Catching Western Port Warehou

by Jarrod Day on 5 Apr 2012 A once in a year affair, Blue Warehou also known as snotty nosed trevalla enter Western Port around March/April.

Blue Warehou are a schooling fish averaging 25cm in length but can grow to a staggering 75cm and 7 kilos in weight. While the smaller ones do go extremely hard on light tackle, the larger versions would be almost impossible to stop.

A schooling fish, they are mostly found hanging around reefs, piers or bommies where they can scavenge for small free floating offerings.

In Western Port however, these fish are an extremely rare catch in any numbers. More often a by-catch, anglers may catch one or two and are unaware of the species.

Where to find them: While it is hard to pin point one location to find them, they do like reefs and bommies where food is abundant. Past years and successful fishing sessions on Warehou have provided me with two locations that they can be found. Tankerton, located on French Island in Western Port has an extensive reef on its western side. While this area is good for Pike, salmon, snook and whiting, Blue Warehou are also attracted here in March and April.

The nobbies and Seal Rocks is also a very productive location. This area can only be fished in kind weather as it can be treacherous. Anglers wishing to fish The Nobbies need to anchor in 10 meters of water between Seal Rock and The Nobbies to be successful.

Ways to attract them: Being a schooling fish and a scavenger, Blue Warehou are easily attracted with berley. The simplest berley methods are often the most successful with bread being one of the best. While this works well, I find chook pellets soaked in tuna oil over night works a treat. This can be placed into a berley pot a suspended 3 or 4 meters under the boat. With the rocking motion of the boat, the berley will disperse. Being a fine berley concoction, they will swarm around the berley pot leaving you to catch them.

Effective Rigs: Blue Warehou have quite small mouths thus requiring small hooks. The most common hook used is a size 6 long shank hook but a Black Magic KL 1/0 circle hook is effective. They have quite soft mouths and go very hard when hooked and often either pull hooks of bust anglers off. When hooked, you need to be on the ball or be prepared to lose your fish. While you won’t be run around reef and busted off you will need to put some pressure on the fish which is why I highly recommend using 15lb trace.

The rig is quite simple, a swivel tied to the mainline with a 1 to 1.5 meter length of 15lb trace and hook attached to its end. Two small size BB split shot can be crimped onto the leader to add weight but where possible, keep the weight to a minimum. These fish like a free floating bait drifting with the current, anything plummeting to the bottom will be passed up.

Another rig that can be used is a paternoster rig and although you will catch fish on it, the rig mentioned above is far more effective.

Top baits: Warehou like very small baits, often the smaller the better as they can swallow it and continue to swim. The most effective baits are bread tied onto the hook with bait mate, small pieces of pipi or mussel. Prawns are also good but they need to peeled and cut into small segments or slithers.

Fishing Methods: When fishing for Warehou the most effective technique is to firstly establish a berley trail. Once this has been achieved, you can begin to put baits in the water. Depending on the bait used, simply place it onto the hook and strip off 8-10 meters of line from the reel letting it sit/float on the water’s surface. This will allow the bait to freely sink without restriction into and with the berley.

Once the line reaches its maximum depth from what you have let out and the line is tight, wind it back, replacing the bait with a fresh one and again, allow to sink to the berley trail.

This process should be continually used until you begin to get hook-ups. Each time the bait is sinking; constantly watch the line that is floating on the water. If it begins to un-coil quickly, slowly being to wind up the line until tight encouraging a hook-set.

Once a fish is hooked, make sure you have adequate drag set on the reel and play out the fish. They can go very hard so don’t be in a hurry.

While it is now that is the most effective time to target them, I highly suggest getting out there and giving it a go.