel and 12lb braid and leader works excellently. When schooled up and actively feeding, they will smash soft plastics, ideally 4″ paddletails and curltails in natural colours, which imitate a baitfish that they are feeding on. They will also happily take staple baits like pilchard and squid from a pasternoster rig or running sinker rig. Winter is a great time to target salmon as they’re active and school up in big numbers. Salmon is a powerful sports fish that punches well above its weight. When hooked, they produce intense 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. The darker colour of the water can identify these. When bait fishing, pick a surf rod between 12 and 15 feet in length, which allows for long casts with heavy sinkers and keeps 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 two baits at different heights. You could also attach a surf popper above.
Targeting Snook at St Helens Rockwall
These toothy critters are fun to catch on light spinning gear. You will find them in shallow weedy waters, often a bycatch for those targeting snapper, whiting and flathead. You can catch snook with staple baits such as pilchard, prawn, and squid. However, Snook loves natural-looking soft plastics retrieved at a medium pace including minnows, paddle tails, and grubs. Adding scent to the soft plastics really seems to help. Snook also respond well to shallow and mid diving hard body lures in shiny colours retrieved at a medium pace. Metal slugs and blades trolled slowly also work very well. Do handle snook with care as they have razor-sharp teeth. Despite their sharp teeth it’s still best to target them with light gear that you would generally use for pinkies and flathead. We recommend a 2-4 or 3-5 kilo spin rod paired with a 2500 size reel, spooled with 8-12 pound line and leader.
Targeting Trevally at St Helens Rockwall
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 that you must tick off. However, in Victoria, you will mainly be catching the much smaller silver trevally. Good bait options include blue bait, whitebait, 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.
Eels, scorpionfish and Gurnards can be very common catches in these areas. Especially if night fishing. Always handle fish with care, and don’t handle it at all if you’re not sure what species it is. I have seen people catch these and curiously hold them to find out what type of fish it is. This is very dangerous; a small prick from one of its spikes can land you in the hospital with severe pain. So, be careful if you’re unsure of the species type; ask someone around you before handling it. I have also had some mates have an encounter with hammerhead sharks.
Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. All images and videos shown on the St Helens Rockwall Fishing Location Guide are Fishing Mad originals. Thanks for reading our St Helens Rockwall Fishing Location Guide. If you believe this location guide is missing key information or requires corrections, please email our team at enquiries@fishingmad.com.au with specific details. Please also feel free to share any fishing pictures you have from this location with us. Thank you
