LAND-based saltwater anglers can enjoy top fishing by checking out their local pier or breakwater. On some days, piers out-fish boats.

Safe and comfortable, most of these structures, by virtue of the shelter and marine growth on the pilings or rocks, play host to reasonable numbers of fish.

Port Phillip Bay in Victoria has platforms for anglers. Places such as St Kilda pier and St Kilda breakwall, have produced snapper to 9kg, King George whiting, flathead, garfish, salmon, mullet, squid, barracouta and leatherjackets. Mornington pier is a favourite and regularly produces big snapper after a blow from the west, as well as salmon, mullet, garfish and squid. Other bay piers include Mordialloc, Seaford, Frankston, Dromana, Rye, Sorrento and Portsea.

Along the western seaboard, St Leonards pier has been producing snapper to 3.5kg in recent weeks, especially after a northerly blow soils the water. Other piers worth a fish include Pt Lonsdale, Queenscliff Marina, Swan Bay, Portarlington and in Corio Bay. All of these will at different times produce the species previously mentioned.

Many piers and jetties are scattered around Western Port, including Flinders, Balnarring, Cowes, Tankerton, Stony Point, Hastings, Tooradin, Warneet, Corinella, Newhaven and Rhyll.

It is a similar situation in most other Victorian bays and estuaries from Mallacoota in the east to Portland in the west. Port Campbell pier has been producing squid, trevally and pinkies of late, and although I haven't heard from Portland, I am sure the Lee Breakwater will be firing for big snapper.

The best man-made fishing platform I have come across in Victoria is the new pier at Lorne, on the Great Ocean Road between Anglesea and Apollo Bay. Its predecessor, an old wooden structure, was a favourite destination for many anglers and their families.

When the salmon, trevally or barracouta were running it was a case of standing room only, and if you wanted to fish the pier on a weekend, you had to be there early or miss out.

The old pier was demolished in 2006 and a new structure built at a cost of $5 million. The new pier sets a new standard as the most enlightened fishing structure I have come across.

It is the same length (196m) and width as the old pier but features a superb platform on the end, with plenty of room for the many people who visit the pier for recreational fishing and sightseeing. The new pier flares out on each side at the end with stepped down fishing platforms complete with built in rod holders. This provides a selection of vantage points and levels and is readily accessible for pedestrians who no longer have to step over fishing rods (or get in the way) of anglers.

What I most like about piers is the predictability of the fishing. When the mullet come on for example, they hang about the area for several weeks and you know almost to the point of certainty that you will catch some. It can be the same with garfish, pinkies, barracouta, Australian salmon, bream, snottie trevalla and leatherjackets.

One of the best options is the silver trevally, a fish that pound for pound is one of the toughest scrappers in southern waters. The average size of the silvers caught is 300g to 1kg. Silvers will test most anglers on light lines, particularly in areas where there are obstacles such as pier pilings; and that's where you find them.

Tackle for pier fishing varies to suit the species. For smaller fish such as whiting, garfish, silver trevally and mullet, a light rod of about 2.5m long with a threadline reel suited to lines of about 3-4kg breaking strain. A variety of small sinkers, swivels and a couple of quill floats as well as a selection of hooks from No. 8 through to about 2/0.

For larger fish such as snapper, go for a 2.5 to 3-metre long surf rod and reel suited to lines of about 7 kg breaking strain. Sinkers should be ball or bean for running rigs and star or pyramid for paternoster or fixed sinker rigs.

• Steve Cooper can be heard on the Casting Off program on Radio Sport927 between 4.30am and 6.30am on Saturdays.