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Take On The Tambo
  |  First Published: December 2006



Persistent wild weather has irritated keen anglers over the past few weeks; I can hardly remember such a windy, hot and dry start to summer. With so many anglers forced to spend their days indoors away from the wind and heat this month’s report is fairly sparse. Those of us who couldn’t resist wetting a line found refuge in the rivers, and are hopeful that conditions should improve over the coming weeks.

In summer the calm mornings nearly always give way to stiff easterlies by about lunchtime here in Gippsland. If you are fishing and boating in open waters, don’t be fooled by the still mornings. Take care when launching your boat; the lake can become rough quickly so you should plan your day carefully if you want to take advantage of calmer waters.

Dusky Flathead

Tambo River is a flattie hotspot at the moment, and dusky numbers are steadily rising to reach a peak around April. Anglers have had plenty of success chasing flatties in this river and soft plastics seem to be the best way to go about it. You won’t need a boat to see the best action either, as there are access points along most of the Tambo from the mouth right up to where the fresh meets the estuarine water.

If you’re out looking for flatties, check under some of the better snags along the edges. A big flathead will often surprise me by crunching my lure when I’m working structure for bream and perch. Mark Gercovich and Scott Gray discovered this at the recent ABT bream comp final. On the prefish day, the boys searched high and low for bream, but mostly caught flathead to 55cm.

The Nicholson River downstream from the boat ramp is another regular flattie haunt, and the Mitchell River right up to the Wy Yung Bridge is also worth a look.

Bream

The bream seem to be hiding out lately, although diehard lure fishers will probably find success sporadically.

Melbournian Terry Mason phoned me with a great report after a recent trip to his holiday house near the Tambo River. He released 12 ripper fish to 1.3kg using 85mm Squidgy Wrigglers, and found that most were caught from the Rough Road area right up to the Cliffs. With success on his side, he decided to go for bream on his lures. He tells me that his four-year-old grand daughter was even able to catch a few! This is great news for anglers unsure about using lures on bream – you wont know until you give it a try.

Whiting

Whiting down towards Lakes Entrance are already showing up in good numbers and will be at the top of the list for many anglers over the holidays. For more information check out Lisa Miles’ article in Volume 4 of Fishing Victoria on where and how to target whiting in the area.

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