12/07/2026
Every year the Mitcham Angling Club heads down to the Nicholson River for its annual Ross McCully Heritage Bream Trip.
Having spent many school holidays at Metung growing up, learning how to fish with Pop, bream fishing is in my blood. However I only returned to it through the club via this comp 4 years ago and somehow was able to win the comp three years in a row.
But this year it was all about the kids. Max and Jake were keen to take matters into their own hands and agreed to start early and push hard. If catching a 100kg bluefin is the holy grail of game fishing then a 50cm black bream would be the same to the river bashers.
As this trip is the week prior to the Twin Rivers Bream Comp I’ll cover off all the details below as per normal.
Trip Report:
Location: Nicholson River Gippsland
Accomodation: Nicholson Hotel/Pub
Boat Ramp: Across the road
Best Eats: The Nicholson General Store and Post Office
Best Bait Supply: Most bait came from Frank at Bass Strait Bait & Tackle Lakes Entrance as he had pickled worm, live cut crab, shrimp, live spider crab and frozen local prawns. Shannon at Gippsland bait and tackle in Bairnsdale had some fresh worm and got more Friday night but supply was limited due all the fresh water in the system.
Best Bait: Pickled Worm, Peeled Local Prawn
Gear Used: SHIMANO Australia Fishing Raider 2-4kg Bream Spin Sticks with Sienna 2500 reels with Sunline 10lb Flurocarbon line.
I simply used extended patenoster whiting rigs made with 12lb Sunline FC Rock leader with Gamakatsu Australia Size 4 worm hooks. These fine gauge hooks were essential as anything thicker and the barely committed bite was often dropped.
Fishing Results:
Every year, and I must stress every year the fishing is remarkably different. The water was like chocolate this year due all the Gippsland rain. It was the same at the top half of the lakes, including the Mitchel and the Tambo. However the fishing didn’t disappoint.
For those in the club fishing vibes or soft plastics, fishing the bridges and just north of the second bridge was very productive on Tailor and bream, with a very nice Jewfish taken by Bruce Kelly and a number of plus 50cm flatties which I was greatly surprised to see in the system. Little Josh Kelly scored three dusky flathead all over 50cm with one going 59cm, what an absolute junior champion.
Bream were spread from the mouth to the first bend after the second bridge north, and sounding large arches bottom feeding and then tying up on the side of them and casting baits into the middle of the river most productive for us.
Bream size was consistently 28-38cm with the fish very fat but shorter in length this year. Most productive baits this year for me was pickled worm and peeled local prawn. Cut crab was useless as was spider crab whereas they account for most fish last year. Still you must present all options.
Interestingly the fish moved around the river each day whereas in previous years they stayed put. The morning sunrise bite was most productive as was the last light bite. Smaller fish were consistent throughout the day.
We headed over to the Mitchell River and found good schools of bream right up and down the river, but also not far from the mouth. Sizes were smaller to the Nicco but there was also good numbers of luderick.
After seeing how well the lure fisherman went I thought I needed to change my bait dangling ways yet we caught around 25 fish Friday only fishing for about 4-5 hours total and about the same Saturday.
Max caught what I hope to be the winning fish at 39.5cm and we all had 35-37cm against our names too. I heard of some locals scoring fish into the 40cm range fishing vibes but didn’t gain that ourselves.
Another Stella year fishing with the club, all thanks to my friend Ralph who graciously lends me his tinny wash time! Couldn’t do it without you, thank you. We headed home first thing Sunday but a few members kicked on to try and catch the big one.
Hope you enjoyed the reports, the Facebook stories posted and the photos. Happy to answer any questions and help where I can.
Till next time, see you at the ramp!
Justin.
