The weather conditions here in June were appalling, an east coast low dropped over 10 inches of rain in less than a week.

This made all the rivers run fast and wild breaking the river banks and sprawling over the river flats giving our whole estuary a good flush, cleaning out any stagnant water that lay in the billabongs and backwaters and taking with it any rubbish that have gathered along the river banks.

With the good flush the entrance at Marlo will again be deep and wide and when the flood water subsides the deep entrance will again be pumping in and our huge volumes of water, and with the huge volumes of water big schools of new fish will arrive and gradually move throughout the whole estuary system, refreshing and again making our estuary system the best in Victoria.

Most of the mature native fish that were here will still be here. For countless thousands of years the estuary has been here the fish have learned to move into the still water and move out over the river flats, lakes and backwaters and stay there until the fast water has subsided, and move back when the river height has lowered and the tides again begin to take effect.

Bream will be first to show just days after the water starts to subside, local anglers have already been out fishing the lakes and backwaters and managing to capture some good size bream.

But the main influx will be when schools follow the fresh water in from the ocean and move up into the estuary proper. And along with the bream other species will also enter with them, schools of mullet and luderick will be coming in big numbers, and with the change of the tides trevally, salmon and tailor will be moving with the tides.

With the winter run of salmon moving along the coast, the surf beaches are the places to be. Anglers have reported getting good bags of salmon and tailor on most of the beaches.

Best results spinning metal lures with light gear, and bait fishing using blue bait squid, pilchards accompanies with a popper. Although not many reports from offshore the fishing is usually very good this time of year, weather permitting.

Some of the rubbish flushed down the Snowy River stuck against the Marlo Jetty. Photo courtesy Peter Ryzak of the Marlo Hotel.