Tamboon Inlet and Cann River by Brett Geddes

East Gippsland currently retains its title as wilderness country and we are blessed to have multiple estuaries that are no longer netted. East Gippsland has reasonably natural and pollution free water catchments that stretch from Lake Tyers to Mallacoota. I want to share about 15 years of lure fishing experience in one of those estuaries in particular, and maybe you can compare your encounters with mine. Tamboon Inlet and Cann River are hardly secrets these days but let's revisit the area - if you haven't been lately, you may be surprised at what is hidden down there. The fishing can be more than challenging at times but when this place fires - reels will burn!
WILDERNESS FISHING
The real charm of East Gippsland is the vast expanse of magnificent bush. The Croajingalong National park wraps up 88,000ha and stretches from the Bemm River to the NSW border, but I'm sure few of us really appreciate its beauty.
Did you know that the park is now classified as a World Biosphere Reserve? World Biosphere Reserves are unique places in the world that include one or more protected areas and surrounding lands that are managed to combine both conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. In other words, these areas are not off limits from us all but rather an area where we can explore, go camping and of course fish in. There are only 14 such sites in Australia and I'm glad East Gippsland is one of them. We should never abuse the area, let alone pollute or destroy it. Surely I don't have to remind everyone to be aware of this but for the sake of your kids and their families to come, enjoy places like Tamboon but leave only footprints and only take memories. Unfortunately I still see the odd feral group of anglers that are hell bent on filling ice coolers with fish fillets and ignore bag limits.
Thankfully this minority are a dying breed and at least the new generation of anglers today cheerfully embrace catch and release.
POTOROOS, PIGEONS AND POWERFUL OWLS
Every trip to Tamboon Inlet is all about the fishing of course but I have also encountered some amazing wildlife. The common critters here are huge monitor lizards, Wonga pigeons, black and tiger snakes, kookaburras, echidnas, whistling kites, and wombats. Lyrebirds are always in the area and it's mesmerising to hear their call come booming out of the forest. I've counted them mimic up to nine or ten different bird songs that they replay for hours on end. Dingoes are widespread too, often skulking like ghosts in the background at night. More recently though, I've seen them walk out into the open around campsites or the lake shoreline during the day - it's quite a treat to regularly see a wild dingo around Victorian coastal areas.
Some of the rare species will also show up at times and I've been blessed to see long-footed potoroos, native bush rats, the powerful owl and masked owl, tiny bats and pygmy possums. There are also introduced species around and unfortunately each year I see more feral cats appearing. These cats tend to be black. Wild dogs are forever patrolling the beaches and on nearly all trips into the area I hear or see deer. There are always footprints or other sambar deer signs whenever you look for them and I suspect hog deer live in the area too. I rarely see foxes, which is good, but the saddest thing for me is the growing number of those black cats. I see them deep in the bush when driving through the long dirt roads and I hate to think of the damage they inflict. My favourite critters in East Gippsland are the stunning azure kingfishers and the comical water dragons.
HEALTHY FISH STOCKS
The fishing at Tamboon Inlet has gained a notable reputation. Not just for the numbers caught, but for the size of most species produced. Although I totally agree with this statement, I will also qualify that with the fact that some years the fishing can be very quiet and even utterly dismal! Don't go to Tamboon and expect it to fire every time. Floods and tidal movements have a huge bearing on fish stocks right through the estuary. Massive recruitment or the exodus of fish through the entrance impacts the species that live inside Tamboon. After the 2007 and 2010 floods the fishing was astonishing.
Over the last few years relatively minor floods have come down the Cann River and the fishing right now is very quiet indeed. That trend started about 2012 and it's all about the boom and bust cycle that nature presents to us. I have no idea what triggers most of the fish to exit out into the ocean, but when they do, it's usually en masse. There seems to be a background population of bream and flathead that will always live in the estuary so don't stress too much, there's always something to catch there but it will require plenty of searching and long hours to find them. That can happen in any fishery you care to name and that's why we go fishing and not just 'catching.' Recently I've had mates put in four days at Tamboon and they were lucky to hook five fish a day on lures. And that was searching for long hours almost all day.
Even the bait anglers were hardly lifting into any fish. My last trip into Tamboon a few months ago was just as tough. We stayed for six days with perfect weather and caught about 50 bream and perch from 38-47cm, a handful of flathead and a couple of small tailor. It was super tough fishing and during one long day on the water we caught just 3 fish each.
BIG FLOODS = BIG FISH
Let me give you the other end of that equation - big flood events will sometimes present fishing that can't be beaten. I'm talking about returning 80 fish or more a day. Back in the winter of 2010 there were two significant rainfall episodes in quick succession that smashed out a huge tidal entrance. The fish came pouring in and during that winter I made two trips of six days each there with a good