River of dreams

It took my mate Antony and I more than a year to make it to Nelson, a small seaside town on the banks of the picturesque Glenelg River, just this side of the Victorian/South Australian border.

The first time we'd organised to drive across with the TrailerBoat Quintrex 435 on behind, I came down with tonsillitis. Trip cancelled. Some months later, we tried again. Right on cue, my tonsils swelled and I spent the best part of a week in bed. It seemed I only had to think about Nelson, the lure of its spectacular fishing, and I got sick. I was beginning to think I was jinxed, and Ant had just about given up hope of ever getting there - at least with me.

With only a month left until we had to part with the magazine's Bermuda 475 Mangrove Pro subscriptions prize boat, I decided to have one last attempt to make the five-hour drive west for a weekend's fishing. I was sure the Bermuda barra boat would be absolutely perfect for the smooth, broad reaches of the mighty Glenelg. Plus, my wife was nagging me to take her fishing (not a bad sort of thing to be nagged about, when you think about it). In the interests of domestic harmony, I phoned Ant and we hatched the plan.

The curse was apparently still on us. A cold front swept over the Southern Ocean the night before our departure from Melbourne. Rain and intense cold were forecast for the weekend. We even ran out of petrol about 2km away from a servo on the trip there, and had to use some from the boat to make it to the pumps (another little-known advantage of having a four-stroke outboard!). Even the 'roos threw themselves in front of the car on the final stretch into town. It seemed the gods were doing their damndest to stop us from uncovering the fishing secrets of Nelson.

I'm really glad we persisted and eventually broke the hex. Nelson is one of Victoria's best-kept secrets - an idyllic fishing village off the Princess Highway, and an absolutely perfect place for the Melbourne or Adelaide-based family to escape to for a weekend aboard their trailerboat.

GLENELG RIVER
The Glenelg is closed from the ocean for some of the year, often in winter, but regularly opens either naturally or artificially to bring cleansing saltwater and stocks of fish into the system.

When the river is open, the shallow estuarine reach is only a kilometre or so long before it narrows into a deep stream weaving its way between limestone cliffs and thick forest. The river is navigable by boat for more than 60km, during which it crosses and re-crosses the state border. Fish can be found far upstream, with outstanding bream fishing to be had at most times of the year.

But the waterway is best known for its excellent mulloway fishing. The local pub's walls are adorned with photos of gigantic silver jewfish being held up by grinning anglers. At times, the fishing can be so good it's possible to catch bags of 10 mulloway at a time as the fish move through the lower reaches chasing mullet.

The steep, rocky banks of the river are lined with cute little boatsheds, narrow jetties and decks built over the water. Some are as ancient as the gorgeous old rowing skiffs and timber putt-putt launches tied up inside; others more recently constructed and boasting expansive decks and elaborate barbecue areas.

For anglers, though, it's what lies beneath these structures that is of most interest: the growth-covered piles make ideal places for hoards of lure-munching bream to hide and wait for food. There's no shortage of ideal bream habitats along this waterway, which is in some ways reminiscent of the Hawkesbury River in Sydney. The steep banks are strewn with fallen timber, and the rocks tumble into the water which plunges 20 or 30ft deep. It's bream heaven.

Towards the mouth there's a huge shallow inlet lined with hissing reeds and sandy scrubland. While it's closed to fishing, it is home to an incredible array of birdlife. During our stay we saw flocks of black swans, pelicans, many species of cormorants, ducks, gulls, doddering waterfowl, graceful egrets, and ghostlike Royal spoonbills sifting along the river margins in search of food.

The river winds down a narrow channel between shallow sandbars before meeting the powerful, thick swells of the fearsome Southern Ocean in a choppy mess of whitewater. It's here, around a rocky outcrop called Pope's Nose, that many of the huge mulloway are caught. One of the more popular methods in this area is to slow-troll live mullet around the areas of structure: sandbar drop-offs, tide lines and around the deeper holes. Even when the river is closed, good catches of mulloway can still be had. Sizes vary from juveniles to 20kg monsters.

EXPLORING THE RIVER
The Bermuda 475 Mangrove Pro proved an ideal vehicle for exploring the river. Measuring just shy of 5m counting the boarding platform, with a hefty beam of 1.8m and with an almost entirely flat bottom, the boat easily fished the four of us. It was incredibly stable, hardly shifting as we walked around casting our lines. The Glenelg rarely gets rough, and the Mangrove Pro proved absolutely ideal for this sheltered waterway.

As well as its impressive stability, there was enough room inside for the four of us to fish without getting tangles every two minutes. Even with the pedestal seat in place on the forward casting deck, there was space for two people to fish comfortably, with another on the back deck. The aspect I like best about this boat is that it offers the best of both worlds: elevated decks, with the security and comfort of a deep central cockpit around the centre console. Some people prefer to be able to sit on the wide gunwales and fish with their legs in the cockpit, or stand with their knees against the hull sides. Others like the freedom and space of a raised deck. This boat has both.

Big sidepockets were great for storing our rods, although we'd like to see a couple of additional rodholders for storing outfits when running from place to place.

While there are sizeable storage lockers under the front and rear decks, I found the hatches covering them fiddly to lift out and difficult to replace quickly and easily. The carpet along the edges is already showing signs of wear. It would have been nice to have a separate locker for the anchor too because, while we didn't use it much on this trip, it would be hassle to open the front hatches to get to it or stow it when moving around in search of fish. But the boat is built to a price, and these are small trade-offs.

Besides, there is enough room on the boat to stow tackle boxes, buckets, a tub for your fish and half a dozen rods and reels in the cockpit area without tripping over them - so, in reality, there wasn't a lot of need to dig around below decks.

COMFORT PLUS
The broad gunwales make great impromptu seats when wetting a line, while the pedestal seats were very comfortable indeed. Vision and comfort when driving was above average, and for a long, wide boat, it proved surprisingly manoeuvrable around the snags.

On the plane, the boat had a tendency to porpoise or bounce around, although this probably was to do with weight distribution more than anything else. Plenty of throttle was needed to get the boat out of the hole with such a big load aboard, but once on the plane you could throttle back and cruise for hours using a whiff of fuel. We used just a few litres on our trip, which included an afternoon and morning cruising around the river. The 50hp Mercury was smooth, quiet and started first time every time.

TIME TO FISH
With limited time, the risk of a freezing downpour, and a missus with an extraordinary aversion to cold weather, we didn't venture too far from our cosy lodgings on the trip. We were keen to soak up a bit of local ambience (read: have some beers at the pub) and we arose late. The afternoon was spent messing about the river mouth catching bay salmon and small bream. The locals had picked the honey holes and had bulging fish-keeping bags hanging over the sides of their boats.

Shizuka was yet to catch a fish, so we pointed the boat's snout upriver and cruised through the 5kt zone checking out the quaint boatsheds and watching bass boats drift along the banks under electric power, flicking Squidgies at the timber pylons. One young fella boated a thumping black bream as we burbled past, and held it up for us to see with a grin.

We hadn't gone far before we realised we'd left our anchor at home. To combat the current and wind, we tied up in the lee behind a small rocky island in the middle of the river and caught a bunch of feisty bream on lightly-weighted frozen prawns. We didn't have time to catch the preferred local bream bait: small black crabs. We had a ball until sundown, and headed back to the warmth of our cabin on the water with the sunset blazing through the clouds in the west, aquatic birds sending ripples gliding across the golden mirror of water.

After hand or two of cards and an entree of fresh bream, it was time to break out the rods again for a fish on the jetty before bedtime.

During our very brief stay, we barely scratched the surface of Nelson. As well as river and beach fishing, there are limestone caves to explore, miles and miles of pristine beaches to walk, and 60km of river to enjoy in your boat.

We found the locals to be very friendly and ready to share information, but there are not many shops so it pays to stock up on staple foods like fruit and meat before you hit town.

In the depths of winter, when we visited, the place was sparsely populated and peaceful. After a night, watching the wide dome of sky ablaze with stars, we faced the drive back to Melbourne tired, but immensely satisfied... and determined to return as soon as we can now the hex is finally broken!

PLACES TO STAY IN NELSON
We stayed at the River Vu Park (tel: 08 8738 4123). It's a small, clean, friendly park with a few van and tent sites and a number of cabins starting from about $50 a night with $5 per extra person tariff. The owner is a keen mulloway man and is just the person to fill you in on how the fish are biting. It's handy to the general store, bottle-o and pub, which has a bistro restaurant (which has a big but unfortunately expensive menu). A leisurely beer at the well-stocked bar chatting to the colourful locals is a must.

There is also another caravan park, a couple of motels, and some bed-and-breakfast cottages in town. There are a number of public launching ramps and the general store had a good selection of tackle, groceries and bait.

It's cold in winter, so bring extra bedding and clothes. Nelson is a bit more than 400km or five-and-a-bit hours drive down the highway from Melbourne. The nearest big town is Portland in Victoria, and Mount Gambier is not too distant on the SA side.