There’s good news for East Gippsland anglers chasing Australian Bass in the Mitchell River.
The Victorian Fisheries Authority (VFA) this week reported that more than 50 per cent are legal size, up from 23 per cent last year.
That’s just one of the findings from the latest Native Fish Report Card surveys undertaken earlier this year in 10 Victorian rivers.
Fishing licence fees contribute to this monitoring work that’s has been running for the past nine years and is led by scientists from DEECA’s Arthur Rylah Institute.
In the Mitchell, Bass has been recorded in all nine years of the surveys, which are undertaken from Bairnsdale to Kingswell Bridge.
In February 2025, 114 bass were caught, 50.8 per cent of which were 27 centimetres or above.
The species’ abundance is all thanks to the VFA record-breaking stocking program that’s released nearly 570,000 bass into the Mitchell since 2016.
Included in the scientist catch was a beauty measuring 46 centimetres and weighing over 1.5 kilograms.
