First up I would like to apologise for my excited predictions of an early mulloway run. We had fun trying, but the blighters didn’t co-operate the way I would have liked.

There were some good mulloway caught throughout late spring, but not the big fish in big numbers of the last couple of years. The bait fishers did better than the trollers. This may be because the wet winter has put a good freshwater top on the river. Trolling livebaits covers only the top 2m of water.

The standout for November was a lovely silver mulloway, fresh from the sea, caught by Allan Unwin. It was a hard fighting, 8kg fish caught down at the estuary, trolling live mullet.

The bait fishers fared better upstream. In mid November Shane Quinlan caught four mulloway to 5kg in Taylors Straight, and lost a couple of others, all in two hours on the water. Shane would be near the best mulloway fisherman on the river, and I’ll bet he caught his fish on spew worms that he would have sourced from Killarney Beach.

Live mullet are the most common bait down here, either trolled or under a float. The next most popular are fresh squid and octopus. Good lures are Rebel Fastracs and small Attacks. December should see the mulloway finally fire up, so call the pub (08 8738 4011) and we will give you with the latest news.

Bream fishing continues to be very consistent. The spawning run is done and dusted, so the bream should now spread throughout the river. We have the fantastic problem of zillions of juvenile bream in the river, so be patient and move around.

Last year my brother had great success on the bream near Dartmoor Bridge. They went in through the bush by 4WD, and fished with whitebait from the bank. The good fishing went on for weeks up until January, when we had an 18.5cm of rain in one day, which pushed the fish downstream into saltier water. So, in December you should be able to get bream from the estuary and upstream for 70km. With little rainfall, the river turns into a long estuary. Fishing the edges of the river will be the way to go, targeting the stone cliffs, snags and reed beds.

Some nice estuary perch have been caught up around Sapling Creek in November, nearly all on Ecogear SX-40 lures. The boys from Mayfly Tackle have also released a very nice lure called Evergreen Littlemax, which is a beautifully crafted lipless crankbait made in Japan. They look the goods, with W-hooks that should be fantastic in the snags. I flicked it around the bridge pylons in a very good session, catching 12 bream in an hour. When I’ve got time I’m going up to Sapling Creek to target the perch and I’m full of hope for a good day out.

The Glenelg River Angling Club will hold their annual fishing competition on January 5–6. There are great prizes for best bream, mulloway, mullet and perch in each of Mens, Womens and Junior sections. Call Neville Isaacson on 04 2767 0648 for details.

At Port MacDonnell there is good fishing for whiting, salmon and mullet from the breakwater and in Livingstons Bay. Snapper and mulloway hotspots are Danger Point, Orwells Rocks and Green Point. Offshore, good catches of teraki, snapper and flathead have been made at the 60–80m line. Surf fishing has been good along at Piccinninny Ponds, with gummy sharks, school sharks, elephant fish, salmon and mulloway all able to be caught as you sit in the comfort of your 4WD.

Cheers and Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all.