A close day trip from Melbourne, Hastings is a small town outside of the Port Phillip Bay area and has a great fishing spot. While I didn’t catch anything, the weather was cold but calm enough to be an enjoyable day. The parking was easy and the pier is fully accessible, including the water-level floating pier with a good ramp down to it. I would call this a great location for wheelchair users to try out fishing in seawater.

I very much had to learn as I went, there was no simple “how to” guide for wheelchair fishing that I could find. I remember fishing when I was younger and as soon as muscle memory went to cast the line, it literally flew sideways the first time, by the end of the day I had figured out a few techniques. I hope after a few fishing trips I should be able to articulate some ideas well to help teach others what I’ve learnt, I’m no expert that’s for sure but no reason I cant try to help you all out.

Got some ideas on some ways to make this experience smoother, need to get a bait board that has some grip, with pier wood being wet, it tends to be slippery, so the extra grippy tires I have came in handy a lot!

• Has accessible car parking spaces
• Mostly firm but rough ground
• plenty of ramps and flat space to choose a spot to fish
• accessible toilets nearby are unknown