The June long weekend is the last opportunity for fishers to target trout in the rivers and streams of the district until the next season opens in October.

This trout season has been a mixed affair, with high or flooding water affecting some early season spots. Waters such as the Fish River and its smaller tributaries cleared quickly, though which allowed for some great fishing.

Fishing for spawning brown trout on the gravel beds late in the season is a contentious issue for some. There are anglers who prefer to leave these fish be, which is fine.

I think as long as you are fishing within the rules, handle the fish correctly and return them to the water as quickly as possible, little or no harm is done.

The spawning run is very dependent on water temperature and weather at the time. Sometimes the fish will run in the last two or three weeks of the season and other times they won’t start until after the season has closed.

If the fish do move with some time left in the season, it does give anglers an opportunity to target bigger fish.

Catching them can be tricky, though. More often than not, leaving the spawning trout alone on their redds and casting 7cm to 8cm minnows back in the pools to the fish moving up the river can land you the best fish, anyway.

Put the itsy-bitsy stuff away and throw the fence-sitting lures to the back of the box, folks, it’s time to get serious.

Big cod don’t muck about at this time of year; they may be a little slow to get out of the blocks but once that trigger is pulled, it’s game on.

A large offering is quite often that trigger.

Casting big lures is not for the faint hearted and you may go long hours between strikes, but its all worth it when you get a good one.

It would be nice to be able to pick your days to go.

I prefer the back end of a large high-pressure system (barometer slowly falling, oddly enough).

However, I have caught some great fish with a steady high-pressure cell usually associated with a gnarly frost, the kind that freezes the water in the billy solid and the eggs solid in their shells.

See? I told you it wasn’t for the faint-hearted!

The good part is that you can get away with a sleep-in at this time of year; in fact often the best time to be on the water is between 10am and 3pm.

Lake Windamere is quite often overlooked as a cod fishery but it’s well worth a try.

Have a plan set out before you start and stick to it. Trolling large lures and doing repeated runs is the key.

Vary the depths at which your lures run, keeping in mind that deeper is not always better.

Wyangala and Burrendong dams are more widely known as cod fisheries with Winter options only just starting to gain popularity.

Burrendong also has a great population of large Winter redfin, for those fence-sitters out there who find the hours between cod strikes a little taxing.