The Rarer Fish of the East Gippsland

Lakes and Rivers

This collection of photos is to highlight the occasional rare fish that is caught in these waters. There are many types of fish in our waters and often they go unnoticed because they are naturally low in numbers, modern fishing techniques don't target them, or maybe they are just an isolated visitor! Which ever way it is one of the delights of fishing to catch something that reminds us of the fantastic world we live and share with so many other life forms.

A flying Gurnard caught by Boyd McPhee at Lake Tyers, May 2014. A really colourful and unusual fish. The inspiration for this page.

A Pike Eel caught by Authorised Electro Fishing. These fish bury themselves in the bottom of the lake vertically with their heads out of the sand and can be very hard to pull in if hooked.

A very small Goby, these small fish are protected and must not be used for bait.

Yellow Eyed Mullet: Not so rare in numbers but not often caught by a Bream or Flathead style hook.

Galaxid: A very small fish to get on any hook, and illegal to be used as bait as they are a protected native fish.

A Poddy Mullet: Not rare at all in numbers, as they are in huge numbers, but rarely targeted by anglers and this one was only retrieved because it was foul hooked. However they are the most frequently sighted, as they are usually the fish we see jumping spectacularly out of the water at Lake Tyers. Being filter feeders they rarely take baits but get around in big shoals as seen on people's sounders from time to time.

As you can see they are no top level carnivore teeth present in this mouth.Hence the difficulty to catch them as they do not prefer lures or bait but feed on plankton. This fish was caught by Authorised Electro Fishing during stocking surveys

Estuary Cod: An unusual fish indeed and had the locals running for their fish identification books at the time.

Flounder: Again not an unusual fish numbers wise, but quite unusual to catch on a Bream rig! A beautiful little specimen.

Do you have an unusual fish photograph you would like to contribute? Email me at info(@)laketyersbeach.net.au.