Quality over quantity

Rod Shepherd

The fishing at Lake Purrumbete remains steady, especially if you want to nail a trophy brown trout or Chinook salmon. Now they are not being caught in large numbers and nor should they be. This is partially down to the sunny weather making many fish shy in taking a bait or lure but also because these trout do not get to this size without being a tad crafty.

First and last light is the prime time to be on the water and the shallow weedy bay between the boat ramp channel exit and Horan’s point remains the top spot to wet a line but don’t discount the water from Horan’s Point around trout or redfin would come in close enough to have a crack at. Darcy not being familiar with the water was provided with information on where to go with what wind etc, a little bit of local knowledge that can be easily obtained given where he is employed.

Darcy found a small area that was fishable water and started fishing, there was plenty of surface activity he said, with to the quarry. Fishing several metres out from the shore hugging weed growth is a great area to concentrate one’s efforts. There are still plenty of small redfin out there ready and willing to steal a bait or three set out for trout. Don’t throw these nuisance fish back alive. Dispatch quickly before disposing in the lake where they will very quickly form part of the food chain. Throwing dead fish into a rubbish bin only creates bad odours plus a definite health hazard. Of course, if they are big enough to fillet, please do so. Schools are also hanging just off the bottom in depths around 15m and can easily be picked on a depth sounder. Jigging lures, plastics and presenting live bait such as minnow hooked through the jaw is working. Don’t any trout, and then all of a sudden trout appeared in front of him off the surface, Darcy said it was feeding on whatever it could find it wasn’t fussy, I popped a Shaving Brush fly pattern as I’ve heard of many guys catching trout out there on them, I popped it out where he was feeding, when I saw this snout come out of the water and engulf my fly.

I set the fly then all of a sudden all hell broke loose; this fish went ballistic as forget to add some berley to the mix to keep the fish fired up.

Lake Bullen Merri remains the go to lake despite some blue-green algae present as big tiger trout along with plenty of Chinook salmon are active and ready to take a lure or bait. Trolling Loftys style Cobra lures as well as a variety of medium diving minnow or stick baits has seen plenty of hook ups. 8-10m depth is the go, and so too is bottom bouncing a pilchard along with berley in similar depths.

The Mount Emu Creek still has flow and a couple of locally intrepid anglers have scored the odd brown trout to 800g taken on surface lures cast from the bank and worked across the larger pools where the flow is markedly decreased.

The stories and reports that I had listened to were and are true, our tussle continued for what seemed like an eternity, when I eventually got him to the net, my new PB trout and trout on fly a 73cm brown trout estimated around the 9-10lb, some photos were taken and this magnificent brown trout was released to fight another day. All the stories, I’ve heard about Moorabool are true, hopefully this is not my our very wet 2022 year. Goulburn Murray Water was concerned for the safety of boaters/water users, not only on Tullaraoop but some other waters for the same reason.

Anglers have been chaffing at the bit, to get back on the water, especially those who like to chase redfin. We were given the green light for boaters to put boats back on Tullaroop and did the locals hit the water in numbers. There has been plenty of reports filtering through, from word of mouth and social media, with some big bags of redfin being caught.

Some work colleagues Luke Taylor, Cohen Bandy and Paul Dawson headed out to see if they could get amongst them and that they did, catching a truckload redfin of all sizes from little guys to excellent table sized fish up to 40cm, only keeping what they needed. The boys said they took a bit of finding initially, trolling lures in varying depths, then they got onto them in about 3m of water and it was game on fish after fish on vibes. Just jigging up and down underneath the boat, fish after fish, with lots of little guys with some bigger ones in amongst them. The boys reported other anglers catching plenty using jigs, vibes, plastics and baits.

I’m sure Tullaroop will see plenty of anglers over the next few months, given the words is out the reservoir is open to boating and the redfin are on the chew. There is plenty of water to fish with a couple of designated boat launching areas, being at the dam wall and Gulloways Bay.

Lake Wendouree has certainly quietened down for the guys chasing trout, this is due to the warmer water temperatures, on the flip side to that, the redfin are on the chew.

Angus James has been out getting amongst them, fishing clear pockets of water in amongst the weeds. Angus moves around trying all his favourite haunts until he gets onto them. There’s no rhyme nor reason as to when and where they are going to be, just persistence Angus reckons. When Angus has been able to find them, the redfin have found his ZMan Baby Goat on a jig spinner soft plastic too irresistible not to eat. Angus has put a few Youtube clips up on how he targets redfin around the Ballarat area, well worth checking out. Big Redfin on Soft Plastics - Fishing Tips with Angus James plenty of Caddis, Damsel Flies and Dragonflies buzzing around, plenty of food to entice a fish to move in and feed on them.

Darcy tried a few different fly patterns catching a few small redfin, with no sign of first and last big trout from the Reservoir.

I’m sure I would when all of a sudden I’m on the end of a fishing line, jumping out of the water trying to throw the hook, I got nervous myself with my heart racing at a million beats per second when I saw how big this trout was.

Tullaroop Reservoir is once again open to boating; it had been closed for quite a few months due to the high-water levels, as the Reservoir continually spilling over as a result of