Stocked fish are stacking on the pounds for winter

Rod Shepherd Lake Purrumbete has been reasonable of late, partially due to anglers from near and afar displaying patience and perseverance, and hitting the lake hard. The campground has been full most weekends, and is mostly booked out for the foreseeable future.

Over the past month the weather has been mild, with a minimal amount of rainfall keeping waterways ticking over. Most boaters have been trolling in and around 10m of water, even though only some are downrigging. The fish aren’t necessarily sitting at this depth; more like midwater, but we are talking often a similar amount in distance from the shoreline.

trolling (flatlining) as well as casting a tad closer to shore in 5-6m depth. The weed beds are very close to this depth.

The main species being caught are tiger trout, which have stacked on the weight. Many have been coming in at over 2kg. Chinook salmon of various sizes have also been reported, along with a few rainbow and cheetahs.

The browns are currently fairly quiet when it comes to taking a bait or lure, but this should improve in the coming weeks as the water temperature drops and the fish become more active closer inshore.

in recent times, and are beautifully coloured and marked.

To a lesser extent, the Hopkins River is also supplying anglers with similar fish, but these can only be taken on foot as far up as the falls. In comparison, the Merri’s fish can be accessed via boat launched from the ramp next to the old Nestle factory.

Other anglers are

A Bullen Merri Chinook categories, which meant you couldn’t win the other categories with the same fish. presentation. line trolling. photos were then sent to a nominated number. All competitors also received a travel mug, Tassie Devil (Go Fishing Victoria) and a pen courtesy of Victorian Fisheries Authority.

The competition consisted of a number of prize categories –Senior Trout, Junior Trout, Senior Redfin, Junior Redfin and two mystery lengths, with the winners receiving some magnificent prizes. There was also a Perpetual Trophy, Against The Odds, presented for the longest trout or redfin excluding the other

Within minutes of the competition starting my phone started buzzing, with photo after photo of trout and redfin in varying sizes. I thought my phone would go into meltdown, there were that many photos coming through. Fish were being caught from the shore, boats and kayaks, and caught on every method and bait known.

The comp finished at 1pm, and all competitors headed back to the Ballarat Fly Fishers Clubrooms for a sausage sizzle and prize

A total of 80 anglers registered for the competition, catching 107 brown and rainbow trout and 42 redfin. That’s an amazing amount of fish caught in the middle of Ballarat.

The winner of the Against The Odds trophy was Mark Cuthbert from the Ballarat Fly Fishers Club, who caught a 52cm brown trout on fly. The previous winner Trevor Holmes presented Mark with the trophy. Ben Young won the Senior Longest Trout with a 50cm brown, and the Junior winner was Oliver Van Doorn with a

47cm brown. The Senior Longest Redfin prize was taken out by Alex Thomas with a 45.5cm fish, and the Junior winner was Angus Le Marshall with a 35cm reddie.

Congratulations to all the winners.

The Against the Odds fishing day was an amazing event with so many anglers showing their support, raising funds for research and awareness of amyloidosis. A big thank you to everyone who attended, and especially our generous sponsors who donated prizes.

FISHING IN MAY

Moorabool Reservoir continues to fish well for both trout and redfin, however the water levels are dropping and exposing more and more weed, which is making fishing challenging. Anglers need to find the clear pockets of water and target these areas. Our mayfly hatches have just about finished, but the trout are still eager to eat them whilst they are still around. For anglers who want to target redfin, soft plastics and micro chatter lures are the go. Once again, seek out the clear pockets of water.

The water levels at Hepburn Lagoon and Newlyn Reservoir have dropped significantly, exposing lots and lots of weed. Like at Moorabool, anglers need to find the clear pockets of water and target them, either with lures, baits or flies.

At Tullaroop Reservoir the water level is still very high and the water clarity is poor still, from the flooding the reservoir received back in the spring

Local rivers such as the Merri at Warrnambool have some solid browns to 60cm taking lures worked over the designated sea run area of the river. The fish appear to be plentiful, judging by the amount of captures months. Anglers have been catching plenty of redfin in varying sizes from boats and the shore, on lures and baits. I’m hoping the water clarity improves because Tullaroop is one of my favourite places to fish in late autumn/early winter, targeting trout with lures and flies. The trout generally venture in around the shorelines/ shallows chasing smelt, and this should still occur in the coming weeks as the smelt move into spawn and the trout follow.

Lake Bullen Merri has plenty of Chinook salmon, but many are fairly new releases, coming in at little over a pound in the old scale. However, bigger fish well in excess of 3lb are about, along with the odd rainbow. Tiger trout are still a viable fish, and many have been really stacking on the weight in the short amount of time since their release. They can be caught trolling and static bait fishing with pilchard baits.