Port Phillip Bay photo above: Sandringham Yacht Club. Despite lockdown and the danger of prosecution these birds wouldn’t keep off Port Phillip Bay or wear masks, but they did adhere to social distancing.
Welcome! This Port Phillip Bay Home Delivery post is your scenic trip out on Melbourne’s bay with us. Enjoy.
If you’d like to see some of the fish we’ve caught, find out our fishing tips and see the fish we’ve caught turn into food, go to the post Port Phillip Bay Fishing Fun.
In this Port Phillip Bay Home Delivery post you’ll:
- Get what the Port Phillip Bay blues was like for the thousands of Bay-crazy Melburnians during around 4 months of COVID-19 lockdown
- Check the Victorian state government’s COVID-19 Bay restrictions as from 9/11/20
- See our pics of beautiful Port Phillip Bay from Jim’s boat
- Read My Port Phillip Bay review
NOTE: IF VIEWING THIS POST ON YOUR MOBILE PHONE, TURN IT SIDEWAYS FOR A BETTER PHOTO & VIDEO VIEWING EXPERIENCE.
Also, aqua words are trusted links.
Melburnians dealing with the Port Phillip Bay Blues during lockdown
Port Phillip Bay was deserted for months due to Melbourne’s Stage 4 lockdown restrictions. It was eerie to see the Bay like this, especially on a warm Spring day.
Usually you would have seen fishing boats bobbing happily alongside the colourful, carefree windsurfers, especially with the warmer weather. However, for months it was a ghost bay (apart from the cargo hauls).
Snapper season had started and there was no-one out chasing the catch…
Looking out, I had felt the collective gaff in the guts of all those free-spirited seafarers sitting at home and living life in a fishbowl…
Living in lockdown with the ban on the Bay was harder still when my hubby Jim is an avid recreational fisherman.
WHAT THE..?!
One night I came into the dining room to find a by-product of Jim’s Bay blues…
Eventually, the restrictions did ease a bit at the beginning of October, but at one point the state government imposed some strange conditions; you could only go out on Port Phillip Bay for one hour in a vessel without a motor, not more than 5km from your home.
WHAT THE..?!
Apparently, lone fisher-people out in the open bay air posed a COVID-19 risk to others unless they went out:
- in a manual (rowing?) boat to count as exercise
- for only one hour a day as permitted for daily exercise,
- no more than 5km from their home. A bit disappointing if you lived 4.95km from the bay… A bit hard to measure, too.
Coronavirus recreational fishing restrictions as from 9/11/2020
Thankfully, as from 9th November 2020 and according to Sandringham Yacht Club the updated state government regulations are as follows:
Recreational Boating and Fishing –
All SYC Members can go fishing, go boating and go sailing whenever they want for as long as they want…whilst respecting all the Government regulations.
HOORAY!!
However, if you can’t get to the Bay for the time being, come with me now!
Climb aboard, but watch out for the bumps (I’m so noisy, sorry)…
Here are some other things you could do around Melbourne…
Port Phillip Bay pics from Jim’s boat…
Check out this underwater view of the Bay. Thanks to TK for sharing this video of his snapper catch while with Jim and EK:
Cute! Snapper Rock swimwear for the whippersnappers…
Thanks to TK again and to EK for providing the next video.
Listen out for when Jim’s catch barbs EK twice. Cracks me up! 😆
Also, look out for TK’s epic home-made rig 👏.
By the way, they all agree that their best fishing spot is 30 metres from Carrum 😉 🤣 …
You’ll find more of our fishing videos, at Port Phillip Bay Fishing Fun. Now for some more of our Bay pics.
Port Phillip Bay, you little beauty…
Love this photo of KW’s catch…
Some dusky pics…
Hire Boats
You can hire boats from many places around greater Melbourne: Melbourne, Mordialloc, Frankston, Werribee, Mornington, Williamstown, and Geelong.
Also, Jim advises that usually you don’t need a boat driver licence or boating experience to hire a small fishing boat because hire boats generally don’t go fast enough to warrant it.
Pre-lockdown, the prices to hire fishing boats started from about $95 per hour x two hours. (The cost could have been reduced to as low as $29 per hour: Frankston Boat Hire had a special – $180 for 6 hours for a 5-6 man aluminium boat with sunshade. If several friends share the boat hire cost, the activity becomes highly affordable.)
Anti-seasickness aids could be helpful to you…
In this video you’ll get the feeling of fishing on the Bay with Jim and KW. Little fishing tip: let a bit of line out so it has a chance to hit the bottom (where the fish are).
Jim likes Shimano saltwater rods and reels
Danae’s Port Phillip Bay Review
Port Phillip Bay = 5 out of 5 stars!
Undoubtedly, Port Phillip Bay enriches our Melbourne lives and visitors’ in so many ways: views, wildlife, recreation, food, beaches, exercise, mindset, functions, education and exploration. The bay is beautiful and bountiful and we are blessed to have her by our sides. Truly, this piece of Mother Nature nurtures Melbourne, so I’m very glad that many of us can spend time with her again after months of Stage 4 lockdown.
Thanks for checking out my Port Phillip Bay Home Delivery blog! I hope you got your fill of the bay for the time being. If you want to see the fish we’ve caught, get Jim’s fishing tips and see our fish turn into food, click here.
Otherwise, if this blog brightened your day, stay a bit longer and have a look around. There are many more fun and funny things to find in Trip Over, like WHAT THE..?! at Faro Tapas Bar, MONA Tasmania.
If you’d like to see the trout I caught fly fishing in Miena Tasmania go to my post Our Hobart Things to See and Do and scroll down towards the bottom.
