There have been anglers making the most of their local 25km fishing options over the past week – but now that these boundaries have been dropped Gippsland is a worthy trip in search of the big winter bream. While the deluge of freshwater that is still filtering through many estuaries can make the fishing tough, the bream have still been on the chew lower down in the saltier parts of the systems. The dirty looking metro rivers like Patto, the Yarra and Maribyrnong have all been producing some nice bream for those persisting.

Lake Tyers has just opened to the ocean in the last few days and some clean salty water will rejuvenate the system and bring in some food also. Once the water settles and levels off the lake will be worth a look in search of feeding bream.

Customer Nick has been getting a few nice bream out of the Patto. While the river’s water clarity has resembled that of a 711 latte it hasn’t worried the fish one bit. The river often fishes very well at this time of year under similar discoloured conditions.

Nick has been fishing small creature bait style soft plastics on lightly weighted jigheads. The lighter weight enables a natural and unobtrusive sink around the banks and man made structure, and alarms the fish a lot less.

Customer Ryan has caught some solid fish from his local waterways around the Maribyrnong area. Ryan has been finding soft plastics have been fishing the best at present, which dirty water conditions.

Heavily scented plastics have helped the fish find them in the decreased visibility, and slower retrieves have been the play also. Making sure the plastic spends a lot of time on or near the bottom with small and subtle twitches rather than hops has been the best way to collect a bite. Some of the fish he has been catching locally have been close to 40cm which are nice solid fish.

Customer Teddy has been fishing lake Tyers over the past few days and has found some nice bream just prior to the entrance opening. Teddy has been bait fishing some of the flooded edges around the Fisherman’s Landing arm and has been using local worm and shrimp. While the recent lake opening will re-shuffle the fish around the lake, over the next week the fishing should settle again.

Customer Peter is hanging to get back to the lake also after landing a lovely big bream on his most recent trip. Pete was fishing a UV reactive soft plastic along a lake drop off and pulled this old looking 43cm fish. Using a soft plastic of lure with some added UV can certainly help draw attention to the fish in overcast or dull conditions, as the lure will be the brightest thing in the water even with decreased sunlight.