March has seen some great fishing on the Glenelg River. Bream have been plentiful, but you have to be in the know, and mid-month the hot spot was around Hutchessons Landing.

Ian Anderson and Tony Lovell from Portland had their annual sabbatical to the Glenelg and caught plenty of bream on crab. They brought along plenty of food (which they took home) and caught plenty of fish. Most fish were caught not far from the landing itself, along the banks in 3-8ft of water.

I had the pleasure of one night camping with them. We went for a quick troll down near The Caves for just one small mulloway. However, Tony and Ian kept me entertained with the stories of how spots along the river got their names. ‘The Jail’ got its name because the rocks look like exposed stalactites, giving that cell bar look. ‘Roys’ is named after a kookaburra called Roy that hung around there and the fishers could hand feed it. ‘Fallen Rock’ because, yes you guessed it, of a fallen large rock.

While I was there, I saw a lovely bag of bream caught by Chris Carson from Nelson Boat Hire. Chris is a soft plastic fanatic and is very approachable on what he uses and his methods. He also sells what he uses from the Boat Hire tackle shop, so a quick visit is well worth it.

Reports had come in from way up around Holmes Landing, with a good source telling me of good bream and even the odd bass being boated. These up river fishers are guarded with their info, but this tid-bit was a slip of the tongue. He uses white bait and scrubworm and, this is going to cost me, he told me of the redfin he has caught right up in the snags.

Mulloway have continued to be the main target for the locals. There are big numbers, but alas not big fish. Many great nights have been had with fish between 50-70cm on light gear caught.

Alan, Maxine, Dean Unwin and Patty Lomas have been challenging Daryl ‘Razz’ Pevitt, Margo Rowell and Steve Benbow to a mulloway fishing competition for near four weeks now. The lead has been changing on a weekly basis and, as of early March, they had caught around 150 fish between them.

Early in March, another school of slightly better size mulloway entered the estuary; most being around 70-80cm and one special fish boated at 1.2m. There were also reports of some mulloway spooling or breaking some lines, so I am on the search for one of these better fish.

Trollers have been the victors for a while now, and live mullet have been the go. I caught a few on the old jointed Rebel Fastracks and Morry Kneebones hand-made lures one night, but live mullet at present is numero one.

The shack owners at Donovans Landing and Reed Bed have had a good run with live bait under a float working well. So if you’re going up the river, keep an eye out for floats near the shacks as there will be blue language if you drag their floats and live bait behind your boat.

One of the hardest things when you fish here at the moment is getting the mullet for live bait. The pod worm beds down on the estuary are a little hard to find but they are there. Concentrate on the mud flats on the outer side of the bends in the river. Give yourself plenty of time for bait gathering or call Chris at the Boat Hire to order your bait on 08 8738 4048.

Here in Nelson there are some good accommodation choices. Lorraine Pevitt manages private houses ranging in style and tariff. Lorraine and husband Tony live on Beach Road and they have a great first floor apartment that sleeps six. There is plenty of room to park cars and boat trailers, all this within walking distance to our pub. You can contact them on 08 8738 4191 and like most holiday destinations the peak times book out very quickly.

I spoke to Craig from Spot On Tackle in Mount Gambier and the reports of tuna are filtering in, so by April things should be hotting up.

The surf continues to fish well with good catches of gummy and school shark from the border right through to Canunda. Snapper are still plentiful and should be around till the end of April. Green Point, Danger Point and Livingstons in the West Channel the prime areas.

Trollers have been ripping into snook and salmon at Livingstons and whiting at Bungalow Bay. Red Rock and the Lighthouse near Carpenters Rocks are also good with quite a few of both species to 60 cm.

My Daughter, Claudia Shelton, with another ripper Glenelg bream.