We have recently seen an improvement on size and number of mulloway.

Down around the poles at the estuary, several better fish to 10kg have been boated, and at the same time there were some rippers landed at Donovan’s landing to 11kg along with these better sample were 3-8kg. Strip baits like cut mullet and squid worked well at the estuary whilst the fish caught at Donovan’s were all taken on live mullet under a float hooked up to a set rig.

The live mullet trollers in their putt-putts weren’t left without a feed either. I know of one boat that boated 12 in one good hour-long session between the estuary and the bridge here in Nelson. Hopefully the schools that have recently entered plus the possibility of more to come should put us in good stead right through till winter and beyond. The standout rule to catching mulloway is fresh bait, whatever you decide to use, try and get it as fresh as you can.

Bream have been quite amazing this year. We have been having a few sessions up near Saunders Landing (45.7km upstream) lately. There is a good little boat ramp there and the river is magnificent, quite different to the lower reaches, not as wide, heaps of fishy looking structure but still a good 6m average depth. We went armed with good fresh baits such as crab, yabbies, whitebait, muddies and even some Murray River shrimp.

The entire bait list caught good bream to around 43cm with loads around the 32-35cm. You will lose a lot of tackle, as the cunning bream will cut you off in amongst all the snags and rock walls. Fish were caught up and down from Saunders and if I had a little more time I would have loved to go up as far as the National Park boundary (62.2 km) and beyond.

Whilst we have been fishing this area of late good bream stories are coming from the rest of the river. One ex local has been have a ball wading around at the estuary flicking out hardbodied lures including surface poppers down on the sand at the estuary. He lets the tidal movement float his lures away from him and then uses quite an aggressive tug and rest retrieve and a lot of the fish have been breaking the surface to smash his lures, good fun.

Perch have been once again prolific and very well spread like the bream; I am amazed how many anglers catch these awesome fish when once they were a speciality to a few who targeted them. Hardbodied lures by far account for the bigger percentage of perch caught. Just move about a lot and target snags and fallen trees. You will catch bream as well but persistence should see you with a feed of these natives. A good lure-retrieving jig is needed if you want to retain your precious lures.

Of concern are reports of carp in the river. A bloke from Dartmoor sighted some up that way and another old mate told me he’d caught one near the Waterfall gardens (75 km upstream). We knew these pests were in Rocklands reservoir at the source of the Glenelg, and the Glenelg catchment authority did have nets set below the Rocklands Dam wall but with this year’s massive winter rain the nets would have simply washed away.

I understand carp don’t like salty water so hopefully we won’t see too many in the estuarine section of the river but its not great news. I will keep you posted.

Call us on 08 87384011 for more news and call into the pub at Nelson for a beer and a chat.