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Short term pain, long term gain
  |  First Published: November 2010



It seems hard to believe that I’m here writing a report about the fishing in November (the beginning of our summer fishing options), when recent conditions are more akin to the depths of winter.

The heavy rains of previous months are still greatly affecting the inshore areas, whereas there has been precious little opportunity to get offshore due to constant winds.

Trout fishing has been good, if a little inconsistent, in the Merri and the Moyne with some good fish to 2.3kg being taken as the water cleared up first in these streams.

An unusual capture for the Merri was a couple of decent rainbow trout of about 2kg which had probably escaped out of nearby Lake Pertobe.

The Emu and the Hopkins remained high and extremely dirty for some time. This also has had an effect on the estuary fishing in the Hopkins. Bait anglers have been enjoying some success on the bream in the dirty water but lure anglers have been struggling.

The saltwater has been fairly quiet. A 65cm snapper was taken from the Warrnambool breakwater but this area is not well known for consistent snapper captures. Apart from a few gars around Port Fairy and some salmon off the beaches things have been fairly slow. However short term pain should mean long term gain and anglers should have a lot to look forward to this coming November.

November is one of the most anticipated months as usually there is a wide variety of things to target as the water warms. Offshore anglers will be hoping for some calm weather to target the snapper and gummy sharks that have been biting well at this time of year the past few seasons.

Most fish are found in 20-40m of water but, after all the dirty water flowing out of the rivers I’m sure there will be some good fish taken closer inshore this season as well. King George whiting will also make their presence felt as good fish were taken in Lady Bay, Killarney and Port Fairy last November.

November is usually also a great month in the estuaries. Estuary Perch are often biting well at this time of year in the Hopkins and calm, warm nights can lead to some exciting surface action occurring.

Bream have usually spread well throughout the system and will be responding to a wide variety of techniques and if ever there are going to be some decent numbers of mulloway come into the system again, surely this will be the year after all the heavy flows of water. Of course all this will be dependant on the rivers actually clearing up!

Trout fishing is usually beginning to take a back seat at this time of year but this season will probably be a little different after all the rain and some well fattened browns should be available to anglers during November, just keep a good eye out for snakes.

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