Lakes Entrance is the eastern hub of the fishing industry with a large number of boats based at the port. As the town's name suggests Lakes Entrance is the entrance to the Gippsland Lakes located 319km east of Melbourne. The town has a residential population of 4,623 but this swells during peak holiday periods.

The first fisher to work from the area was William Carstairs who arrived at Holland's Landing in 1876 from Hastings. Corstairs used cotton mesh nets to fish in the fresh water lakes. The entrance to the sea was opened in 1888 and changed the lakes into the estuarine system of today. More people moved to the area after the roads improved during the 1930s.

The Salmon Company started in the 1890s was a cooperative of the local Australian salmon (Arripis trutta) fishers. These fishers caught the ocean dwelling salmon and kept them in wire pens so as not to flood the market and depress prices. When there were no salmon around they used to catch barracouta instead.

Danish seine boats started to arrive in 1946 from Eden. The first boats were horizontally planked so that the navy won't take them away for use during the war years.

Lakes Entrance Fishermen's Co-Operative Society Limited (LEFCOL) was incorporated in 1964. It is the largest Co-operative of its kind in Australia. The co-op started as a gear store but has expanded its role and now provides services such as ice and bin provisions, unloading and consigning facilities, marketing advice and administrative and political support. The Co-op is very active in both the Commonwealth and State consultation processes as a representative for industry in the eastern region. The Co-op is a major supplier to the Victorian fresh fish market and also represents a considerable proportion of the fresh fish consigned to the Sydney Fresh Fish Market. Being a Co-operative much of the profits are distributed back to the fisher. The Co-op is located on Bullock Island.

In 1969 scallop fishers from Port Phillip Bay started fishing from Lakes Entrance. The scallop fishers were of Greek origin and were said to use a number of tactics to bully the other fishers. They are now respected local citizens.

A fish meal factory was built next to the Co-op in 1965 to process pilchards (Sardinops neopilchardus) and anchovies (Engraulis australis). The boats using purse seines would bring in 100 tonnes per trip. Such large volumes were caught that the much of the local stock was fished out and the factory closed. Pilchard stocks recovered but were again devastated in 1995 by the herpes like virus that affected the entire southern Australian coastline.

Deep-sea trawlers started working from the port from 1976. These boats fish in the South East Fishery and were involved in the development of catching orange roughy.
Prawn fishing started in the mid 1970s using small boats. The season is variable with school prawns (Metapenaeus macleayi) and eastern king prawns (Melicertus plebejus) being harvested.

Squid fishing is the latest fishing activity to be added to the port. Starting in 1988 the boats fish at night. The best catches recorded were between eight and ten tonnes a night.

Current fishing operations in the area includes:

- The last Danish seine trawl fleet in Australian (17 boats)
- Deep water board trawlers (5 boats)
- A shark fishing fleet (6 boats)
- Estuarine fishermen who fish the Gippsland Lakes (18 boats)
- A scallop harvesting fleet that also catch squid when in season (30 boats)
Rock lobster (3 boats)
- A fleet of inshore vessels (6 boats) who ply their trade in diverse forms of fishing close to the coast including prawn fishing
- Bait fishers who supply recreational anglers (9 boats)

Fish landings to the port vary from 5,000 to 9,000 tonnes annually and represent a value to the Victorian community in the order of AU$150 million.