Welcome to the Tambo River Fishing Guide. The Tambo River is located in East Gippsland, about a 4-hour drive from Melbourne. It’s one of the longest rivers in this area, spanning 186 kilometres from the Bowen mountains in the Victorian Alps through to the farmlands of East Gippsland. It’s adjacent to other popular fishing spots such as Lakes Entrance and Lake Tyers. The river is home to huge bream, making it a very popular bream fishing destination for many years. This is precisely why they host ABT and Hobie fishing tournaments here regularly, and why we see many Bream fishing videos and reports generated from this location.
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Things to do Tambo River
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 Tambo River Tourist Park. 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 Tambo River
The Tambo River is a fantastic fishing destination. Here you can target bream, estuary perch, trevally, flathead and mullet. This is a large stretch of river, and understanding the rainfall levels and water flow to find a good mix of saltwater and freshwater can be key to finding the fish. Here you can have success fishing with baits using shrimp, yabbies, scrub worms, prawns, sandworms, maggots, mussels, & chicken. We encourage you to read our detailed guide on bait fishing for Bream. You can fish the Tambo River all year round; however, it’s a great spot to target bream in the warmer months in the shallows by flicking shallow diving hard body lures along the edges and rock walls.
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 Bemm River Pier
Not far from here, you can also try fishing at these destinations
- Lake Tyers
- Lakes Entrance
- Tanboon Inlet
- Marlo
- Broadribb River
- Metung
- Hollands Landing
- Mallacoota
- Mitchell River
- Gippsland Lakes
Recommended baits Tambo
Prawns are often the go-to bait of choice around the Gippsland region. Various other baits, like sandworms and maggots, will also work very well. There are several ways to present baits, including a running sinker rig, paternoster rig, or dropper rig. The rig and sinker choice will be dependent on the species you are targeting and the conditions, such as wind and tidal strength. Ideally, use the smallest sinker you can.
- prawns
- yabbies
- scrub worms
- sandworms
- maggots
- mussels
- pilchards
Recommended lures and soft plastics Tambo River
The number of soft plastics and lures to choose from is almost endless. Lightly weighted soft plastics like 2.5-inch grubs and paddle tails are an outstanding choice, as are shallow-diving hard body lures, surface lures, and crab and yabbie imitations.
- 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
You can catch dusky flatheads using the soft plastics and lures above, but you may also consider bigger soft plastics, glide baits, and swimbaits.
Targeting Bream at Tambo 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 that 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 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 6-pound line. We would encourage you to read our detailed guide on Bait fishing for Bream.
Watch the vid below highlighting the spectacular fishing and scenery of East Gippsland.
Targeting Estuary Perch at the Tambo 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 possible, fish along 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 a small running sinker to a swivel, and a very fine leader.
Targeting Flathead at the Tambo 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. For regulation purposes, any flathead caught in Lake Tyers or any estuary east of Lake Tyers will be considered to be a dusky flathead.
We encourage you to read our detailed guide on How to catch Flathead. Flathead is a year-round prospect that can be caught at any time of the day. They are an ambush predator that waits in disguise for smaller fish to swim by for easy feed. This highlights the importance of keeping your baits and soft plastics towards the bottom. If fishing from a boat or kayak, we would recommend drifting around the sandy flats until you find a good patch of them. Also, keep an eye out for depth drop-offs, which are great locations for an ambush predator to be waiting. We recommend targeting flathead with a 7-foot 2–4 or 3-5 kilo fishing rod paired with a 2500 or 3000 size reel spooled with 8-12lb braid and equivalent leader. You can go lighter, but flathead has bristly teeth that can compromise your fishing line. Flathead is not fussy and will happily have a go at many various soft plastics and lures. We would highly recommend reading our detailed guide on the best lures and soft plastics to catch flathead. Top choices include worm and yabby imitations, paddle tail soft plastic, curl tail soft plastics, deep diving hard body lures, vibes, swimbaits, and blades. If you target flathead with bait, we recommend using a paternoster rig or a running sinker rig. Use a small ball sinker to swivel, then 50cm of 8-12 leader to a size 6 long shank hook. Good bait choices include pilchards, mussels, squid, chicken, whitebait, Pipis, blue bait and prawns.
Targeting Trevally Tambo River
Trevally pound for pound is one of the best fighting fish. In certain parts of Australia, surface popping for Giant Trevally is one of the bucket list fishing experiences that you must tick off. However, in Victoria, you will mainly be catching the much smaller silver trevally. Good bait options include blue bait, whitebait, raw chicken, pilchards, pippies, squid and mussels. Trevally will also take a range of soft plastic,s including worm and minnow imitations, small surface poppers, and small metal spoons. We recommend targeting trevally with a 1-3 or 2-4 kilo fishing rod coupled with a 2000 or 2500 reel spooled with 4-8-pound braid and equivalent fluorocarbon leader. If there are larger trevally in the area, then you can go heavier, moving up the scale to a 3-5 kilo class spin rod spooled with fine 8-12-pound braid and equivalent fluorocarbon leader.
Targeting mullet at the Tambo River
This is a great location to mullet a bread and butter species that schools up in big numbers. They are fun to catch on light spinning gear and a great fish species to introduce beginners to fishing. Mullet respond well to berley, so use berley in an isolated area with a mix of bread, tuna oil, and chook pellets. Good baits include bread, dough, live maggots, pilchard, and prawns. Remember that Mullet have small mouths, so remember to cut these baits up into small pieces. You can also use soft plastics, such as small minnow and grub style soft plastics, with a slow, constant retrieve. Scents such as S-Factor or Procure certainly help. Most mullet are quite small; therefore, a 7-foot rod in a 1-3 or 2-4 kilo class, paired with a 1000, 2000 or 2500 reel spooled with 2-6-pound braid and equivalent leader.
Here are some helpful tips on catching Mullet with soft plastics.
Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. All other images and videos shown on the Tambo River Fishing Guide are Fishing Mad originals. Thanks for reading our Tambo 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
