Victoria Spearfishing Sites
Victoria has a great range of exciting spearfishing locations to keep even the keenest spearfisher busy. To make these easier to navigate, the dive sites have been broken up into 3 different sections.
If you are just starting out in spearfishing, Victoria is a nice place to find cool, calm waters, with some smaller fish species to target. Some good entry-level places to begin spearfishing in Victoria include Port Philip Bay such as Mornington, Black Rock, and Indented Head. You will need a 5-7mm wetsuit in Victoria, however, as the water can be VERY cold! Once you become comfortable with spearfishing these areas, you can try Phillip Island, the Mornington Peninsula back beaches and areas along the West Coast such as Apollo Bay and Port Fairy. Species that you may encounter include bream, sweep, salmon, morwong, leatherjackets, snapper, whiting, trevally, black rockfish, ling, squid, crayfish and scallops!
Like many southern locations, visibility may only be good during certain times of the year in Victoria. Port Phillip Bay can be particularly difficult to find good visibility in. But your persistence will pay off!
According to the locals, Beaumauris through to Parkdale can produce Pinkies (Snapper/Squire), Snook, Salmon, King George Whiting, Flathead and the occasional small Kingfish. By traveling down to Mornington to go spearfishing, encountering King George Whiting and Flathead is more common. However, one of the better shore diving spots is at Westernport, where you will have a good chance of finding crayfish.
During March in Beaumauris to Brighton, you will find good numbers of Squid (Southern Calamari!), which is a tasty treat for Southern spearos. The squid often gather in high numbers in these areas to breed. Be sure to use a high visibility float and flag in these areas, as problems with boaters and jet ski riders is common!
Scallops are another tasty Victorian treat and are found throughout the southern end of the bay as well as Dromana and Rye. Note that it can be a bit of a walk out over the sand bars (100m+), until the water drops off to 5-6m where you will find plenty of scallops and the occasional Flathead. It is advised to set yourself up with a good board float to put your scallops in or on, as a bag of scallops will cause quite a bit of drag in the water otherwise! Also, be careful of the current, which can run between 4 and 6 knots at times. Always swim against the current first up, and let it take you back to your entry point.
If you find any reef in 8m or so, it is a good idea to burly up (i.e. with pillies) to attract other species.
