Mitcham Angling Club recently held its Ross McCully Heritage bream trip at the Nicholson River in East Gippsland.
It’s become a huge annual winter event for the club, attended by members and their friends of varying ages.
With the bream playing ball in huge numbers over the past few years, it’s a trip that everyone was keen to be part of, a chance to get away, fish hard, enjoy time with friends and make memories.
With plenty of water in the region, many of the anglers preferred winter bait, local live soft shell was unavailable other than some frozen stuff.
Thankfully there were other purchasable options like live shrimp, cut crab, spider crabs and sandworm, plus frozen prawn.
FRIDAY
The amount of water in the system would have been a good half metre higher than normal, which did have some of the anglers concerned.
A popular spot for visitors to the region was the reeds near the swimming hole and the river mouth, casting into the middle of the river.
It’s an area they have had plenty of success on previous trips, though fishing was slower that usual, actually remarkably slow, landing a fish every 45 minutes or so, with the bite timid.
Cut crab was the bait that got the bites and the fish landed were a good size, ranging from 36-42 centimetres.
One thing that interested the visitors to the region was the water was constantly flowing out irrespective of tide, while not a strong tidal system, it was a constant run out tide.
SATURDAY
After some rain overnight the river turned to a chocolate colour, ruling out fishing at the locations fished the day prior.
Looking to change it up, they tried to land a tailor in Metung and a salmon at Chinamans Creek without luck.
After lunch they tried the Mitchell River mouth before rekindling their love with the Nicholson where a few nice fish were landed on prawn.
Most club members were catching good numbers north of the bridge on prawn/sandworm cocktail but most fish were under
40 centimetres.
SUNDAY
After a small sleep in the boys fished the pylons to catch fish around 35 centimetres on peeled prawn, burling hard with all the prawn shells, but finding the going tough.
TRIP OBSERVATIONS
1. One would think the large flush would have all the fish at the mouth but the better numbers were north of the bridge in deeper water.
2. Peeled prawn was a critical bait which for winter was out of season, but essential.
3. Cut live shore crab was great bait, cut into four, with spider crabs doing nothing.
4. The group’s best lure fisherman struggled for numbers but got some, but had to really work hard for them.
5. The biggest catch came up the Mitchell River on a frozen soft shell.
6. Burley was an option that brought success.
