The bream fishing in the Gippsland lakes has been good at the moment, with some good fishing in the rivers and also around Metung. Fresh baits of whitebait, crab and prawn have been the best for the bream.  Customer Brendan recently fished from the jetties around Metung where he has been catching quality bream. He last session saw him catch a bag of lovely Luderick using fresh local cabbage weed.

Lake Tyers is fishing somewhat patchy at the moment – there is plenty of good fishing to be had but some decent time needs to be spent in finding the fish. Staff member Dylan caught some ripper Tailor, Bream and flathead while fishing the lake last week. Larger profiled lures did the damage, as the lake is closed to the ocean and there are big schools of baitfish trapped in the lake.

Customer Dean and his son Jaiden fished the lake last week, where they landed some nice bream and flatties using frozen prawn.


The Patterson River has been fishing well for Bream lately, with water clarity starting to clean up. At present the river is still running with a murky green/brown stain to it, but there are still plenty of quality Bream on offer. The best bet is to fish with either Prawns, Scrubworms, or live freshwater Yabbies. Fish these baits with as little weight as possible to ensure the fish don't feel too much resistance. If lure fishing, using small soft plastics in 2-4inch range along with small vibes and sinking hardbodies is a good method. Try and use a good quality scent or attractant with your baits and lures as well, to help the fish fish your offering in the dirty water. Customers Daniel and Cam have been braining the Bream down there recently, using the above mentioned styles of lures.

Pinkie Snapper have been on the chew around the Docklands and lower Yarra recently in big numbers.  Customer Liang has been fishing for them in the Docks and has been catching some quality fish.  Using pilchard and prawn he has caught fish to 3.5kg, with late afternoon being the prime time.  At the same time using these methods you can also be a good chance of a Bream or Mulloway also.

If you're pretty keen to land yourself a Mulloway or Jewfish, head down to the Glenelg River for a few days.  This river is a leisurely drive from Portland, and famous for it's large numbers of school Jewies, and they can be caught right through winter.  Times of heavy fresh normally keep the fish down lower in the river, where they can be caught on baits of Squid and Mullet and also on lures.  Customer Phil sent us a report from down there, where he managed 4 nice Jewies up to 82cm in one session, fishing small vibes down in the lower section of the river.  What better way of spending a cold winter's day, catching fish like this!  If you're lucky you could also hook a few Bream as well!

If you're into Bream fishing, with bait or lures, now is the time to get out and catch that bigger one.  While lots of local rivers are looking more like chocolate milk, the Bream will be about and feeding.  The excessive freshwater washes lots of food into the systems are gives the fish an easy meal.  If you're going to fish for Bream while the water's dirty, just make sure you use a bait that has a strong scent - or lures that put off a bit more vibration.  Customer Cam went down and got a few in the Patto over the weekend, using a curltailed style soft plastic.  Using the same lures can also result in a surprise Mulloway hookup as well.

 

The Bream in most of Melbourne's estuaries will bite well after the recent rain we've had, with lots of food flushed in for them and murky water giving them a bit of cover to feed under.  Good customer Robin normally fishes for the Bream in Patterson River and normally gets a few.  He has been fishing around the river entrance lately, where the discoloured water meets the clean, tidal water with good success.  He has been using baits with lots of scent to help the fish in the dirty water.  He normally fishes with KL1/0 circle hooks and runs a long leader and simple running sinker rig.  

Lee and mates spent a weekend down at Shallow Inlet for a break and had a fish while there.  They tried various techniques for different species while down there, and found that there were plenty of Salmon, Whiting and Pinkies to be caught.  The larger Salmon were caught casting and trolling small Sea Rocks in the main entrance channel; while the Whiting were caught using Pipi on ‘Whiting Whacker’ rigs along the shallower channel edges up around Yanakie.

Gary regularly fishes Shallow Inlet over summer and gave us a good report that there are plenty of nice sized Gummies to catch at present.  Fishing at night around the entrance channel and off the sand spit has seen him land Gummies up to 9kg, all on fresh Salmon fillets.

Customers Chris and John fished around Port Albert for Flathead over the weekend.  They caught plenty of nice sized Sand Flathead around the channel edges and gutters, with John catching the best fish of the day, a Yank Flathead of 72cm, caught on a Squidgy Flickbait.

Mitch reports Lake Tyers is still fishing well for Bream and Flathead.  Most of the Bream are getting caught fishing vibes in the deeper water during the day and closer along the edges in low light periods.  Ecogear ZX blades have been the standout lure for Mitch, who has caught Bream to 45cm and some large Flathead on the same lure.  Customer Andy caught 4 nice Bream on Prawn in a recent session, with the largest being 39cm.

Jake and Tony have been spending their weekends down along the coast East of Lakes Entrance, mainly fishing the estuaries of Marlo and Bemm River.  The boys report that the fishing is good at the minute, with plenty of nice Bream to be caught fishing small Hardbodied lures and Soft Plastics.  There are also some lovely Flathead and Luderick taking the same lures as well.

Tailor and Salmon to 4kg are getting caught along the beaches along from Bemm River and Marlo currently, with Pearl Point and Point Ricardo being the pick of the beaches.  Salted Pilchards have been the best bait along with Squid strips.  Customer Hans caught 15 fish from Pearl Point during a good early morning session there on Tuesday.  

Many anglers fishing offshore around Eden have reported excellent numbers of Striped Marlin.  The fish have been widespread around Eden further north to the more popular grounds off Tathra and Bermagui, with more anglers trying closer around Eden.  Nick and Jason are 2 customers who have both caught Marlin out from Eden, with the average size 75-100kg.  Both fish were taken on Slimey Mackerel skipbaits.  Jason reports that some decent size baitballs were holding up to 4 fish.  

On the Marlin front, Compleat Angler Ringwood owner, Ian (Lofty) Loft did a recon trip out wide from Far Eastern Gippsland with Brendan Wing and a few others, to try and document a victorian Marlin capture.  The boys were lucky enough to hook up to 2 fish, but unfortunately both fish made their way off the hook.  Just an inspiring bit of advice for people to 'think outside the square' when it comes to fishing.

Customers Jake and Joel have been having lots of fun with the bream around Lake Tyers lately.  Most of the fish have been 32-38cm and are coming from the shallower 1-4ft margins, along with some nice flathead to complete the bag.

Customer Trevor has been fishing Lakes Entrance over the past three weeks, mainly around the town jetties catching flathead to 46cm with most success coming from bluebait.

Westernport Bay has also been fishing well with good reports of snapper and whiting.  The snapper appear to be in best numbers along the middle channel from around Hastings thru to Joes Island. 

Whiting reports are coming in from the top of the bay with Locals reporting that this will be a great whiting season over the next couple of months.  Reports of 51cm whiting around the middle spit on pippies are the go.

Dave reported squid off Port Welshpool jetty, mostly on Yamashita 2.5 RLOLC jigs.  Flathead are also in good number with sizes up to 40cm mostly taken on the sand flats on Squidgy lobby.

Staff member Dylan has been doing some fishing along the NSW coast, with plenty of Sand Whiting, Bream and Flathead on topwater lures along shallow sandflats in the estuaries.

Along the same stretch of coastline, Staff member Chris has been doing some inshore fishing when the weather plays nice, with Snapper, Pearl Perch and Teraglin being the most prolific species being caught.  Having lucanus-style jigs out while bottom bouncing is a very effective way to catch these reef species.