Skip to main content
Bite Compass

Melbourne & VIC Fish Species Guide

The fish Victoria anglers chase, under their VIC names, with VIC seasons and the spots in our guide that hold them.

20 species. Size and bag limits are set by VFA — each guide links them.

Filter by habitat:
Tailor
Pomatomus saltatrix
A fast, toothy schooling predator of surf beaches, headlands and estuary mouths. Best at first and last light on...
Listed at 17 VIC spots in our guide.
VIC season Year-round
Australian Salmon
Arripis truttaceus
A hard-fighting schooling fish of surf beaches and rock platforms, and the juvenile "salmon trout" of bays and...
Listed at 123 VIC spots in our guide.
VIC season Year-round (best Mar–Sep)
Silver Trevally
Pseudocaranx georgianus
A deep-bodied, hard-pulling schooling trevally of jetties, breakwalls, reef and estuary channels. Comes readily to...
Listed at 68 VIC spots in our guide.
VIC season Year-round (best Oct–May)
Mulloway
Argyrosomus japonicus
A big, nocturnal predator of estuaries, river mouths, surf gutters and rock walls, and one of the most prized...
Listed at 26 VIC spots in our guide.
VIC season Year-round (best Sep–Dec)
King George Whiting
Sillaginodes punctatus
The largest and most sought-after whiting, a spotted bottom-feeder of sand holes and seagrass. Caught on light bait...
Listed at 76 VIC spots in our guide.
VIC season Year-round (best Nov–Apr)
Southern Calamari (Squid)
Sepioteuthis australis
A fast-growing, short-lived squid of shallow seagrass and reef, jigged from jetties, rocks and boats, best at low...
Listed at 53 VIC spots in our guide.
VIC season Year-round (best Apr–Oct)
Snapper
Chrysophrys auratus
A pink, blue-spotted reef fish with crushing teeth, prized for its fight and its eating. Taken on fresh bait or soft...
Listed at 69 VIC spots in our guide.
VIC season Year-round (best Oct–Dec)
Black Bream
Acanthopagrus butcheri
A tough, wary estuary bream that lives around snags, pylons and rock walls, and one of the most popular light-tackle...
Listed at 47 VIC spots in our guide.
VIC season Year-round (best Jun–Dec)
Flathead
Platycephalus spp.
Flathead are the classic ambush predator of sandy bays, estuaries and jetty sand patches: a flat head, eyes on top,...
Listed at 84 VIC spots in our guide.
VIC season Year-round (best Oct–Mar)
Yellowtail Kingfish
Seriola lalandi
Yellowtail kingfish are the southern coast's hardest-pulling land-based fish: a fast, structure-loving pelagic that...
Listed at 4 VIC spots in our guide.
VIC season Dec–Apr
Snook
Sphyraena novaehollandiae
Snook are the long, toothy sea pike of southern seagrass bays and jetties: a fast ambush predator that hits lures...
Listed at 1 VIC spot in our guide.
VIC season Year-round
Garfish
Hyporhamphus melanochir
Garfish are slender, silver surface schoolers of sheltered bays, jetties and seagrass, with a long needle of a lower...
Listed at 37 VIC spots in our guide.
VIC season Year-round (best Nov–Jul)
Redfin Perch
Perca fluviatilis
Redfin are an introduced European perch, now spread through fresh water across southern Australia: a barred,...
Listed at 1 VIC spot in our guide.
VIC season Year-round
Brown Trout
Salmo trutta
Listed at 1 VIC spot in our guide.
VIC season not on file
Bronze Whaler
Carcharhinus brachyurus
Listed at 1 VIC spot in our guide.
VIC season Dec–Mar
Yelloweye Mullet
Aldrichetta forsteri
The common mullet of southern estuaries, beaches and jetties: a schooling, light-tackle fish caught on dough and...
Listed at 67 VIC spots in our guide.
VIC season Year-round (best Mar–Sep)
Gummy Shark
Mustelus antarcticus
A slender, grey, white-spotted hound shark with flat crushing teeth instead of cutting ones: a night-time bottom...
Listed at 39 VIC spots in our guide.
VIC season Year-round
Leatherjacket
Monacanthidae (various)
A group of small-mouthed, tough-skinned reef and jetty fish with a single spine on the head: notorious bait thieves...
Listed at 14 VIC spots in our guide.
VIC season Year-round
Luderick
Girella tricuspidata
A schooling weed-eater of breakwalls, rock ledges, jetties and estuary channels, caught on a float, a long soft rod...
Listed at 14 VIC spots in our guide.
VIC season Year-round
Dusky Flathead
Platycephalus fuscus
The biggest of the flatheads and the east coast's favourite estuary ambusher: lying half-buried on sand and mud...
Listed at 13 VIC spots in our guide.
VIC season Year-round (best Nov–Apr)

Fishing elsewhere? Western Australia species guide · South Australia species guide · New South Wales species guide