Ballarat

BALLARAT Shane Stevens

After a sluggish start to the year, anglers around the Ballarat and Central Highlands region of Victoria are finally starting to see a few fish caught from most of our local waters.

Most of our fishing around the region is dictated by water temperatures. Generally, most of our fisheries are of a shallow nature, and during the summer months the water temperatures rise, which is OK for some species like redfin, but other species like trout prefer cooler temperatures.

Autumn is here and so are the cooler nights. This has already impacted the water temperatures, which have dropped significantly. This has meant that the trout stocked by Victorian Fishing Rod McNeight and his two boys, Justin and Thomas, have been getting amongst the redfin at Tullaroop on

soft plastics and vibes. Image courtesy of Rod McNeight.

John Cody is hooked on fishing after landing his first ever brown trout from Lake Wendouree.

Authority into all our lakes and reservoirs are once again up and about, feeding.

Autumn also signals the return of the mayfly, from mid-March through to the end of April. If the hatches throughout this autumn period are anything like those this past spring, we are in for some ripper fishing. Waters like Newlyn, Hepburn, Wendouree and Moorabool all had ripper spring hatches, especially out at Moorabool where there were millions of mayflies. Fingers crossed this fishing does happen, as there is a lot of talk and chatter around the traps of the excellent fishing we are hoping to have.

Tullaroop has been the standout fishery over the past couple of months, especially for those anglers who target redfin. Tullaroop has been a revelation over the past few years since boating access was allowed on the reservoir. There had been a population of redfin which had been breeding year on year, and the shore-based anglers were never going to put a dent in the population. How things can change. Anglers from all over the state are now making the trip to fish Tullaroop and targeting the redfin, and most definitely reaping the rewards.

The redfin are not easy to catch – you still need to put in the hard yards to catch them. Anglers aided with the use of depth sounders certainly increase their chances of catching some quality redfin.

When you find a school, it can be a matter of weeding out a lot of small ones to get to the bigger ones, or you could be

From page 96 and lipless crankbaits.

One significant change in the river system has been that a lot of the weed beds have died off. There is still a good amount of ribbon weed, but some of the other weed has reduced in its volume. This has reduced the amount of bait and fish holding along the weed. Anglers are still catching a few fish along the weed, but not as many as before.

CAIRN CURRAN

Water levels have continued a slow decline, with Cairn Curran at 63% of capacity at the time of writing. The fishing remains very good at this location, with good numbers of golden perch, Murray cod and redfin.

Trolling in the depth range between 3-4m of water has been a productive for the golden perch and Murray cod. Small profile lures such as number 3 StumpJumpers and Custom Crafted Basshunters in the shallow bib model have been working well. Dark colours like black and purple have been consistently productive. Casting over the top of the submerged weed beds with lipless crankbaits and blades has been working well.

Anglers jigging and slow rolling plastics around the standing timber are catching a combination of redfin and golden perch. Small numbers of Murray cod have also been caught by anglers casting swimbaits and trolling swimbaits around the edges of the lake.

LODDON RIVER

The fishing in the Loddon River has been good. Water clarity has been good in some sections of the system but only average in other sections. The more productive fishing has been in those areas where water clarity has been good. If you go to one section of the Loddon River and the water clarity is poor, my advice is move to another section with better clarity.

A good combination of both golden perch and Murray cod are being caught in the system. Most of the golden perch have been 38-45cm, and the average size of the Murray cod has been 45-65cm, with only the occasional cod above 75cm being landed.

Fishing with surface lures during periods of reduced light has been productive on the Murray cod. Spinnerbaits, medium sized hardbody lures and large lipless crankbaits have been working.

Good lure options for the golden perch have been small to medium sized hardbody lures, both trolling and casting. Also casting lipless crankbaits along the edges of the weed and edges of fallen timber. We should hopefully see the water clarity continue to improve this month. lucky and drop onto a school of bigger models. Anglers have been using a variety of methods to catch them, including using baits like yabbies, worms or gudgeon, or fishing lures like bobbers, ice jigs or vibes.

Brian Rivett and I have been getting amongst the reddies at Tullaroop over the past month. On one particular trip we struggled to get onto the fish; we sounded them up but could manage only a few smaller models. Then we came Brian Rivett landed this whopper of a redfin from Tullaroop Reservoir. It measured in at 48.5cm.

Peter Cartledge landed his first ever brown trout on a mudeye suspended under a bubble float from Lake Wendouree.

onto a school of good ones, and it was game on nonstop action for the next 3.5 hours. We had to go home and left the fish still biting. We caught fish after fish, all on ice jigs, it didn’t matter what colour – the redfin were definitely on the chew. A couple of notable fish we caught within our haul were a couple of rippers 48.5cm and 42cm.

Rodney McNeight and his two sons Justin and Thomas have been getting amongst the reddies as well at Tullaroop, catching some good bags on soft plastics and vibe lures. Rodney said you have to weed all the little guys out or move away from that school and drop onto the bigger-sized fish once you find them, using the spot lock on your electric motor to sit on the school. Rodney also mentioned he marked the spots where he caught the fish on his sounder using GPS coordinates, and has been back to the same spots a number of times and caught fish every time.

Hopefully the redfin will continue to bite over the next month or so before the water temperatures drop, which turns them off the bite.

Tullaroop has been one of my favourite trout waters over the past few years, and during the autumn months it fishes very well. The fishing last year during autumn was sensational to say the least, with the fish feeding up prewinter/spawn on smelt. The smelt fishing can be frustrating and rewarding at the same time, and I’m certainly looking forward to the fishing at Tullaroop.

The fishing on Lake Wendouree has started improving, which has coincided with some cooler nights and the water temperatures dropping. I have been out fishing mudeyes on Wendouree with work colleague Peter Cartledge and his brother-in-law John Cody. The boys are only novices at the fishing game, but I’d suggest after our fishing session they are well and truly hooked. We started off our session by collecting some bug/spider mudeyes from Wendouree; both Pete and John had never seen mudeyes before. We then ventured out into the rowing lanes and anchored up in the weeds with the wind at our backs, fishing into the deeper water of the rowing channel, which is the deepest and coldest part of the lake.

We suspended our mudeyes approximately 3ft under the bubble floats, and over the next few hours the boys had an absolute ball catching a dozen trout – a mixture of browns and rainbows in varying sizes – and lost as many on the rowing lanes. I managed to snag a ripper rainbow of just over 50cm, which happened to be full of bug mudeye. It was great to see, especially for Pete and John as they both now have a greater understanding of what bait to use etc.

Lake Wendouree will be a destination point for many anglers, especially flyfishers targeting the mayfly feeders. Anglers using mudeyes should definitely get amongst the fish, both from the shore and boat. The autumn months over the past 4-5 years have produced some excellent fishing for guys who like to cast lures, especially surface lures like bent minnow patterns. The cooler water temperatures and pre-spawn feed ups really turn the trout on – exciting times on Wendouree for us anglers.

Moorabool Reservoir. Newlyn Reservoir and Hepburn are all holding significant higher water levels than in previous years. I haven’t received any reports recently from these fisheries, but I would suggest they will improve over the next couple of months, and Moorabool is definitely on my radar.

I, like many other anglers around the district, am looking forward to some excellent fishing.