The Warmies (Newport Power Station)
Summary for 12 Oct 2026
Bite Compass is showing a medium fish activity bite score on 12 Oct 2026. Wind is around SW at 20 km/h. Solunar feeding windows are listed below.
Feeding Windows
Local Knowledge
The Warmies is the cooling-water outlet of the Newport gas-fired power station, discharging into the mouth of the Yarra downstream of the West Gate Bridge. When the station is running, the warm flow pulls in a remarkable mix of fish, and there is nowhere else in Port Phillip quite like it. The cast list: black bream, yelloweye and sea mullet, silver trevally, tailor, salmon, flathead, barracouta, good-sized pinkies and the occasional mulloway. It is industrial, it is noisy, and when it fires the anglers stand shoulder to shoulder — which is the best review a fishing spot can get.
Everything here keys off the outflow: when the station is generating and warm water is moving, fish stack into the channel; when it is off, the spot can be dead. Fish baits on a running sinker into the current for bream, trevally and pinkies, or a float and berley for mullet. Tailor, salmon and barracouta respond to metal lures and ganged pilchards when they are pushing bait. The bottom is extremely heavy and tackle losses can be high, so use a lighter sinker leader that breaks off first and bring plenty of spare rigs. If your rig survives a whole session here, check it's actually in the water.
Bream and mullet are the reliable fish, with pinkies and silver trevally in good numbers when the water is warm and moving. Tailor, salmon and barracouta come through in schools, and a mulloway is the trophy every regular hopes for. Bream are 28 cm minimum (bag 10); snapper 28 cm (bag 10, no more than 3 at 40 cm or more); silver trevally 20 cm; tailor 23 cm (bag 20); mullet have no minimum and a combined bag of 40. Mulloway are 60 cm minimum, bag of 5 (changes have been proposed — check the VFA guide).
Check whether the power station is running before you drive over; no warm water usually means no crowd and no fish. The Yarra mouth sits in the zone where EPA Victoria and Better Health publish eating advice for fish from the lower Yarra and Maribyrnong because of PCBs — women of childbearing age and children under 16 should limit fish to one serve a month and avoid eels. Keep the platform clean and take your line home; this spot survives on goodwill. Bring a long-handled landing net — the walls are high above the water. Up on the West Gate the morning traffic report is rarely good news; down here, on the right morning, the fishing report is.
Access & Conditions
The Warmies sits off the Newport foreshore near the West Gate Bridge, beside the Newport "Warmies" boat ramp, a single-lane ramp with limited car-and-trailer parking that fills fast. Facilities are basic and it is an industrial setting rather than a family park, though Newport Park is nearby. Access along the channel is on foot from the ramp area; stay out of any fenced power-station land.
The outflow matters more than the weather. The channel is relatively sheltered from the bay, so it fishes in winds that blow out the open piers, but a strong southerly still pushes chop up the river mouth. Rain flushes the Yarra and can colour the water for days. The warm-water advantage is greatest in the cold months, when the surrounding bay is at its chilliest and fish seek out the outflow.
High, hard edges above deep water with a current running — a fall here is serious, so wear a lifejacket if you fish the wall, especially at night. The power station outflow is hot and fast near the outlet; keep well back from it and never climb fences or enter restricted industrial areas. Crowded sessions mean flying hooks and sinkers. The boat ramp next door is busy; don't fish across the ramp approach.
Gear & Rigs
A 7–9 ft 3–6 kg rod with a 3000–4000 reel, 10–20 lb braid and a 12–20 lb leader. Bottom rig: running sinker or paternoster with size 4–1 hooks for bream and 1/0–2/0 for pinkies and trevally, on pilchard, prawn, bass yabby or squid, with the sinker on a lighter dropper to save the rig in the snags. Pelagics: 20–40 g metals or ganged 3/0 hooks on pilchards. Float rig with size 8–10 hooks for mullet. Pack at least a dozen spare rigs.
Seasons
This is a cold-weather destination — winter and early spring, when the warm outflow is the warmest water around, is when the crowds turn up for bream, mullet and pinkies. Spring and summer bring trevally, flathead and bigger snapper through the river mouth. Tailor, salmon and barracouta are opportunistic visitors whenever bait schools in the channel. Mulloway are a year-round chance but always a rare one. On a frosty July morning the anglers at the Warmies are, for once, warmer than the fish.
If This Spot's Blown Out
Frequently Asked
The Warmies is the warm-water discharge channel from the Newport power station, entering the mouth of the Yarra River near the West Gate Bridge at Newport. It sits next to the Newport (Warmies) boat ramp.
Black bream, yelloweye and sea mullet, silver trevally, tailor, Australian salmon, flathead, barracouta, pinky snapper and the occasional mulloway all turn up. Fishing is best when the power station is running and warm water is flowing.
Better Health and EPA Victoria advise limits for fish from the lower Yarra and Maribyrnong because of PCBs: women of childbearing age and children under 16 should eat no more than one 150 g serve a month and no eels; everyone else up to four serves a month and one serve of eel. Black bream carry more PCBs than mullet.