While the Waters around lakes Entrance have been quiet due to dirty cold water, the same cant be said for Lake Tyers, with some amazing fishing is available for those braving the cold.

Typical of late winter, vibrating metal lures and soft plastics fished in deep water has consistently produced some solid bream and flathead. Frank Milito has been putting clients onto some absolute thumping black bream up to 46cm on a daily basis on 38mm pro range vibes and the DOA 3” curltail grub in the bloodworm colour. Using your sounder, scan an area thoroughly until a school is located and fish the vibes slowly with a double lift and let them sit on the bottom for a few seconds at a time.

Areas around the Glasshouse and Camerons arm seem to be holding huge schools of fish in the deeper areas(up to 7m deep) so its just a matter of working an area and watching the sounder.

One major sign of fish activity is cormorants. While we absolutely curse their existence, on a recent trip we noticed a pair of cormorants diving in the middle of the lake. We motored over towards them and found a huge school of bait and underneath them was a hungry school of bream!

With all the abundant bait its no surprise that there is plenty of dusky flathead, especially in the upper reaches of the Nowa Nowa and Torloo arms. Slowly bouncing larger soft plastics has produced some great fish, with land-based spots like Burnt Bridge, Cherry Tree and Mill Point seeing quite a few thumpers over 85cm.

For land-based anglers wanting to soak a few baits, Mill Point, Long Point and Fishermans landing are fishing really well for bream, Flathead and the occasional jumbo silver trevally. Peeled prawn, live shrimp and sandworm are prime baits. For those after a giant flathead, live mullet are hard to beat. Using a size 12-14 long shank hook with sandworm and a fine breadcrumb burley trail is a fun way to collect bait, and should have a bonus of a feed of garfish thrown in too.

Around the front lake jetties, the fish have been pretty tough, with the occasional trevally and mullet taking baits of chicken and sandworm. The local luderick brigade have been working the jetties hard for minimal return, but things should start to improve over the next month as we move into spring and the luderick begin their run along the breakwalls.

Schools of small salmon up to 500g or so have been coming in the entrance on the run in tide, and are easily targeted at Bullock Island using metal Lazer lures around 15g. Bait anglers are cleaning up on bluebait on a paternoster rig.

The surf has been Fishing Well for some thumping big Aussie salmon at first and last light on whole pilchards on ganged hooks. Red Bluff, Beacon Point, Gibbs beach and eastern beach are all holding fish; just look for the deeper holes between the sand bars and a little burley can help.

It’s also time to start getting the gummy gear ready, as many of us are absolutely hanging out to hit the surf of an evening this year!

Offshore has been quiet with only a few boats heading out deep and finding the odd small snapper and morwong. The flatties have been holding in 30-50m of water and baits of squid and pilchards are best. Drifting for them is the preferred method and puts you in with a chance at a shark too. Trolling around pilchard schools is producing some ripper salmon, tailor and a few striped tuna. Lazer lures and small Christmas tree skirts are dynamite of pelagic species either trolled or cast and retrieved.

I know it’s only early but there are already a few prawns starting to show up around the lakes. A quick look with the spotlight a few night ago showed a couple of dozen bait size (2-3”) prawns in the shallows.

This is a great sign and lets hope this years prawn season is a cracker! 

Local guide Frank Milito shows the quality of fish coming from Lake Tyers at the moment.