Welcome to the Mordialloc Pier Fishing Guide. Mordialloc pier was originally built in 1857 and is roughly 175 meters long. It’s had several repairs, uplifts, and extensions in its time and today this wooden platform offers a good variety of fish species for anglers to target. It has however become a land-based snapper hotspot during spring and summer, with many good size snapper caught here. Mordialloc Pier starts near the entrance of Mordialloc Creek the pier itself is quite low to the water level. So will need to be careful here on days with high winds and high swells. We have seen some amazing photos of the years of waves crashing over the pier.
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Things to do at Mordialloc
Mordialloc is a lovely suburb along Port Phillip bay only 24 kilometers southeast of Melbourne city. Home to a population of roughly 10,000 residents. The suburb is home to schools, sporting grounds, playgrounds, cycling tracks, Epsom park horse racing track, Mordialloc creek reserve, and Woodlands golf course. However, the beach and pier are the biggest attractions of the area, which offer great outdoor recreational activities including fishing. You can catch the tram into town to the beach. At the pier, there is ample parking with a large car park at the front of the beach road. There are nearby amenities such as toilets, a kiosk, and a playground for the kids. The main town shopping strip is only a few minutes walk away.
Mordialloc pier is a pleasant walk and provides panoramic views of Port Phillip Bay and Mordialloc Creek.
Fishing at Mordialloc Pier
At Mordialloc Pier, you can target
- snapper
- garfish
- squid
- mullet
- salmon
- bream
- whiting
- trevally
- flathead
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.
During spring and summer, this is a great location to target snapper. Check out our guide on targeting snapper around Melbourne. Ideally fishing towards the end of the pier if you can manage to get a spot as it does get crowded here and keen anglers will get there early. A long rod that will allow you to cast your bait further out is ideal here. There is a known reef out to the right-hand side which is a good spot to target for pinkie snapper. A surf rod or equivalent will help you to get your bait into the right zone. Using a full silver whiting, squid, or pilchard on snelled 5/0 hooks or half pilchard or squid head on a single 5/0 hook and a reasonably heavy sinker to cast out far enough is a great setup.
Learn to make your own snapper snelled rigs by watching the video below
Underneath the pier, you will find plenty of weed beds making a great ecosystem for garfish and squid. Berely an isolated area as berleying is a very important tool when targeting garfish, You can purchase premade berley pellets or powder from your local tackle shop or make your own use of tuna oil, chook pellets and bread. Good bait options for this will include glassies, silverfish, maggots or small pieces of pilchard or chicken. For garfish a light and sensitive rod are 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. You will also catch a good number of mullets using the same fishing techniques with small hooks and small baits.
In the cooler months, schools of salmon will at times school up around Mordialloc pier. We would recommend having with you some long casting metal lures around 40 grams in weight and a 9 to 10-foot rod ready in case a school of salmon come by. Catching salmon from piers can be amazing fun if you happen to be there at the right moment. For other species of fish, an all-around rod setup will allow me to target a different range of fish and sizes. Either a running sinker rig or a paternoster rig with a sinker attached to suit your desired casting distance. A 7 foot 2-4 or 3-5 kilo fishing rod, with a 3000 size reel spooled with 10-pound line and equivalent leader is a great starting point. You can go heavier or lighter depending on what you’re targeting. Good bait options include pilchards, raw chicken, squid, and blue bait.
Baits Mordialloc 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.
- pilchard
- silver whiting
- squid
- silverfish
- maggots
- pipi
- prawns
- sandworms
- blue bait
- salmon
- raw chicken strips
- mussels
Lures and soft plastics for Mordialloc Pier
- Squid jigs
- Daiwa Bait Junkie 2.5 inch grub
- Zman slim Swimz
- Daiwa Baitjunkie 5 inch jerk shads
- Berkley gulp turtleback worm
- Savage Gear Fat Curl tails
- Daiwa Bautjunkie 4 inch grubs
- Berkley powerbait grub
- 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
- squid jigs
Targeting Snapper at Mordialloc Pier
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 garfish at Mordialloc Pier
Garfish or mini marlins are a fun local fish species to target. Generally caught between 20cm and 40 cm with no minimum legal-size limit but a daily bag limit of 40. Garfish have large snouts but very small mouths so the key to catching them is to use very small size hooks. Small long shanks between size 10 and size 14 are ideal choices. The preferred rig setup should consist of using a pencil or quill float, and then having a small split shot roughly 20cm above the hooks to keep the bait down. the floats will help suspend baits such as glacies, maggots or small pieces of fish flesh. berleying is a very important tool when targeting garfish, You can purchase premade berley pellets or powder from your local tackle shop or make your own use tuna oil, chook pellets and bread. Catching gars is all about finesse and an ultralight 1-3 or 2-4 kilo nibble tip rod that’s 7 to 9 foot in length Paired with a 1000, 2000 or 25000 size reel spooled with 4-6 lb line will be a great choice.
Targeting Squid at Mordialloc Pier
Targeting squid is a fun form of fishing 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 there are plenty of egi rods on the market fit for purpose. We recommend an 8 foot 3-inch rod paired with a 3000 size reel spooled with 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 all that’s required.
Check out this instructional video guide on how to squid filmed locally in Port Phillip Bay
Targeting mullet at Mordialloc Pier
This is a great location to mullet a bread and butter species which school up in big numbers. They are fun to catch on light spinning gear and a great fish species to introduce beginners into 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 prawn. 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 are 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.
Targeting Salmon at Mordialloc Pier
Salmon are powerful sports fish that school up in big numbers. They punch well above their weight and when hooked produce strong bursts of speed, powerful runs, and vigorous head shakes. Keep an eye for gutters which are patches of deeper water that Salmon will swim through in schools. These can be identified by the darker color of the water. Salmon will happily take a range of soft plastics, lures, and baits. Including 3 and 4-inch soft plastics and long-casting metal spoons. You can target them with light spinning gear such as a 2-4 kilo rod and 2500-size reel. However, if you are targeting them land-based on the beach or surf then you will likely jump up to a 5-10 kilo rod that’s between 9-12 feet in length paired with a 3000-size reel spooled with 15-pound braid.
Check out this instructional video guide on how to catch salmon on soft plastics. Crazy action in this one.
Targeting Bream at Mordialloc 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 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 than 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.
Targeting Flathead at Mordialloc Pier
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 images and videos shown on the Mordialloc Pier Fishing Guide are Fishing Mad originals. Thank you for visiting the Mordialloc 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 enquiries@fishingmad.com.au with specific details in the email. Thank you
