Welcome to the Mordialloc Creek Fishing Guide. Mordialloc Creek is located 25 kilometers SW of Melbourne and is roughly 9 kilometers long. Mordialloc Creek is the channel that runs into Port Phillip Bay in productive fishing grounds near Black Rock. It’s an interesting fishing location with boat ramp access and choc-full of life with moored boats throughout. The water is very polluted however it holds good numbers of bream, mullet, and estuary perch. For many anglers, this creek is too polluted, and would prefer to walk up further to the pier which holds good numbers of squid and snapper. It does offer nice walking trails and bird watching.
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Things to do at Mordialloc
Mordialloc is a nice township overlooking Port Phillip Bay. It has a nice sandy beach area, a lovely pier, and river entrance. Mordialloc Creek is roughly 9 kilometers long and popular with cyclists and walkers. There are lots of walking and cycling trails and parks along this stretch. Making it a very accessible and convenient spot for fishing. It does offer nice walking trails and bird watching.
Along the river, there are plenty of good spots to take the kids fishing, but you are probably better heading to the beach and fishing off the main pier which is a hot spot for snapper fishing during spring and summer. The water is very polluted at Moridalloc Creek so think carefully before eating anything you catch and wash your hands and gear thoroughly after fishing here. Catch and release fishing is highly recommended at this location.
Fishing Mordialloc Creek
At Mordialloc Creek, you can seasonally target
- Bream
- Mullet
- Estuary Perch
- Pinky Snapper
- Flathead
- Australian Salmon
- Trevally
Mordialloc creek has a large volume of boat traffic of boats venturing from the ramp down the channel under the bridges and then out into Port Phillip Bay. Despite the poor water quality at Mordialloc creek you can catch plenty of bream, mullet, and estuary perch. In 2016 10,000 estuary perch fingerlings were stocked into Mordialloc creek to improve fishing in the area. In years to come, we should see EP fishing on the rise here. More stocking is planned as part of the target of 1 million by 2020 and the target of 10 million by 2022 initiatives. Closer to the mouth entrance you can catch pinkie snapper and flathead, you also have great fishing access near the entrance on the Mordialloc pier.
Most who fish here will fish near the entrance which can be a great location for bait fishing. Pulling up a chair, a few rod holders, and catching many fish on the smaller size. Using berley will help greatly to bring the fish in and keep them biting. Coarse fishing techniques with a small berley cage attached to your line can work really well. Keep your bait sizes quite small things like raw chicken or live baits such as maggots, worms, and yabbies. That being said we have also had great success fishing here with lightly weighted soft plastics and lures. Simple curl tail and paddle tail soft plastics rigged on a 1/12 jig head and worked slowly with a small amount of scent on the tail works great for bream, pinkies, and mullet here.
Fishing Mordialloc Pier
Mordialloc Pier stretches almost 200 meters in length. It offers a great viewpoint of boats coming through the river channel out into the open seas of Port Phillip Bay. There is a large car park and good basic amenities. Here you can also catch Pinky snapper, flathead, garfish, trevally, salmon, whiting, and squid. This is a prime destination to target snapper. Fishing from the end of the pier with long casting rods is the prime spot to target snapper in the warmer months. You will need to get in quickly as it can get busy during peak times. You can have success fishing with baits using shrimp, yabbies, scrub worms, prawns, sandworms, Maggots, Scrub worms, mussels, & Chicken. Click here to see our full guide for bait fishing for Bream. When it comes to lures the choice of bream lures is almost endless. We recommend reading our guide on the best lures to catch bream. Options include imitation crabs, grub style soft plastics, minnow style soft plastics, shallow diving hard body lures, blades, and vibes.
As our map shows below the middle sections with concentrated weed and reef are great grounds for squid and garfish, whilst out deep are productive grounds for snapper. The Mordialloc creek entrance is productive grounds for bream, pinkies, and Mullet. Mordialloc Creek has high pollution and is recommended to catch and release fishing here and not for consumption.
The choice of lures is almost endless to make things easier we created a detailed video on the best lures and how to use them.
Recommended baits Mordialloc Creek and pier
At this location, we would highly recommend the baits suggested below. There are several ways to present baits including a running sinker rig, paternoster rig, or dropper rig. The rig and sinker choice will be dependent on the species you are targeting and the conditions such as wind and tidal strength.
- raw chicken
- maggots
- Scrub worms
- yabbies
- sandworms
- mussels
- pilchards
- prawns
- squid
Recommended lures and soft plastics Mordialloc Creek
- Zman grubZ
- Cranka crab
- Zman slim Swimz
- Berkley powerbait grub
- Damiki Monster Miki 2.5 sp
- Jackall Chubby
- Savage Gear Fathead Crank
- Daiwa Bait Junkie 2.5 inch grub
- Gulp 3-inch minnow
- Daiwa Bait Junkie paddle tail minnow
- Squidge wrigglers
- eco gear ZX40
- Daiwa Double Clutch
- EcoGear SX40
- Squidges biotough grub
- Nories laydown minnow
- StrikePro cyber vibe
- Pro lure live yabby
- OSP bent minnows
Targeting Bream at Mordialloc Creek
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 reside 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 then we would 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 6-pound line. We would encourage you to read our detailed guide on Bait fishing for Bream.
Soft Plastics are amazing on species such as Bream and Pinky Snapper.
Targeting Mullet at Mordialloc Creek
This is a great location to mullet a bread-and-butter species that school up in big numbers. They are fun to catch on light spinning gear and a great fish species to introduce beginners to fishing. Mullet respond well to berley, so berley an isolated area with a mix of bread, tuna oil, and chook pellets. Good baits include bread, dough, live maggots, pilchard, and prawns. remember that Mullet have small mouths so remember to cut these baits up into small pieces. You can also use soft plastics small minnow and grub style soft plastic with a slow constant retrieve. Scents such as S-Factor or Procure certainly help. Most mullet is quite small therefore 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.
Here are some helpful tips on catching Mullet with soft plastics.
Targeting Estuary Perch at Mordialloc Creek
Another highlight of fishing in this area is targeting Estuary perch with surface and shallow diving lures. The action can be frantic on warm balmy evenings with low wind. listen for the sound of breaking water which indicates EPs are feeding. The excitement an angler gets from an EP smashing a surface lure on light gear is something that truly needs to be experienced. It almost catches you by surprise when that aggressive strike comes. Small surface poppers, cicadas, blades, surface minnows and pencil lures work well here. So do shallow diving hardbody lures. Noteworthy options include bent minnows, Rapala countdown series, nories laydown minnows and shallow diving cranks. Basically, anything that doesn’t dive too deep and makes a good vibrating action will work well. You can use any colour choice we often start with silvers that mimic small baitfish or mullet.
EPs also respond incredibly well to a whole range of soft plastics lightly weighted. Including curl tails, paddle tails and minnow imitations. The trusty 2.5-inch grubs and minnows are an excellent choice. These imitate small baitfish that the EPs are actively feeding on. We would recommend mixing up the retrieval speeds and pauses and playing around with different colours. Where possible fish along the structure and stay alert for signs such as breaking water. Fishing for Estuary Perch requires finesse. We recommend an ultralight fishing combo consisting of a 1-3 or 2-4 kilo spin rod around 7 feet in length. Coupled with a 1000 or 2000 size reel spooled with 2-8 pound line and equivalent fluorocarbon leader. When bait fishing uses a 2-4 kilo rod around 7 feet in length. Coupled with a 2500 size reel either a float or small running sinker to a swivel and very fine leader.
Targeting Snapper at Mordialloc Creek
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 great. Good bait options include pilchards, silver whiting, squid, and salmon. When it comes to soft plastics, a 7 foot 3-6 kilo rod paired with a 3000 size reel is great. 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.
Check out this instructional video guide on how to catch snapper with soft plastics filmed locally in Port Phillip Bay
Targeting Flathead at Mordialloc Creek
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 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 have a go at many 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. Using 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.
Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. All other images and videos shown on the Mordialloc Creek Fishing Guide are Fishing Mad originals. Thanks for reading our Mordialloc Creek Fishing Guide. 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 enquiries@fishingmad.com.au with specific details in the email. Please also feel free to share any fishing pictures you have from this location with us. Thank you