Hello and greetings from Nelson on the mighty Glenelg River. The guys and girls who fished the Vic Bream Classic here in August, apart for some very inclement weather, had a great weekend of fishing.

It’s not all about the fishing though. The camaraderie between the competitors is fantastic and they would all have walked away from the weekend having met someone they didn’t know before, as well as picked up some little tips that will surely help them out in future competitions.

These events are fantastic for our small village as it exposes our ripper river to more and more anglers, who all in turn mention it to someone else. It’s networking at its purest. All the businesses in town do very well out of these weekends, and also in the run up to them as most competitors pre-fish the river at least once before the weekend of the tournament.

Now what about the fish? Bream have been consistent down on the sand at the estuary, particularly on the incoming tide and its ebb. The best results during the competition, however, came from upstream of Sapling Creek and up towards Forest Camp, where the fish are congregating for the spawning run that will take place over the next couple of months. During this time it is more important than ever for anglers to practice catch and release. It’s not rocket science this fishing for the future. We have one of the healthiest bream hatcheries in the state here, so it’s up to us to look after it.

For bait, crabs are number one. On some days the bream will gulp them down, but on others they only seem to mouth them. Change your tactics accordingly and try cutting the crab up or simply cracking the shell to let a little juice flow out. Remember, what works today might not work tomorrow.

We have had quite a wet winter so the water has got some colour to it. That means it’s time to go and dig some scrubworms. Flicked along the edges in about 2-5m of water they are a great winter bait.

Hardbodied lures seem to be favoured by the competition guys now but the old favourites the Berkley Sandworm in camo colour (cut in half) still produce the chocolates.

The new ‘blades’ that have been introduced work really well when the river is like it is, too. During the Classic they were mentioned quite a lot during discussions. Doug and Bev up at the roadhouse here in Nelson have a good selection of the Ecogear VX Premium Hard Bait series, along with SX-40 SX-48 lures.

It was also great to see some lovely estuary perch caught during the competition, with all coming from snags and structure 28-38km upstream. Be prepared to lose some gear as these fish are cunning.

Huge mullet are also present, with a lot up around Donovans Landing. They move in schools of between 20-40, swirling close to the surface up and down the river. Keep an eye out as they are good eating. Baits of fresh cockle and prawn under a pencil float work a treat.

Last year I went out on a limb and stated the mulloway would be arriving early and that we were in for a ripper run. Wrong! They turned up quite late. So this year all I am going to do is offer you all a service. Either call us at the pub on 08 8738 4011, or email --e-mail address hidden-- We will put you on the list of contacts and let you know of their arrival. We still have mulloway scattered all along the river at present, with the odd big one still amongst them, but we are waiting on the huge schools that create mulloway madness in our little village.