Mornington Pier

Fishing locations guide Mornington Pier located along Schnapper point drive in Mornington is roughly a 50-minute drive from Melbourne. The Mornington pier was originally built back in 1850 and today offers locals a vast array of fishing species to target all year round making it an excellent land-based fishing destination. The pier had a 15 million dollar facelift in 2015 but was shut down with lengthy delays in 2017 after storm damage made the pier unsafe to use. The pier is only 250 meters long but is very popular for walkers, photographers, and scuba divers.

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Things to do at Mornington Pier

This is a beautiful spot with surrounding beaches and scenic views. The immediate area is popular for swimming, walking, cycling, fishing and scuba diving. Many locals enjoy walking the pier taking in the views and spotting sea creatures in clear waters such as jellyfish. Nearby there are local cafes, restaurants, shops and bars within a lovely vibrant township. Fishing charters operate directly from the pier if you’re looking for a day out on the water. There are rock pools close by but do make sure the kids are closely supervised when on the pier. Recent renovations have included toilet facilities a yacht club and a vastly improved pier. 

Fishing at Mornington Pier

Mornington pier can be fished all year round with many different species that can be caught including squid, garfish, whiting, salmon, snapper, silver trevally, leather jacket, rays and more. Prized catches would include large snapper during summer, large squid during winter and an abundance of garfish in between. Fishing dawn or dusk on the incoming high tide is often peak time to catch fish especially when the wind is chopping up a little. Fishing is also generally better in the area during the summer and autumn seasons.

Good bait choices include pilchard, blue bait, silver whiting, raw chicken strips, prawns, maggots, silverfish, glacies, and squid tentacles. If you targeting species such as garfish then remember to berley an isolated area frequently which will help greatly with catch rates. You can buy premade berley mix or make your own. A simple mix of bread and tuna oil will work well.

You can also fish using a whole range of soft plastics which is effective on local species. We would recommend small paddle tail and curl tail soft plastics with a 1/8 jig head as a good starting point. Species such as pinkies and flathead will certainly have a go at that. When targeting squid a whole range of long casting squid jigs can be used. Why not read our detailed guide on How to catch squid around Mornington.

If your targeting squid then a light to medium rod between 7 and 9 foot is ideal. This will allow you to cast great distance and feel subtle enquiries. Take a range of squid jigs with you in different sizes and colours, and see what’s working on any particular day.

For small species such as garfish, leather jackets and whiting, you will want to use an ultralight fishing combo. Ideally a 1-3 or 2-4 kilo fishing rod with a 1000, 2000 or 2500 size reel spooled with light line. Then using small long shank hooks and small baits as these fish have quite small mouths. Good baits for these species include small pieces of pilchard, prawns, silverfish and maggots. These can be either suspended from a float or a light running sinker rig.

Then there are general-purpose outfits that will allow you to target a whole range of different species such as flathead, snapper, trevally and so on. These are usually 3-5 or 4-7 kilo rods with a 3000 or 4000 size reel spooled with a slightly heavier line and ready to tackle various different fish species. Good rigs to use when general-purpose fishing include pre-made paternoster rigs or a running sinker rig to a swivel and 50cm of a strong leader. Finished with a Pilchard tail or squid tentacles, raw chicken breast or any other bait will fish very well

Recommended baits Mornington

• pilchard
• blue bait
• silver whiting
• raw chicken strips
• prawns
• maggots
• silverfish
• glacies
• squid
• mussels

Recommended lures and soft plastics Mornington

• Daiwa Baitjunkie 5 inch jerk shads
• Berkley gulp turtleback worm
• Savage Gear Fat Curl tails
• Daiwa Bautjunkie 4 inch grubs
• Zman slim Swimz
• Berkley powerbait grub
• Gulp 3 inch minnow
• Dawia Bait Junkie paddle tail minnow
• Zman grubZ
• eco gear ZX40
• Daiwa Double Clutch
• EcoGear SX40
• Squidges biotough grub
• Zman StreakZ
• Munroes 3.75 inch paddletails

Targeting Gummy Shark at Mornington

We would recommend targeting gummy shark with a 7 foot 8-15 kilo rod paired with a 4000 to 6000 size reel spooled with 20 to 40 pound line. Finished with a strong leader ranging from 40lb through to 60 pounds. Ideal rigs include a running sinker rig to single or double snelled rig or paternoster rig. You can use an Ezi rig attaching a sinker to the clip then tying 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’s, & garfish.

learn to make your own snapper and gummy shark rigs watching this video

Targeting Squid at Mornington

Squid is a frequent catch on the pier towards the front and mid parts of the pier. Just look for the squid ink which is a great indicator of where to target them. Anglers do well-suspending squid jigs with the use of a float. 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 foot and 9 foot 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 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 constant slow reel is all that’s required.

Check out this video a master class on Kayak fishing for squid in Melbourne.

Targeting Salmon at Mornington

Winter is a great time to target salmon as they’re active and schooling up in big numbers. Salmon is a powerful sports fish that punches well above their weight. When hooked they produce strong bursts of speed, powerful runs, vigorous head shakes. Do keep an eye out for gutters which are patches of deeper water which Salmon will swim through in schools. These can be identified by a darker colour of the water.

When bait fishing pick a surf rod between 12-15 foot in length which allows for long casts with heavy sinkers and to keep 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 2 baits at different heights. You could also attach a surf popper above.

When lure fishing first consider what weight lures your likely to be casting. We would recommend rods between 9-12 foot in length in 5-10 kilo class paired with a 3000 size reel spooled with 15-pound braid. Good lure options include Savage Gear Missile, Halco twisty, Ecogear Teibo, JM Gilles pilchard baitfish, Rapala X-Rap SXR, Lazer spoons, Zman slim swimz, trick swimz, Halco laser pro

Check out this video of a crazy salmon school we recently encountered.

There are often many rods being cast in a condensed area so be mindful of others casting around you. Especially if you have children teach them to be wary of those casting around them.

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