The recent rain in Gippsland has been the best for probably 15 years, not quite a flooding downpour, just constant typical winter and spring rainfall.

A larger than average snowmelt is on the way and this will also boost rivers, especially the Mitchell catchment. Such a contrast to the doom and gloom of nearly 10 years of drought.

After years of chasing bream in clean rivers and lakes, a lot of us are now getting our dirty water tactics in order. Some anglers actually prefer the coloured fresh input and even gain a bit confidence. These guys are quick to realise that clear saltwater is often under the fresh stuff flowing over the top. This is quite easy to see on a sounder and a distinctive line can be observed and is usually about 1-2m down in the rivers, depending on the over all depth of course.

This was most apparent in the lower Mitchell a few weeks back, when anglers were faced with what appeared to be a dirty river but in reality the water was perfect underneath. By dropping soft plastics and blades down to the bottom, bream anglers were able to hook plenty of nice sized bream.

Some excellent reports have been pouring in via text and e-mail messages recently and they have been driving me crazy! The lower Mitchell and Tambo rivers are the hot spots with massive schools of bream showing up on sounders.

Chris Burbidge in his Hobie kayak landed 25 bream on hardbodied vibes with most around the 1kg mark. Not bad for a 6-hour session on the water.

Neil Morrison and his daughter Cassie stacked up around 40 bream in the Mitchell on a windy day using Bushy’s Devil Fish Vibe with the dark coloured lures a real stand out. Most of those bream were just either side of 32cm.

The best location was just upstream of The Cut and large schools of bream were easy to mark on the sounder. The bream are still there now but are moving around quite a bit and with a little time spent searching, a few ‘good-uns’ will be hooked. The same goes for the Tambo River and just down from the boat ramp to the entrance is where most bream have been caught.

Fish deep and slow and the rewards will come. Chris Ware sent me a text saying over 50 bream were caught in the lower Tambo with a 46cm/1.78kg thumper and a 45cm/1.65kg truck amongst them.

It’s now flathead time again and down around the Nungurner area there are big schools of duskies out in the lake jumping on the hook, but most of them under 30cm.

I went out with the flounder light recently and could not believe the number of flathead spooking off into the distance. They are a sure sign that the flathead population is still on the rise throughout the Gippsland Lakes.

As the water warms up towards late spring, keep an eye on the shallows up in the North Arm near Lakes Entrance as this is where big duskies from 75-90cm have been caught over recent years, so make sure your camera is ready for a few release photos.

A lot of luderick have been seen around Kalimna and they will readily take sandworm if you can keep the yellow eye mullet away.