Spring has sprung, summer is nearly on hand and the prawns are starting to appear in good numbers.

With the prawns here so are the predators, flathead will be hanging around the sand flats waiting in their lies for the prawns to swim by. Bream will also be there for the feast, but a bit later after their spawning run up the rivers and creeks.

Estuary perch will be lurking around the weed beds and snags and structures throughout the whole estuary. Luderick are in good numbers and can be found around the rock groins and up both rivers. Salmon and tailor are taking all kind of lures and can be found from the entrance right up the rivers. Big trevally are taking both bait and lures, with good catches reported from the Marlo jetty.

The Snowy River estuary system is fast becoming the lure capital of east Gippsland with many of Australia’s top anglers applying their skill in the area, using hard bodied lures, soft plastic lures, Gulp and other biodegradable lures and of course the flyfishers have become very popular plying their skill on the estuary species.

Many local and semi-local anglers have tuned their skills into lure fishing for the thrill of the capture, with most practicing catch and release, with pictures and measurements their trophy. Greg Jerkins is such an angler who over a long period has had many good captures, fishing both rivers and catching and targeting mostly, bream and estuary perch. One of his latest captures was a bream measuring 50cm caught on Strike Pro Bass X lure in the Brodribb River.

Bill Bird, another local lure angler has also had some excellent results in both rivers, with captures of bream and estuary perch on both hardbodied lures, Bill also dabbles in flyfishing and on his last outing landed 42cm estuary perch on a shrimp pattern fly. Bill also informed me his friend Greg has caught a 51cm bream.

Bait anglers are getting their share as well big bream are in both lakes and up the rivers on their spawning run with some up to and over 48cm. Best baits are sandworm, black crab, frozen and live prawn. Luderick are taking sandworm, with best results using sandworm under a weighted float. Estuary perch are holding on most structures with best results using live prawn under weighted float. Mullet can be caught in most locations using sandworm.

Offshore from Cape Conran, although not as good as it will be when the water warms up, the fish are still biting with many anglers bagging out on tiger or yank flathead, with plenty of gurnard, barracouta, squid, latchet, morwong and shark as well. Best results on bluebait and whitebait, squid legs and JIG-EM rigs.

The surf beaches are still firing with plenty of Australian salmon, flathead, mullet and tailor taking bait and lures. Anglers fishing our local beaches should always use both bait and a popper, as for some reason poppers seem to capture most of the fish. When the bait fishing is a bit quiet, bring out the metal lures; on lots of occasions salmon can’t seem to resist them.