S E P F T E R M B E E R 2 E 0 1 8 - I S S U E 1 0
Marlin out west
Yellow fin have arrived
Why you fly
Your chance to win! See inside for more a pair of Tonic Sunglasses valued at $150 details 02 GIPPSLAND FISHING & OUTDOORS - SEPTEMBER 2018
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COAST GUARD FLOTILLAS VF15 Mallacoota 0429 503 618 VF18 Lakes Entrance 5155 1601 VF20 Port Welshpool 0428 366 467 VF21 Marlo 0417 101 248 John Marcos, of Melbourne, fishing for crabs at EAST GIPPSLAND NEWS VF22 Paynesville 5156 0106 Bullock Island on September 8. K1190-157 GIPPSLAND WATER POLICE Bairnsdale Paynesville 5156 7462 SHARE YOUR CATCH? GIPPSLAND PORTS Advertiser If you have a report on a recent fishing trip, photo- Head office 5150 0500 graphs of a great catch, or a location report suit- Lakes Entrance 5155 6900 able for inclusion in Gippsland Fishing & Outdoors, Paynesville 5156 6352 email [email protected], Port Welshpool 5688 1303 text message 0439 319 229 or phone 5150 2300. www.gippslandports.vic.gov.au Likewise, share you camping, four-wheel-driving LakesPost * All maps in this publication are reproduced courtesy and boating adventures and photographs. of Gippsland Ports OUR CONTRIBUTORS
Steven Pryke Captain Kevin Gleed
Fishing is more than a passion, it’s a I have been fishing the south coast part of my life and living in Lakes En- and Gippsland estuaries for the past trance makes it easy to fulfil that 30 years. I only fish with lures and passion. Since my earliest memories over the past 20 years I have taught my family has been into fishing and many anglers different aspects of this passion developed to the point lure fishing. I do all my guiding in when I started competing in the Mallacoota, which is a great system Hobie Kayak Bream Series, ABT for lure fishing where we can chase a bream and Victorian bream series in variety of species. 2014 when I was just 16 years old. Since then I have made my way through ranks and earned my posi- Brad Young tion in the tournament fishing scene. I have been lucky enough to compete Marlo local, Brad Young, knows the at the highest level in Australia and Marlo estuary and river system like international events. the back of his hand, and frequently targets bream. A tournament angler, Brad practices catch and release techniques, is across the latest in Brett Geddes lure fishing, and his experience ex- tends to the freshwater bass fishing I live on the shores of the mighty and offshore. Gippsland Lakes. For 25 years I’ve been just a little obsessed with catching as many estuary perch, bream and dusky flathead as I can. Robyn Sturgess I’ve also caught too many trout on fly and I’m now slowly getting addicted Robyn and husband David have owned to yet another species in those and operated the award-winning mighty natives, the Australian bass. Bemm River Holiday Accommodation I look forward to sharing with you the & Boat Hire since 2003 and are in-the- up to date news of where and how to know with the Bemm River and district find these wonderful Gippsland fishing. Always keen to help out, their treasures. boat hire service is well patronised and the couple has welcomed the re- cent and significant upgrade of the Luderick Point Boat Ramp. GIPPSLAND FISHING & OUTDOORS - SEPTEMBER 2018 03
Small stream trout are not overly big but make up for it with beautiful markings and big numbers. (PS)
Brown trout in Brodribb and Bemm
BRETT GEDDES feed into it. It has clean water with excel- ally stocked for many years and even guide, Phil Weigall. lent dry fly options. decades. Of particular interest was a keynote Freshwater The Macalister River is also stocked The very last time Blue Rock Lake was speaker, Jim Fredericks, who is the Chief each year and it recently received another recently stocked it received 11,000 brown of Fisheries, Idaho Department of Fish & So on midnight, Friday, August 31, trout 9000 trout to boost its population. The and 15,000 rainbow trout. Lake Glenmag- Game, talking about trout management in season was officially opened. best thing about this river is that you can gie got 6000 browns and 7000 rainbows famous American trout streams. That’s for stream fishing because there access the stream in so many locations while over in Lake Narracan it received I’ve not heard how things went but I’m is no closed season on lakes and dams. So and the further up you go the better your 5000 of each. looking forward to feedback from this it’s now time to explore where to fish for results. Even in the middle of Sale, there was great initiative and there will no doubt be trout in our Gippsland region and give you The upper Avon River is now finally flow- about 1000 trout tipped into Lake information about it online right now. an update of the latest stocking details. ing again after five months of almost Guthridge and Morwell had nearly 2000 Some of the prime rivers and creeks to nothing and this may be enough to fire trout stocked into its town lake. explore for brown trout are often over- some early bass into action. I’m quite sure Don’t forget about the pretty little dam at looked here in East and West Gippsland. most of this is clean snow melt water and the Heyfield Racecourse because it once The best two rivers in the east that come all the Gippsland streams will benefit again was recently stocked with 200 immediately to mind are the Brodribb and from this flow after big winter snow browns and 200 rainbows and an excellent Bemm Rivers. events. location for a family picnic. Better known for the estuary fishing, Nearly every location is topped up with both streams have excellent numbers of STOCKED IMPOUNDMENTS fish yearly, but stocking plans are often big trout and you could possibly find them mixed to take account of changing water 2kg or even better. Time to update you about where and how levels and the carrying capacity. In severe The tricky part is getting into the best many fish are stocked in our region. drought the stocking of some waters may areas that require a lot of bush bashing The Victorian Fisheries Authority release even stop. and that’s why the big fish are still there. between 300,000 and 400,000 trout and In other trout news, I wanted to let you Some of the best creeks to try are up in salmon each year. know that the fourth conference about the headwaters of the massive Mitchell The bulk of trout stockings are done wild trout in Victoria was held on Satur- River basin and they are too numerous to using yearling fish, but often much larger day, August 11. mention. trout are stocked in certain small waters. A big group of people were expected at Google Maps will be your best friend Trout are produced at the Snobs Creek the Darebin Arts & Entertainment Centre when it comes to where to access the hatchery and then stocked into agreed re- in Preston. The topics included the status more remote and rarely fished creeks. It’s lease locations, decided by a number of of wild trout in Victoria from survey re- safe to say that this enormous basin holds social, economic and ecological factors. sults in our best wild trout streams. a lot of fish and where there’s water there I see that many of our local lakes are Also a progress report on incubator will be trout. regularly stocked with both rainbow and stocking trials in three rivers. Pushing into remote waters will nearly One river gaining more notoriety with brown trout. Rex Hunt was also going to talk about his always result in big rewards. There are each passing year is the upper reaches of There must some very big trout in some trout fishing journey and there was going usually more fish where people fail to the Latrobe River and the streams that of them because most have been continu- to be fishing tips from well-known trout explore. (PS)
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BAIRNSDALE BAIT ' "# " %" ' #! SUPPLY !" & ' " "#" &! Live Spidercrab, 9 21 $ &! Sandworm (subject to availability) M506 ' #" & " and Frozen Bait Call us for a chat and ask about our Tamboon Accomodation 0427 584 233 ' # % ' " ! " ! # ! ! ! 37 - 41 Sydenham Parade, Bemm River ! " OPEN: 7am - 6pm • 7 days a week (Subject to change) ! $ 172 Macleod St, Bairnsdale Ph: 03 5152 2197 www.bemmaccommodation.com.au & &&&! $ 04 GIPPSLAND FISHING & OUTDOORS - SEPTEMBER 2018 BRETT GEDDES Western Lakes Where are the black bream? Yellow fin It has been a real challenge to change old habits and adopt new methods, or look in unfamiliar territory, in the quest to catch bream. bream have This past winter and early spring has tested each and every one of us and even hardcore lure and bait anglers have all but given up. Every angler I know is now very worried arrived about where and why the bream have dis- appeared. The last place we caught big numbers of blacks was in Lake Wellington about a month ago. Those bream seem to have now disap- peared and even the straits from Hollands Landing is strangely quiet. Mario Vukic fished Hollands recently and scored just a single 46cm bream while searching there all day. My last visit was also sadly quiet and I scored just one 43cm bream in five hours. The signs are not looking good. But I always try to find a positive and it’s not all bad news because there’s an excit- ing new player within our vast estuary and this fish looks like it’s here to stay. The ever changing Gippsland Lakes envi- ronment has thrown up another incredible surprise. Yellow fin bream have moved in from the ocean and pushed right up into our vast estuary. The big numbers of these fish have really shocked us and maybe there’s even more to come. Or will they disappear back out into the ocean? Yellow fin bream are one of the Not only are the numbers up but the most prized fish that lure anglers sizes of fish have astonished us all. They Another cracking Lake Wellington target and the Gippsland Lakes are have moved into areas from the township bream of 42cm that put a big smile now full of them. This 41cm yellow fin bream was sight fished and jetties of Lakes Entrance right up into on the face of Bryan Lazarro. (PS) Paynesville, Newlands Arm and Duck caught in just two feet of water. (PS) Arm. A few have also continued turning up at Lake Wellington and Hollands Landing as big yellow fin bream cruising in the shal- bream, by the black line down their tail fin. At times we see schools of 20 or 30 yel- well. For about the past six years I’ve been low clear water around jetties, boat moor- And they are nearly all big silver fish that las’ cruising the shallows and a few single watching their numbers rise, but so many ings and any snags in water just 60cm pull like crazy. But they are also very re- fish here and there. My best results during of these big fish in the Lakes right now are deep or even less. luctant to eat soft plastic and hard-bodied one session was landing just three of between 38 and 45cm. The water being so clean, you can easily lures. They don’t actually tear off spooked them, 36 to 41cm, that finally attacked a It’s now possible to go sight fishing for identify them as yellow fin, not black because often dozens of big fish will small two-inch Zman motor oil grub on a cruise around right in front of you, totally very light jig head. ignoring all lures. If only I hooked the bigger ones we saw At times I’ve been so close to them I that were easily 45cm and better. Steven could nearly reach out and touch them, and Lucas had much better results and but it’s so frustrating when they simply caught those bigger fish around 45cm and swim around a soft plastic dangled right in well over 1kg. front of their nose. They did exceptionally well to trick those Over the past month or more I’ve com- shut down fish because I can assure you pared notes with other anglers like Lucas they were no easy targets. Smith, Peter Nord, Steven Pryke or Jason It seems like all bream fishing, no matter Deenan and we have all spent hours cast- what species, there can be small bite win- ing to hundreds of thumper fish ignoring dows of time during any given day where most of our efforts. these yellow fins will attack lures.
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