Gippsland Lakes

GIPPSLAND LAKES Brett Geddes

b.geddes@bigpond.com

Another winter and guess what? Another run of outstanding big fish to confirm that the Gippy Lakes holds some of the biggest black bream in the country. I have plenty of joy to share, with bream up to 47cm, quite a few nice winter flathead turning up and big estuary perch. There’s a lot to look forward to over the next few months. SLOT LIMITS

First up, a reminder of the new bream slot limits introduced back on 1 April this year. Legal-sized bream are now 28-38cm for the Gippsland Lakes only. It still seems that very few anglers are aware of this important change. During two busy weekends recently, I was on the water and questioned over 20 anglers. Sadly, I found that only two people were up with the new regs. I wonder if signage is required at boat ramps to get the message across? So once again the bag limit for bream remains at 10 fish but none of them can measure greater The author’s best Gippy Lakes bream for a while, going 47.5cm and 1.78kg caught on a homemade blade lure.

Not a bad first fish of the day. Jason Deenan released this truck of a perch going 48cm, caught on a prawn lure.

best fishing is already behind you. However, looking ahead here are the hotspots you need to search. The Tambo River from the entrance right huge numbers.

The Mitchell River will probably be the most popular destination for anglers with its many kilometres of easy As usual, a few big fish were landed but there were a lot of grumpy people by day’s end. So my tip is to concentrate on the three big rivers because dozens of thumping bream have been returned of late.

KEEP ON TRUCKING

There are a lot of names given to trophy fish and I call bream over 43cm ‘trucks’. This winter has been one of my best for B-doubles! I’ve been fishing a lot recently with three or even four days a week searching some of the hotspots mentioned above. Each trip I share the day with a good mate, and here are some of our best tallies and sizes of fish lately.

With Jason Deenan we caught 23 bream and three estuary perch with my best bream going 46, 44 and 43cm with another handful at 42cm and one 40cm perch. Jason’s first fish of the day, caught using a Chasebait prawn lure for the first time, was a cracking 48cm perch and then he promptly backed that up with a 46cm bream on the same lure. That’s a ripper start to anyone’s day, and that lure may now be his brand-new favourite!

Next trip I shared with Anthony Havers and I released a very modest tally of five bream but at least I hauled in a genuine truck at 47.5cm and 1.78kg. Havo was the real star that day as he landed and released 24 ripper bream with most of them 37-42cm, and a very nice 55cm flathead. Incredibly I watched Havo drop nearly as many bream and also get shredded by a couple of huge ‘unknowns’. All of our fish that day were caught in deep water using jigged blades.

On a third trip I joined Mickey Dee and watched him release six big EP to 45cm and five bream to 45cm. On that day I returned nine bream to 46cm and a 39cm perch.

I think you now get the message that there’s been a lot of great sport returning some real trophy fish, and I’ve received reports from many other lure and bait anglers with impressive tales.

LOOKING AHEAD

So my message is simple – get out there now! It’s shaping up to be a real stellar year for big fish, and very respectable tallies too. It’s probably due to the increased stream flows and fairly mild weather. A far cry from 12 months ago after tragic bushfires and a terrible drought.

than 38cm tip length. Dusky flathead have a slot limit of 30-55cm, and the bag limit is five flathead.

BREAM HOTSPOTS

For those of you serious about catching trophy bream, now is without doubt the time to get busy. If you haven’t been out chasing them yet then some of the up past the bridge to the Blue Hole will continue to fire, and you should persevere in the upper reaches as we draw closer to spawning season. The same goes for the Nicholson River but also keep an eye on your sounder in the lower river area for those schooling bream that will right now mob up in bank access, and don’t be deterred if the water is a little coloured from rain. This can fire the bream right up, and bait anglers will shine in these conditions.

Paynesville has been a little hit-and-miss of late and Hollands Landing to Seacombe has been very disappointing. The Straits can be so frustrating and I fished the Hollands end recently and found 19 trailers parked at the ramp. Sadly, nearly every angler I talked to that day failed to land a single bream.

BEMM RIVER

Robyn

Sturgess At time of writing, the entrance remains open, winter is upon us and the fishing has been outstanding. Sadly, the Alvey Surf Competition was postponed due to COVID lockdown but we can all look forward to when it does take place.

Anglers have been enjoying some excellent fishing, with catch and releases of bream up to 45cm. These are some of the best runs of fish seen in Bemm for some years. The odd flathead is still being taken but

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