Leading fishing identity David Kramer, who has been fishing the bays for more than 40 years, says we are experiencing one of the best snapper seasons on record in Port Phillip Bay.

It has also been productive at Western Port, where the snapper have been biting, but it’s the gummy shark and King George that have been particularly plentiful.

Since the cessation of commercial netting in Western Port, the whiting have continued to get stronger in both numbers and size to the point where it is not uncommon to hear regular reports of whiting over the magical 50 centimetres mark.

The gear of choice for whiting is the Shimano IFISH Whiting Prowler rod, a fast action 7’6” with removable nibble tip combined with a Shimano Navi 1500 rod.

The best bait by far this season has been the whiting worm, obtained by Paul Worsteling’s Tackleworld in Cranbourne from one of Australia’s best areas for this particular worm. The whiting love it.

There is no sign of the snapper season slowing down either. The eastern side of Port Phillip Bay has been the best area to target snapper this year, with Mt Martha, Mornington, Frankston and Carrum the hot spots.

The snapper season is so good for several reasons, primarily the cessation of scallop dredging in the bay back in 1995. Snapper and whiting are not the only two species that are booming at the moment either.

Calamari are in great numbers throughout the bay, scallops are in almost plague proportions and the flathead are in great numbers and size.

Port Phillip Bay: Sharkmen Fishing Charters reports a sensational week of snapper fishing with fish from three to five kilos being caught in 18 metres of water out from Carrum.

The best bait is Eden pilchards and the best time has been around the tide change in the afternoons.

Pinky snapper have been abundant off Beaumaris in five metres of water on soft plastics and there have been good numbers of garfish around the Frankston and Seaford piers. Try silverfish as bait hooked one metre under a bubble float.

Western Port: Whiting have been in sensational numbers along the middle spit this week with pipi and whiting worm the best baits. T

he run out tide has been the most productive with fish ranging 37 to 51cm coming from the area.

Paul Worsteling is on the 3AW Fishing Show from 7-8pm each Friday and owns Paul Worsteling’s Tackleworld, Cranbourne.