Triple Goby and a Pinky at the Warmies

The last fishing trip on my holiday to Melbourne was to the Warmies in Newport. I hadn’t mentioned in the previous blogs but I did go fishing here a few days earlier on an evening trip but completely blanked. On my last full day in Melbourne, I didn’t want to be defeated by this venue so I needed to give it another go.

The idea was to try and catch as many species as possibly so what I did was to fish a tiny hook with pippies about a rod length out. This would surely get my a few Chameleon (Japanese) Gobies or baby Bream, and sure thing, I caught a few Chameleon Gobies. They to change colours like Chameleons and I've hardly every caught them striped, but this time I caught a couple of them in the striped colouration.



Chameleon Goby - Tridentiger trigonocephalus



Chameleon Goby - Tridentiger trigonocephalus



Chameleon Goby - Tridentiger trigonocephalus

Next came a Yellow-fin Goby. I had actually never caught these guys in the Warmies but just around the corner in Greenwich bay in about a foot of water, not about 6’ down.



Yellowfin Goby - Acanthogobius flavimanus



Yellowfin Goby - Acanthogobius flavimanus



Yellowfin Goby - Acanthogobius flavimanus

Then finally a new species, the first (and only) new saltwater species on the holiday. It was a Half-bridled Goby [#138]. These are quite similar to the Bridled Gobies I caught decades ago in the Maribyrnong, but have yet to recapture to photograph. Their fins aren’t as long, and have some spots instead of full stripes ('bridles') around their head. They still have beautiful iridescent blue spots all along its body and head.



Half-bridled Goby - Arenigobius frenatus #138



Half-bridled Goby - Arenigobius frenatus



Half-bridled Goby - Arenigobius frenatus



Half-bridled Goby - Arenigobius frenatus

After about half a dozen Half-bridled Gobies, I decided to move out of the Warmies and fish directly into the Yarra River. It was weird that I hadn't caught any baby Bream so I thought I would have better luck in the River. My plan was to fish the little jetty but it was already full, so I fished between that and the power station wall. I used the same rig but I upsized the hooks. After several dropped takes, I managed to land a lovely pinky snapper. I put up a really decent fight, but I kind of wished it was a Bream. The colours on the fish were awesome especially when I released it.



Snapper - Pagrus auratus




Snapper - Pagrus auratus

After a little while, I gave up on catching a bream, and targeted the yellow-eye mullet that were hanging around the shallows but I couldn’t land any, although I did hook a few of them. For me this wasn’t such a bad day’s fish, but others may disagree. I caught three species of goby with one of them being a new species and a nice snapper.

The Warmies, Newport, Melbourne

Im not sure when I first started fishing here, but I think it must be sometime in the late 1990's. The Warmies is the hotwater outlet of the Newport Powerstation. On very hot and very cold days, the Powerstation is switched on and warm water flows out. This is the best time to fish here.


Southern Black Bream - Acanthopagrus butcheri


Snapper - Pagrus auratus


Tailor - Pomatomus saltatrix #32

The main target species here was the Southern Black Bream, but I had an occassional Tailor or Silver Trevally. The best way to get Black Bream is the fish a small live crab and wait for a take. For Tailor or Trevally I found the best bait was pipis. This also caught a whole host of other species as well including Zebrafish, Weedfish, Blue Weed Whiting, Yellow-eye Mullet, Tasmanian Blennies, Pinky Snapper and Small Bream. At night, it is plagued with Soldierfish so you need to be careful not to get spiked as it has very venomous spines. I've heard of smaller Mulloway caught from here but I have never seen one.


Zebra Fish - Girella zebra


Common Weedfish - Heteroclinus perspicillatus #33


Soldierfish - Gymnapistes marmoratus


Tasmanian Blenny - Parablennius tasmanianus #34


Two species of introduced goby can be found in the area as well. They've probably both been introduced from Japan through the ballast water in container ships. The Chameleon Goby, called the Japanese Goby in Australia can change into several colour forms. I've seen them completely black, brownish with spots and white with a lengthwise black stripe. The second species is called the Yellowfin Goby. In Japan its is called Ma-Haze [マハゼ（真鯊）] and is a delicacy, usually eaten battered and fried. This is actually not caught at the Warmies but a location quite nearby.


Chameleon / Japanese Goby - Tridentiger trigonocephalus #35


Chameleon / Japanese Goby - Tridentiger trigonocephalus


Yellowfin Goby / Ma-Haze [マハゼ（真鯊）] - Acanthogobius flavimanus #36