Glenelg River – Lure Fishing for Black Bream & Estuary Perch
We took off for a few days recently down to the majestic Glenelg river at Nelson on the VIC /SA border.
The plan was to spend the few days doing a bit of fishing and also exploring the area and its numerous tourist attractions, like the princess Margaret caves, blue lake and the beautiful coastline.
The weather was not idea, with strong westerly’s and a bit of rain on the first few days, but we were still able to find some nice sheltered areas on the river to get out of the wind and throw a fire lures around. The mouth of the river had just closed and the locals were saying the fishing had dropped off a bit, so we had our work cut out for ourselves.
First morning on the water we had a bit of a look around the lower reaches and tried to work out where the fish were and what they were happy to eat. Luckily that didn’t take too long, and I managed to land a few nice bream, 4 of which were comp legal fish on soft plastics, targeting the cliff edges and boulders. Using super light jig heads I was letting my plastics just slowly sink next to the structure and found the bream happy to take it on the drop most times.
Over the next few days we explored more of the river including the upper reaches of the river around Sapling Creek and had heard there was a few EP’s getting around, so was targeting them mainly, but luckily fishing for bream and EP’s around structure is very similar so I managed to get onto quite a few EP’s and a couple of bream, some even coming off the same snag. The upper reaches have a lot more timber structure, so these were the main areas i was targeting, big old trees fallen in the water provide great EP and Bream habitat.
I got smashed by a little Mulloway that same morning, and it goes to show they will definitely take soft plastics and small sizes at that, I was using a 2.5″ Zman grub at the time, but unfortunately for me I couldn’t stop him on my light tackle and he took me into some timber never to be seen again!
I generally always use 2-4lb braid with 4-6lb leader depending on conditions and structure etc, the lighter line also helps with casting ultra light lures and plastics around.
The Glenelg river is an extremely well known river for mulloway, with big fish getting caught regularly by bait and lure fishermen, if a Jewie is on your list of species, then definitely go to the glenelg!
The river height was definitely up due to the closed river mouth but the fish still seemed to be biting ok. Sometimes sudden changes in the weather and environment can shut the fish down for days, but luckily for us they weren’t too shy.
The Glenelg river is such a beautiful location, with great camping and accommodation, and good river access along its whole length, if you have never been there then definitely take the time to go and check it out, you will not be disappointed!
