Fishing Report
Don’t forget the Bemm River Angling Club competition over Easter and the Fun Afternoon on Easter Sunday starting with a barbecue. See details in the Events page.
You can see the level in the Inlet, the temperature of the water and the conductivity by the East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority
1 April 2026
Just an update. Our Secretary/Treasurer, Jayne, today landed a 40 cm bream. See the photo below. She has been catching about 6 bream per trip in the past few days. Sydenham Inlet had the entrance opened yesterday and the level in the Inlet is now 0.18 m. The main landing ramp is in use.
30 March 2026
Great news. The left-hand Jetty at the main ramp has been temporarily repaired and will be in use for Easter. See second picture below in Gallery. So, for those who drive their boats on the trailer, the double ramp will be in use. There are 3 boats using the jetty today. The water level has risen to 1.74 today and Parks were here this morning. They indicated it may be opened tomorrow by shoveling or on Wednesday if they have to blast.
The main jetties had been damaged in the wild storm we had last week. See the third photo below.
25 March 2026
The entrance remains closed and the water level has not risen much lately with the level now 1.35 m. There have been many boats out fishing and the bream fishing has improved. Plenty of bream being caught on fresh prawn, hard bodies and plastics. One large group (Fishing and Recreational Trip, FART) have caught plenty of bream but only one over 40 cm although it can be patchy. One boat had a good day using live prawn but found it harder on hard bodies and plastics. Quite a few of their bream were in the higher 30’s cm in length but they only keep bream in the 31-38 cm bracket. However, the majority of their catch has been below 31 cm and so they have released most bream caught. There has been a few estuary perch caught on lures in the inlet around the edges and over weed. The largest of 45 cm was caught on a lure near the edge around weed. See five of the FART photos in the Gallery below.
In the channel, there are tailor of a reasonable length presenting good fun trolling or casting (see photo below in the Gallery). Also around in the channel are flathead of quite a good size and they are being caught on plastics with only one report that they are slow on live prawn (this would be unusual). The water temperature has risen which is to the dusky flathead liking. Unfortunately, most of the dusky flathead are over the maximum size limit of 58 cm and so a feed of flathead is hard to catch.
There are still prawns about so bring your light and dip net. Remember drag nets are banned in Sydenham Inlet.
There has been one report today of one salmon being caught in the surf at the entrance area from a group of 4 chaps.
UPDATE 22 March 2026
With the entrance closed, the water level has reached 1.32 m. Bream fishing remains patchy. The prawns are still about and are a reasonable size. There has been a report from Reeve Beach, which is on the Peal Point Road, of Gummy Shark being caught presumably at night (see Photo in the Gallery below). The best bait for gummies is eel.
16 March 2026
The entrance remains closed and the water has risen to 1.26 m from 0.9 since the last report. Bream fishing can be patchy with one of our members catching about 30 bream in one morning. Most were caught in the one small area and other locations were nowhere near as prolific. Many of the fish were small with the largest being about 37 cm. Fresh prawn was the best bait with mussels not being successful. Also good were hard bodies and plastics. A similar story was repeated by an angler from the Lakes entrance area. He and his son even went well into Swan Lake where he managed a few good bream, but they went off when the sun shone on the water. He had a story about one of his family catching a 54 cm bream in the Lakes system.
The East Gippsland Management Authority has the height of the water in the inlet together with the temperature. It is in graphical form. Go to the Fishing page to link to it. The temperature has dropped and so expect the flathead to be less lively.
