Welcome to the Wangim Walk Fishing Guide Geelong. In 2021, we welcome a 10 million dollar and 440m platform that ventures over Corio Bay. It’s very welcome news for local anglers and the community of Geelong. Originally purpose-built to provide cover for boats moored at the Geelong Yacht Club, the on-water walkway presents excellent land-based fishing and a wide variety of species you can target seasonally, from Snapper, King Goerge Whiting, Flathead, and Trevally. Wangim Walk gets its name from the Wadawurrung language, which means Boomerang. The entrance of Wangim Walk is opened and closed with gates. The opening hours are 6 am to 10 pm and can also be closed during poor weather conditions.
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Fishing is permitted, but keep a lookout for the designated helicopter flight path area where fishing is prohibited. For boaters, vessels can moor along Wangim Walk for the day to explore Geelong. Vessels can enter the protected area but cannot enter the Fishermen’s Basin boat berthing area or the RGYC Marina.
Things to do near Wangim Walk Geelong
Geelong is a large country township located 70 kilometres away from Melbourne with many shops, parks, piers, restaurants, cafes, and adventures. The town is home to roughly 75,000 residents, making it a large township in Victoria. Some of the local attractions include the beautifully maintained Geelong Botanic Gardens, which offers fantastic 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 Serendip Sanctuary, which is not far closer to Lara and offers free access to Australia’s wildlife and gardens. The Geelong waterfront area is a lovely, vibrant spot full of piers and is excellent for walking, picnics, and eating. There are also several local breweries, markets and art exhibitions.
Watch this video fishing at Wangim Walk and Geelong Waterfront
Fishing at Wangim Walk
At Wangim Walk, you can catch
- Snapper
- King George Whiting
- Flathead
- Australian Salmon
- Garfish
- Snook
- Snotty Nose Trevalla
- Silver Trevally
- Leather Jacket
- Mullet
- Gummy Shark
- Gurnard
- Sand Eels
The fishing opportunities for land-based anglers here are brilliant, with 440 meters of room to move around and a range of fish species available seasonally. Not to mention all the areas along the waterfront just before Wangim Walk, including Fisherman Pier, the Yacht Club and Cunningham Pier. Click here if you would like to learn more about how to catch snappers in Corio Bay. We have caught fish all around this area and found good schools of pinkies, snotty noses trevally and snook from the very shallows of the waterfront and at all parts of the 440-meter walk. It’s also quite common to find yourself among a big bust-up of Australian Salmon along the walk and closer to the yacht club.
There are multiple ways to fish here with success. You can cast lightly weighted soft plastics into open waters or hard up against the jetties, yachts, and moored boats. This technique can be very successful, particularly for pinky snapper, salmon, snook, flatheads, King George Whiting, and snot nose trevalla. As per the video above, I like to fish here, walking the banks with a 2-4kg spin rod paired with a 2500-size reel and solely using soft plastics. It’s a great way to cover a lot of distance and get stuck in various species.
Bait fishing also works well here. Many anglers will target garfish suspended small baits from a float and using beley in an isolated area, whilst others will use more traditional baits like pilchards, pips, raw chicken and squid for pinkies, flathead, whiting and trevally. and silver whiting. The Paternoster rig works well with sinker options to suit your desired casting distance. This area also fishes really well with soft plastics, hard body lures and Blades. This has worked a treat for snook, flathead, pinkies, flathead, mullet and even Trevally. A typical all-around rod setup will allow me to target different 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, occasional bust-ups of salmon and low tide generally produce a healthy amount of flathead.
Baits Geelong
We have had the most success using the following baits at Wangim Walk, either on a light-running sinker rig or a Paternoster rig
- pilchards
- pipis
- silver whiting
- raw chicken strips
- prawns
- maggots
- squid
- mussels
Lures and soft plastics for Geelong
- 4″ Turtleback worms
- Zman slim Swimz
- 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 Flathead at Wangim Walk
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 out 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 go at 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 bait choices include pilchards, mussels, squid, chicken, whitebait, Pipis, blue bait and prawns.
Targeting Snapper at Wangim Walk
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. Dawn and dusk are generally considered the best times to be on the water. The most common snapper rods are 7 foot 6 inches long 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 whole 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 are 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, and Zman curl tails.
Targeting Whiting at Wangim Walk
Whiting is a bread-and-butter species that is 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 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.
Targeting Australian Salmon at Wangim Walk
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.
Targeting Snook at Wangim Walk
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 Wangim Walk
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, you will mainly catch 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.
Eels, scorpionfish, and Gurnards are very common catches in these areas. Especially if night fishing. Always handle fish carefully, and don’t handle it if you’re unsure what species it is. I have seen people catch these and curiously hold to find out what type of species of fish it is. This is very dangerous, and a small prick from one of its spikes will have you in a hospital with severe pain. So, be careful if you don’t know what type of species it is, and ask someone around you before handling it. I have also had some mates have an encounter with hammerhead sharks. Freshwater areas such as the Barwon River hold many snakes, particularly tiger snakes, so take care of these areas.
Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. All images and videos shown on the Wangim Walk Fishing Guide Geelong Fishing Location Guide are Fishing Mad originals. Thanks for reading our Wangim Walk Fishing Guide Geelong. 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 [email protected] with specific details in the email. Please also feel free to share any fishing pictures you have from this location with us. Thank you
