It’s no secret that mulloway live here but it doesn’t make them any easier to catch. Mark Gercovich details a variety of techniques that can be used to catch that elusive silver prize.

What it’s all about – some Glenelg mulloway.

You don’t need to bust out the barra gear to tame these beasts. A finesse approach often encourages more bites.

Sure you can catch bigger mulloway in the fast running tidal arms of Western Port or when tackling the sand dunes of the Coorong beaches, but there is definitely something I find appealing about targeting mulloway on the Glenelg River at Nelson. I’m sure one of the reasons is the serenity and ambience of the place; winding thorough kilometres of National Park, it is a beautiful place to wet a line. Another reason for its appeal is the mulloway fishing and the wide variety of methods you can use to catch one.
Live bait trolling
Trolling live mullet is a popular way of targeting mulloway locally, particularly in the Glenelg River. The mullet trolling equation is not as simple as hanging a mullet out the back. The bait needs constant monitoring to make sure it hasn’t picked up weed. A mullet covered in weed is not only unattractive to mulloway but likely to die quicker. The rod is best placed in a horizontal style rod holder with the rod tip close to the water. Snap lock rod holders work well as the rod can be quickly released without giving the fish any slack line to throw the hook.
I prefer to use a treble stinger hook set up as the mulloway will usually hook itself on the first run, even if the rod remains in the holder. Once set up you need to be able to troll off quietly and it is here that the silence provided by an electric motor is essential. For years mulloway trollers would row small boats or use inboard ‘putt-putt’ style boats with great success as opposed to trolling behind a noisy outboard. Now I wouldn’t even attempt trolling for mulloway without without my trusty Minn Kota. One of the major advantages is that the stability and control of the electric powered boat can allow you to hold over sounded fish, drop livies back into a hole or quickly return over an area where a fish was encountered.
Breamin’ bonus
What the Glenelg bream population lacks in average size it makes up for in numbers. The other added bonus is the frequency that mulloway are caught as a fairly regular by-catch when bream fishing. Even when casting hard to the edge into what you would consider bream only territory I’ve had my bream gear explode into action as a hooked mulloway charges back into the centre of the river. The advantage is that most of the times when breaming you are doing so from a boat propelled by an electric motor, rather than one stuck at anchor. This gives you the opportunity to instantly give chase should the need arise.
Kicking the Minn Kota into gear and keeping the least amount of line between you and the fish can be crucial. Mulloway may not be as smart/devious as a big EP or bream and purposely try to stitch you up on a nearby snag. By keeping the least amount of line between you and the fish, there is less chance of that fine connection coming into contact with something, like an unseen underwater rock, that would otherwise end your association with the fish. From then on it’s a matter of patiently absorbing the runs and slowly working the fish back towards the boat. Today’s quality bream outfits combined with the ability to follow the fish on the electric can result in some quality mulloway being caught each year on some pretty light leaders.

The author proudly displays some silvery Glenelg goodness.

On the cast
If you want to specifically target mulloway on cast artificial lures be they hardbody, soft plastics or vibes there’s a few extra things you can do. The obvious thing would be to upsize your bream gear and in a way that is correct. However you don’t want to go upsizing too much. I’ve had most success when fishing lures only slightly larger than bream lures on bream tackle or slightly heavier. No need to dust off the barra or snapper gear. A VX 40/45 vibe instead of a 35; a 4 inch Gulp minnow instead of a 3 inch; upgrading leader from 5 lb to 8 lb is enough to make your cast offering appealing to a mulloway. It still remains small enough to still make bream a viable by catch when you are concentrating on mulloway. Whilst some mulloway can be taken in shallow or hard up against the edge if you are targeting one on a lure its best to fish off the second drop off in 3 to 5 m of water.
Stealth bombing
As is the case with most locations, there are days when one technique works and another doesn’t. My boat is set up to be able to troll a spread of livies while still being able to cast lures out the front. Stealth bombing, as I call it, helps you cover the options to see which one is working best. Fishing by yourself using one technique can leave you second guessing, something you don’t need when pursuing species like mulloway that need some dedication and patience. With one angler working the trolling rods the other angler/s can lure cast out the front. Varying the offering is important here too, some days they want vibes other days plastics. It is amazing though that you will pick up fish on the lures some days but they won’t touch the livies passing straight over the top of them! This happens quite frequently and if you were just sticking to one technique you would have had a fishless day.
Sometimes you might be working a shallower area, or not covering the water quickly enough to keep a trolled mullet up off the bottom. Placing the live mullet under a float is a variation that sometimes needs to be made. This can be a productive method when bream fishing with lures. Release the float a considerable distance out the back of the boat and it will slowly track along behind as you focus on bream fishing out the front. It can give you an awful fright at times if it goes off when everyone in the boat has been focusing on bream fishing and forgotten you had the trap set 40 m behind you.
Downrigging hardbodies
A recent trip proved that trolling hardbodied lures with the aid of a downrigger can be effective. We had travelled over to the Glenelg to pre-fish for a bream tourney so we hadn’t bothered with the livies and mulloway gear. After a long morning’s bream session we snuck out after another brilliant evening feed at the Nelson Hotel and went for a lazy troll. After deploying long minnow style bream lures on the downriggers we headed off more intent on listening to the cricket on the radio and enjoying the beautiful evening. We were soon brought back to reality as one of the reels started screaming with a nice school jew on the other end. Another one, plus a couple of quality bream and EP showed us that downrigging hardbodies may be yet another effective way to target the mulloway of the Glenelg River.

Bait fishing
Most anglers bait fish the Glenelg from an anchored boat. The general technique involves anchoring the boat next to the weed banks or cliffs before casting baits out towards the centre. Then it becomes a game of patience, with many choosing to sit it out the entire night. A live mullet fished under a float is the most popular choice of presentation. Another way of targeting mulloway in this area is by fishing a lightly weighted bait such as cut fish, pilchard or spew worms. Of course fresh baits like spew worms are going to work best but can be hard to obtain. Don’t underestimate the effectiveness of buying a large block of pilchards and using them as bait or berley either. Thaw the pilchards and cube them, then consistently throw out a handful at a time before placing one on an unweighted hook and allowing it to drift out the back.
The small bream can drive you to distraction but they tend to disappear if the mulloway come around. Even if you don’t have a boat these techniques can be used by anglers fishing off the bank. The length of the river is dotted with landings: some public, many private, where anglers can spend a night time vigil in the hope of landing a mulloway. Securing your rod well or using a baitrunner style reel is essential as mulloway are well-known for taking unsuspecting rods in the drink with them.
So as you can see, when it comes to catching a Glenelg mulloway there is plenty of ways to try. The successful implementation of the right one at the right time can get you a magnificent silvery reward that you will always remember.

Mark Gercovich is a school teacher who lives in the Sth West of Victoria at Warrnambool. Despite being a successful bream tournament angler he enjoys a wide variety of fishing scenarios from fishing skinny water for big trout to chasing meter plus Kings on lures and live bait. Mark has also traveled extensively having fished in every state of Australia as well as Vanuatu.