Bemm River report 28-30/3/19

[ben475]

Arrived at Bemm River around 2pm on Thurs, and was advised they had just opened the entrance an hour or 2 earlier.

Got out on the boat, fished til around 7.30. Caught one small bream in the inlet which was released. Had a few bites but no more hook ups.

Went up the river for a look, noticed a heap of baitfish on the surface which looked like they were being chased by something bigger, we then noticed some bigger fish jumping and surfacing in the same area, there heaps of them swimming around on the surface with the tops of their fins sticking up.
This went on for a good hour or so and covered about 20-30m by about 60-70m stretch of river.
We tried casting different lures into them, and could feel the lures being dragged through them but couldn't get a hookup. Not sure what they were but assuming they were tailor.

The next morning, the inlet had dropped about 1.5m overnight.
We started trolling metal lures on the way to a chase a bream and fairly quickly picked up a tailor. So we decided to keep trolling and picked up another half a doz over the next hour or so. most of them were around the 50-60cm mark, all were released.
We managed to pick up around 8 bream on baits, most around 28cm which were released and 2 keepers, one around 40cm that we forgot to measure.
We could see the rain coming in quickly, as it started to rain we pulled the pin. Within no time it was pissing down and the wind picked right up which made a very wet and rough ride back to the ramp.

Day 3 rained pretty much all day, about 11am we decided head out and have a crack anyway as the rain had slowed and the wind was still light and the following day was forecast to be quite windy and we had to head home.
We tried trolling for tailor on the way out but there was a heap of weed everywhere and the lures kept getting weeded up.
So back to the area we were caught the bream the day before. We had a few bites but it seemed like small fish and no hook ups.
The wind was starting to pickup and still light raining, didn't look like we were going to do much good and the boys were fairly keen to head back.
The inlet was looking pretty choppy and after some careful thought I decided we'd make a run for it. It was a wild ride home, heading into a fair chop at about 45 degrees we made it back to the ramp absolutely soaked but glad to be back.

All in all a pretty good trip, one I wont forget in a hurry.

[ben475]

A couple of photo's.

[smile0784]

Great report mate

[skronkman]

Looks like you had a good trip. I've been up there many times but never when it's open so your photo is the first time I've seen it, thanks.

[purple5ive]

Great stuff.
The fish with fins out of the water are BIG A$$ Mullet , you will never catch them on lures unless you foul hook one.
Thats a decent sized opening, hopefully it gets a good flush and starts fishing crazy again soon

[April Fool]

Good job Ben! Who decides when to open a river mouth and what is the purpose of doing it....I guess it improves the health of the river?
Cheers
Jim

[Lightningx]

Great report and pics :thumbsup:

[ben475]

Great stuff.
The fish with fins out of the water are BIG A$$ Mullet , you will never catch them on lures unless you foul hook one.
Thats a decent sized opening, hopefully it gets a good flush and starts fishing crazy again soon

I kinda found they weren't interested in any lures at all, I could feel the line and lures dragging through them.
how would you try to catch them?

there was a fair bit of rain within 48 hours of the entrance opening and it was flowing out hard on Saturday.

[ben475]

Good job Ben! Who decides when to open a river mouth and what is the purpose of doing it....I guess it improves the health of the river?
Cheers
Jim

the only reason they opened it was to allow the water level in the inlet to fall. it begins to flood too much surrounding farm land etc.
driving to the ramp on thursday the only thing out of the water was the driveway, a couple of meters either side was all water, the car parks were partly under water, even the jetty was just about under water.
there was a crew there from parks vic, I assume they use an explosives contractor to do the job. something like 28 charges of explosives to blow all the sand away.

[colnick]

There is a set level that determines when the entrance will be artificially opened. From memory it was last opened in June and closed again in August. Normally it stays open longer and is re-opened more often, but the prolonged drought this time meant that it has been closed for almost eight months because the water simply took ages to build up to the trigger level. Recent fishing has been unusually difficult for Bemm as a result.
Hope that bloody seal went out with the flow!