January has proved to be a fishing bonanza for anglers in and around the Ballarat and surrounding districts.

It’s been a long time since I have been able report on such action and you could almost guarantee anglers could go to some waters and catch a fish. For the record it was Ballarat’s wettest year for 37 years. Add to that Fisheries Victoria stocking nearly every water with yearling trout and the future looks nothing but rosy.

Lake Fyans is on the top of the list for me. My sister and family spent a week up there recently catching plenty of quality brown and rainbow trout to 1.8kg. Most fish were taken on mudeyes, trolling lures and also one evening after a very hot windy day which saw locusts being blown all over the lake and saw trout feeding on them profusely.

Lake Fyans will continue to fish well in February and March; bait and fly-fishing will be excellent at first and last light with the fly fishers who like to fish during the night having excellent fly fishing for mudeye feeders.

The majority of the fish that are being caught at the moment are rainbow trout between 500-750g. They are being caught bait fishing, trolling casting lures and flyfishing.

Geoff Cramer caught plenty of rainbows himself as well as showing his granddaughter Mikala the finer points of trout fishing. Geoff usually likes to target the redfin while fishing at Purrumbete and once again did this successfully catching plenty on mudeyes, local minnows and Baltic bobbers ranging in size from 500g-1.5kg. Geoff was catching them in water depths of 10-15m of water.

He also had a couple of notable catches while bobbing for redfin - a brown trout of 2kg, and an eel which Geoff had great difficulty trying to recover his bobber - anyone who has fished with Baltic bobber will understand what I mean.

Lake Elingamite is located at Cobden only about 15 minutes away from Purrumbete is fishing well at present. Ballarat angler Gordon Thompson calls the lake his second home and has been fishing down there all season for poor results, but the fish are now on the bite.

He has been catching brown trout up to 3kg on mudeyes suspended under a bubble float. The key to success Gordon says is to be patient. The fish just swim around feeding and eventually they will come along and take the mudeyes.

Gordon has also been catching plenty of smallish redfin with the odd lager one up to 1.5kg as well. Anglers contemplating a trip down to Ellingamite should note the lake can only be fished from a boat.