With the winter behind us at last, and the rivers running at a steady rate, anglers can begin to dust off their fishing tackle and make ready for the spring season.

With the estuary in pristine condition, the season promises to be excellent with the Snowy and Brodribb estuary system set to be an angler’s paradise. The reports coming in suggest changes have begun with schools of bream and estuary perch moving up the Snowy River and all the way to the highway bridge at Orbost, as well as up the Brodribb River to Lake Curlip. Both rivers now hold big schools of fish, giving anglers who prefer to fish from the bank plenty of access from the platforms erected alongside the river.

Not completely unknown but fairly rare flathead have been caught in the Snowy River almost up to Orbost by a couple of very keen junior anglers who ventured out after school for a fish. This goes to show that at the end of the day persistence and commitment wins. With all the action it won’t be long before reports start to emerge of luderick and mullet being caught in good numbers.

As always the surf beaches are fishing well with reports from anglers of good size schools of salmon and tailor cruising the beaches. The salmon here aren’t only good for numbers, there have also been many reported captures of these fish measuring well over 60cm caught on both bait and lures. For anglers that choose to use bait in our area it is essential to use a popper or surf grub above baited hooks. For anglers spinning with metal lures it seems that the best captures appear to be when the surf is a little choppy. Other anglers have reported catching plenty of flathead, bream, and mullet using estuary gear in the troughs close to the beach.

With good weather comes great offshore fishing, with anglers targeting plenty of flathead, gurnard, barracouta, pinkie snapper, morwong and gummy shark. Now with the winter done and dusted, the warm currents will begin to come down the east coast, swing into the Bass Strait and bring the baitfish that game fish prey on into the area, keeping those keen game fish anglers happy. Bring it on!