Fishing Report
You can see the level in the Inlet, the temperature of the water and the conductivity by the East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority Link
20 May 2026
The channel is still open to the sea. The town has been very quiet with only a few anglers fishing. Little has changed since the last report. A few salmon are being caught in the Channel on lures and plastics. One local has been catching bream in the shallower water around the river mouth on local prawn but only in the late afternoon. Shaun from the angling club caught a nice trout up near the waterfall. It has been not uncommon to catch the odd trout in the pool below the waterfall and under the Old Coast Rd bridge. Also, fishing in that area can result in a nice estuary perch at times.
5 May 2026
Fishing has been a bit variable with only a few large bream over 40 cm being landed. Bream have been caught on lures, plastics and bait and in the last week good catches of bream have been taken on fresh sandworm. There are plenty of sandworm about and so you can pump them or purchase them from Mark at Bemm River Bait and Tackle. Mark will also have the latest information on where the fish are. Good sized dusky flathead are still being caught around the Inlet near the channel and further afield using plastics and lures. Good sized salmon are also being caught in the surf using blue bait and poppers
Recently the Bemm River Boys Fishing Competition was held and the largest bream was 965 gm caught by Sean. He drove his boat up to the edge and fished back into shallow water using a vibe. This is consistent with many other reports that the larger fish are in shallow water. There were a number of other bream weighed in over 800 gm. In the surf, they typically fished near the channel entrance and there were 2 salmon over 2 kg weighed in, together with several more in the range 1.7-1.9 kg. Artem, a junior angler, landed a bronze whaler shark estimated at 3m in length.
26 April 2026
Only a sentence to indicate that recent reports on the bream fishing are best in the shallower water and a poor result from fishing in tradition places in the deeper water.
22 April 2026
Just a quick update. The entrance is wide open and the water level is 0.186 m. Fishing has been variable with some anglers doing well and others finding it a bit slow. Two members of the Men’s Shed and the Angling Club decided to go fishing today. The aim was to catch a few bream. Firstly, they looked with the side scan sounder around between the two red buoys out from the ramp but it did not look very promising. Next was off Mahoganies where there were a few fish on the screen. They managed a remarkable feat of landing a bream of 6-7 cm presumably one spawned last year. After about an hour they went and looked down the channel but decided to try some shallow water. Here they soon found a school of good sized bream the largest being 40 cm and many in the range of 36-38 cm and ended up with a nice bag of fish. There were some disasters with knots coming undone, line breaking, not being able to feed the line through the eye and all the rods were left hand wind. See the 2 photos in the Gallery below. There has been another report of good fish in the shallows in Bob’s Bay.
Fishing Report 12 April 2026
With the Westerly wind, the water level has reached 0.5 m although the Channel remains open. Several angling clubs have been in town this week-end. Darren Dennys won the Nicholson Angling Club longest 5 bream competition with bream of 35, 33.5, 32.5, 32.5 and 30 cm as measured to the fork in the tail. Measurements would have been 2-3 cm longer to the tail. The competition can include catch and release with each angler photographing their fish and up-loading it to the TMF Tournaments App. His fish were mainly caught this morning in the rough conditions by slowly drifting over the drop-off. in the general area between the jetty to opposite the Hotel. The bream fell to a Hurricane Sprat 85 soft plastic in a darker brown colour using a 1/12th jig head with the Darren’s specially painted lead weight and jig head. Fishing has been slow although some good-sized flathead have been landed between 60 and 70 cm in length, even though the water temperature has been cooler. Darren and Tayla had been fishing together and third and fourth photos below are of Darren with his bream and a flathead. The next few photos are of Tayla with a nice flathead and her tailor. There have been several reports of tailor in the channel. There have also been reports of good-sized estuary perch being caught on plastics. Most anglers did not venture out today as the wind reached between 30-40 Km/h and rain was predicted although there was only the odd light shower.
Go to the Events page to see the report for our Bemm River Classic Competition over Easter. Events – Bemm River Angling Club
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. 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 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.
