Gippsland Lakes

GIPPSLAND LAKES Brett Geddes

b.geddes@bigpond.com

None of us expected the bonanza or even saw it coming. We were all left stunned and almost overwhelmed. Over about three weeks an incredible NEW PB FOR

MANY ANGLERS

The best way to start this report is by listing some new PBs that bream anglers have stacked up recently. The first hotspot was the lower Nicholson River from the railway bridge right down to the entrance. Most lure anglers were using ZMann weekend recently during or just before one of their private comps. Ruth Beeby got her new PB bream at 46cm and 1.6kg. Soon after Leigh Sav followed that up and I watched him landing two new PB bream that both went 46cm, taking a motor oil grub. I weighed one for him that went 1.63kg and for

good reason he was one very excited angler!

In the Nicho that day, I had a shocker when hooking seven bream in the snags and can you believe I dropped every one of them! My buddy on the day, Havo, had much better success landing a 42cm bream and another 46cm model that went 1.68kg. He also found another nine bream later in the day that were all between 39 and 44cm.

Ben Hotchkins also got in on the action landing his best bream at 44cm caught on a soft plastic. Peter Nord won that local comp with a bag of bream very close to 7.5kg and tells me another member called Frank caught one massive bream going 51cm to the tip. I’m pretty sure it would have weighed over 2kg and Frank used cut crab bait to land his trophy.

Keep in mind that each and every one of these recordbreaking bream have all been released. For many years now most anglers haven’t kept big bream anyway but the new slot limits prevent any fish over 38cm to be kept.

MITCHELL RIVER

Soon after the Nicho fired up, some of us went and explored the Mitchell River, especially around the silt jetties. The water was still a muddy pale brown after recent floods and very big bream sounded up in numbers I haven’t seen for years. This time I had better luck and my best trip saw me release 24 thumping bream with my best two going 46 and 45cm, two at 44cm and four more at 43cm. Incredibly most of my other fish were around 40cm and I caught all of them on soft plastics.

The trick was to use heavy 1/8oz jigheads and retrieve super slow. It took me six hours to find them all but what a session! On that day I met up with a couple of mates from Stratford in Barry and Corey who were on their second visit to the Mitchell. I watched them for a few hours and between them they kept pulling ripper bream from about 38 to 45cm all on small blade lures. By days end they said over 50 bream had found their net with heaps missed or dropped as well. That’s outstanding sport and like me they were sounding up thousands of bream over about 2km of river.

Peter Nord was also there that day with his buddy Michael Newman and they left the Mitchell after just three hours with about 15 big bream all caught on Hurricane blades. Bait anglers were lining the bank using prawn or shrimp and I saw them landing their fair share as well with some fish at least 43cm.

Vic Fisheries officers were checking bags on the day and with so many anglers around they were kept rather busy. Sadly I saw them attend to one angler for quite a while and I’m pretty sure he copped a hefty fine with bream over the slot limit of 38cm total length.

The upper Mitchell has also been fishing exceptionally well with bass and perch also in the mix. Ruth Beeby was again busy searching in her kayak above the town bridge and landed the perfect daily double with a fat bass at 38cm and then a real chunky estuary perch the same size.

LOOKING AHEAD

After an outstanding winter of steady rainfall the bream spawning run looks like being at least a month ahead of schedule. Or they may even spawn twice this year? Quite a few bream I released in early July were already ripe and ready to run. They won’t have to push into the very upper river reaches like in drought years. So keep in mind with this hasty breeding you may find bream returning to the lower rivers and maybe out into the lakes early this season even before October.

What a pleasure to fish the Gippy Lakes during kayak friendly glassed out calm weather. The bream fishing was also spectacular with two anglers landing over 35 cracking big bream for the day.

concentration of really big bream turned up and rewarded bait and lure anglers alike. Then sadly overnight they all disappeared, every single one of them!

It was a real eye opener as to just how many huge bream call the Gippy Lakes home and also how extremely mobile they are. The real challenge over the next few months will be trying to find out where they go as the early spawning season ramps up. GrubZ or Slim SwimZ in motor oil or blade lures like the Hurricane Vibz.

Bait anglers said shrimp or frozen prawn was working best. A huge bag of five bream was weighed in at 7.7kg by Brett Stokes and was confirmed by a mate who used his digital scales to check them. That’s a huge bag and would challenge most bream comp records.

Some of the local Nicholson Angling Club members were busy over a

It’s been a real joy to see so many bream over 40cm turn up in all the rivers. This 45cm specimen went 1.65kg and was one of 24 ripper bream released for the day.