Batlow

BATLOW Wayne Dubois

waynedubois@westnet.com.au

April is a great month in the world of freshwater angling, as it is one of the few months of the year where you can go out with the confidence to target and catch a good mixed bag of fish. The water temperature is still warm enough for the natives to be very active, but it will start to cool rapidly and this tends to fire up the resident redfin and trout as well.

It is a great month for jigging for redfin, as these fish will start to form massive schools this month and move out into open, deep water, making it very easy to go and catch a feed.

Schools can be located easily with the aid of a good sounder, and once a good school is sounded it’s time to start jigging either with bait like small yabbies or worms rigged on paternoster rigs, or Murray cod will be on the top of many anglers’ lists this month as these fishos try to get their last fixes before the long winter ahead.

Lures designed for hopping, like this Insanity Tackle Yab blade, will give you the best chance of getting a few of those deep-holding fish from the bank. with lures such as ice jigs, blades, heavily-weighted soft plastics, rubber vibes or lipless crankbaits.

Murray cod are also frequently caught this month and are best targeted with large deep diving lures or spinnerbaits on the troll, and swimbaits, Angel Baits or glidebaits on the cast. The bigger, the better. Lures such as the 150mm AC Invaders are perfect for trolling and casting, but any lure over 100mm will put you in with a good chance of catching a big Murray cod or two.

The best places to troll are the old river bed up the top end of the dam, heavily tree-lined banks and bays, and any rocky point would be worth running over once or twice.

Golden perch can also be caught in the same areas as the Murray cod at this time of the year, but it would pay to downsize your lures if you really want to target them specifically. The best lures to troll for yellas are the Trollcraft Double Downers, AC Slim Invaders, size 2 and 3 StumpJumpers, Balista Dyno 60 and Dyno 75, and

lipless crankbaits like Prism Murrins, Mazzy Vibes, Balista Juggernauts and Insanity Tackle Slap Walkers.

Trolling soft plastics is another great way of targeting the golden perch in the lake, and my preferred plastics for trolling are paddle tail style plastics like the Ecogear Grass Minnows and Power Shads, which the goldens absolutely love. The other great thing about plastics is that you can troll them at whatever depth you think the fish are holding at – simply use a heavier jighead if more depth is required, or use a lighter jighead if you find your plastics are tracking too deep.

It’s worth mentioning that all of the above-mentioned lures work sensationally on the cast as well. RIVERS

By the time this article hits the shelves the Tumut River should be in low flow (fingers crossed), making for some spectacular fishing. Whilst it is in low flow, almost the entire river is accessible on foot, which makes it both easy to fish and quite easy to walk to another spot if your favourite hole or section is being fished already, or isn’t

The land-based redfin fishing has been insane, with crazy numbers of fish around the margins of most impoundments making it possible to catch them two at a time on a fly rod. This will all change this month, so get your last landbased fix before they move into deep water.