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                                                          Port Welshpool. Where is it ?? Who has heard of it, let alone fished there ?? Could Port Welshpool be home to one of the BEST, most secluded and Secret piers in Victoria ?? It's definatly up there for me.

Port Welshpool is a lazy 2 hour drive from Melbourne. The town is 10min after the Wilsons Prom turn off. Port Welshpool gets its name because it used to be an old shipping town. Once your in Port Welshpool, you have the option to fish one of their two piers. Let me talk about the "Long Jetty" as it is known. Seriously, this is one massive piece of pier. Without exaggerating it easily has to be 900m long, and takes a good 25min to reach the end. The pier runs straight out from the huge sand flats, then does a slow bend of 90degrees to the right, running up and down the Lewis Channel. Because the pier is so long, we constructed trollies from golf carts to transport our gear. You simply could not do it any easier!!

In these next pieces, I will go through each hot spot on the "Long Jetty", unitl I reach the famous end of it.


The Bend

The area know as "The Bend" to us, which is the actual bend in the pier can produce good fish. On hot days we have seen hundreds of mullet, whiting and garfish, swimming around the outside (channel side) of the pier. Theres a large sand bank which rises out of the main channel. The Bank is roughly 2m deep. All these fish will fall to unweighted or evelated baits. (Using a float)




The Ramp


The little loading ramp which goes down the inside of the pier is fished when winds cause anglers into refuge. If you haven't been to Port Welshpool, think of a place that generates and makes ALL the wind for Victoria. Port Welshpool is that place. The Winds here can be Devistating !! Anyway...the ramp is totally wind protected and is conveniently placed in a productive area. Casting out to the sand bank on low tide will produce good whiting, flathead, mullet, salmon, trevally and garfish. Low tide does expose square kilometers of sand, it isnt hard to find.


The Light

A light situated about 180m from the end of the pier is a big hot spot at night. Best way to fish it is a 2 hook paternosta rig, fished straight down. The Port Welshpool monster Trevally love hiding amongst the timber. And once hooked will give you an awsome "never say die" fight. The number of big trevally we have lost amongst the timber is unbeliveable. The light at night also attracted insects, which inturns attracts solid numbers of Horse Mackeral, or Cowanyong. Using the black magik jigs, it wasn't unusal for us to hook 3 or 4 at a time. These make the BEST fresh bait because they are so oily and so easy to catch. The light also attracts qood numbers of squid. Although we've never got any big squid, we have caught plenty of small to medium size ones.





The End

The end of the pier. The end which has probably failed to produce a fish once in Twenty trips, most likely because it was blowing 400 knots and was minus 20 degrees. Fishing straight down again here has produced some awsome action. Double header Trevally, quadriple header Mackeral, magnificent King George Whiting. Looking back on past diaries, I will name a list of species we have caught or seen been landed from here. Trevally, Snapper, Gummy Sharks, Mackeral, Whiting, Squid, Flathead, Tailor, Bearded Cod, Ling, Butterfish, Parrot Fish, Barracouta, Garfish, Mullet, Salmon, Flounder, Sweep, Leather Jacket, plus all your gumboot fish rays etc. And yes there have been some spool jobs out in the Lewis Channel. Not a bad species list for a pier !!

Some remarkable captures whitnessed - 8lb Snapper, 8lb Salmon, 4 foot Gummy. Nuff Said !!