Welcome to the Mitchell River Fishing Guide. The Mitchell River is a unique fishing option in East Gippsland, around a 3-hour drive from Melbourne, and only a short distance away from the township of Bairnsdale. Spanning scenic riversides and extending into rainforest territory. This destination review focuses on the river entrance where you will target bream, flathead and estuary perch. On its day, this can be a fantastic spot for bream, which are in big numbers and sizes.
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Things to do at Mitchell River
Enjoy the Mitchell River National Park, camping at Bill goat bend or Angusvale, whilst enjoying the scenery. East Gippsland is a beautiful location surrounded by beaches, lakes and rivers. It’s truly a magnificent location for those who love the outdoors, camping, scenic views, mountainside walks and recreational water activities. Close by, there is a good range of shops, cafes, restaurants and accommodation, including the Marlo hotel. There are many playgrounds for the kids, including Patterson Park. Nearby attractions include the Lakes Entrance beach, Buchan caves, Footbridge mini golf centre, Art gallery, Wyanga park winery, Lakes Entrance boat cruises and fishing charters, Griffiths seashell museum, and Raymond Island. Nearby townships include Lakes Entrance, Paynesville, Bairnsdale, Metung,
Fishing the Mitchell River
The Michell River offers kilometres of great land-based fishing with accessible river banks. Here you can target bream, estuary perch, and mullet. You can have success fishing with baits using shrimp, yabbies, scrub worms, prawns, sandworms, Bardi grubs, maggots, mussels, & chicken. Click here to see our full guide for bait fishing for Bream. When it comes to lures, the choice of bream lures is almost endless. We recommend reading our guide on the best lures to catch bream. Options include imitation crabs, grub style soft plastics, minnow style soft plastics, shallow diving hard body lures, blades and vibes.
The choice of lures is almost endless. To make things easier, we created a detailed video on the best lures and how to use them.
Places to fish near Mitchell River
Not far from here, you can also try fishing at these destinations
- Lake Tyers
- Gippsland Lakes
- Lakes Entrance
- Tanboon Inlet
- Marlo
- Broadribb River
- Hollands Landing
- Mallacoota
- Bemm River
Recommended baits Mitchell River
At this location, we highly recommend the baits suggested below. There are several ways to present baits, including a running sinker rig, paternoster rig, or dropper rig. The rig and sinker choice will depend on your target species and conditions such as wind and tidal strength.
- yabbies
- Scrub worms
- sandworms
- maggots
- mussels
- pilchards
- prawns
Please read our detailed guide on Bait fishing for Bream.
Recommended lures and soft plastics Mitchell River
- Cranka Crabs
- Mussel Vibes
- OSP bent minnows
- Soft plastics such as Zman grubZ, Zman slim Swimz, Berkley powerbait grub, Daiwa Bait Junkie 2.5-inch grub, Squidge wriggles, Damiki Monster Miki 2.5 sp
- Shallow diving hardbody lures such as Jackall Chubby, Breamin 45, Daiwa Double Clutch, Atomic cranks, Savage Gear Fathead Crank
- Blades such as EcoGear VX range, TT Switchblades, Berkley big eye blades
- Yabby imitations such as Pro lure live Clone prawn, Zman TRD Craw
- Vibes
Targeting Bream at Mitchell River
This is a great location to target bream with lures and soft plastics. The options available are almost endless, so make sure you read our guide on the best lures to catch bream. Recommended options include crab imitations, shallow diving cranks, paddle tail soft plastics, curl tail soft plastics, minnow imitations, vibes, and blades. Also, try your luck with surface lures, an exciting form of fishing that uses light gear. Bream is all about finesse fishing, so you will need an ultralight spin outfit. We recommend a 7-foot rod in a 1-3 or 2-4 kilo class, paired with a 1000, 2000 or 2500 reel spooled with a 2-6-pound braid and equivalent leader. There are so many amazing bream outfits on the market, and budgets vary greatly depending on your skill level and spending habits. Bream reside within the structure, such as jetty pylons and stumps. Enticing them away from the structure onto your lure will take some time to master. Remember to work your lures and plastics slowly and mix up the retrieval techniques. If you are targeting bream with bait, then we would highly recommend sandworms, maggots, scrub worms, mussels, yabbies, & chicken. A 2-4 kilo class rod paired with a 2500 size reel would be a great option spooled with a 6-pound line. We would encourage you to read our detailed guide on Bait fishing for Bream.
Targeting Estuary Perch at Mitchell River
Another highlight of fishing in this area is targeting Estuary perch with surface and shallow diving lures. The action can be frantic on warm, balmy evenings with low wind. Listen for the sound of breaking water, which indicates EPs are feeding. The excitement an angler gets from an EP smashing a surface lure on light gear is something that truly needs to be experienced. It almost catches you by surprise when that aggressive strike comes. Small surface poppers, cicadas, blades, surface minnows and pencil lures work well here. So do shallow diving hardbody lures. Noteworthy options include bent minnows, Rapala countdown series, nories laydown minnows and shallow diving cranks. Basically, anything that doesn’t dive too deep and makes a good vibrating action will work well. You can use any colour choice. We often start with silvers that mimic small baitfish or mullet.
EPs also respond incredibly well to a whole range of soft plastics that are lightly weighted. Including curl tails, paddle tails and minnow imitations. The trusty 2.5-inch grubs and minnows are an excellent choice. These imitate small baitfish that the EPs are actively feeding on. We would recommend mixing up the retrieval speeds and pauses, and experimenting with different colours. Where possibl,e fish along with the structure and stay alert for signs such as breaking water. Fishing for Estuary Perch requires finesse. We recommend an ultralight fishing combo consisting of a 1-3 or 2-4 kilo spin rod around 7 feet in length. Coupled with a 1000 or 2000 size reel spooled with 2-8 pound line and equivalent fluorocarbon leader. When bait fishing uses a 2-4 kilo rod around 7 feet in length. Coupled with a 2500 size reel, either a float or small running sinker to a swivel and fine leader.
Targeting Flathead at Mitchell River
Please note the legal size and catch limits for Dusky Flathead typically caught in the East Gippsland region from Lake Tyers to Mallacoota Inlet. Minimum legal size 30cm – Maximum legal size 55cm – Bag Limit of 5 between 30 and 55cm. Any flathead caught in Lake Tyers or any estuary east of Lake Tyers will be considered a dusky flathead for regulation purposes.
Dusky Flathead Fishing has greatly improved in recent years, thanks to commercial netting restrictions and slot limits. These fish thrive in areas around East Gippsland, such as Mallacoota, Lake Tyers, and Gippsland Lakes, and it’s common to catch them in good numbers between 50 and 90cm. These fish are primarily targeted in the warmer months and caught in shallow waters and sandy flats. Here are some amazing options to catch Dusky Flathead. At Lakes Entrance, you can catch massive dusky flathead up to 95cm between the entrance and up through to Metung and Paynesville. Dusky Flathead will take a variety of larger soft plastics, lures and swimbaits, and it’s best to throw these around with an M or MH baitcast or M to MH Spin Rod. Some of our best lures for them include Shimano Arma Joint Flash Boost Minnow 190SF, Berkley Nesse Swimbait, Keitech Swing Impact “5.8 soft plastics, EverGreen ES Drive Swimbait, Sugapenn 120, Berkley 120mm Bender, Catch Black Label 6” Curl Tail soft plastics and Nomad Vertrex Soft Vibes.
Targeting Tailor at Mitchell River
Tailor is an aggressive predatory fish with sharp teeth that fight hard. They have a similar profile to a salmon and leap out of the water when hooked. They school up in big numbers, hunting baitfish in packs and breaking water, often a sign that they’re feeding. You can catch them trolling, casting lures or bait fishing from the banks or surf. Small metal slugs, curl tail soft plastics, and paddle tail soft plastics are great choices. So is full pilchard mullet, bluebait and garfish. Either on a single hook, ganged hooks or even on light wire trace if they’re cutting through your leaders.
Picking a suitable outfit for tailor can be tricky as they have sharp teeth and can shred your leaders with ease. When fishing in estuary systems, we would typically use a 7-foot rod in a 2-4, 3-5 or 4-6 kilo class, paired with a 2500 or 3000 reel spooled with 6-8-pound braid and a slightly stronger leader. If you are targeting them in the surf, then a long casting surf rod spooled with 14-20 pound braid and equivalent leader would be suitable. Handle them carefully; they have sharp teeth that can do some damage. If you’re getting hook-ups but dropping a lot of fish then consider using a stronger leader or light wire trace.
Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. All other photos and videos shown on the Mitchell River Fishing Guide are Fishing Mad originals. Thanks for reading our Mitchell River Fishing Guide. If you believe this location guide is missing key information or requires corrections, please email our team at enquiries@fishingmad.com.au with specific details. Please also feel free to share any fishing pictures you have from this location with us. Thank you
