Bullen Merri is shaping up as something special with great reports of brown and rainbow trout catches.

The rainbows seem to be everywhere at lake Bullen Merri with most anglers catching them from shore and boats. Around this time of year the trout stick to their natural instinct and try and spawn but because of no hard flowing rivers entering the two crater lakes, this makes spawning for the trout impossible.

The southern side of Lake Bullen Merri has black sand all the way along and also a few other spots on the lake. This sand is the closest thing the lake has that looks like a river bed, so the rainbows especially, congregate around these spots and try to spawn. The black sand is also plagued with minnows and bullheads which is a major food source for the fish.

The most popular and successful bait to use is Powerbait. Powerbait is a scented play-dough-like bait which is highly scented and floats. Pink and red colours seem to work the best fished in the black sand around spawning times.

Powerbait is fished on the bottom with a running sinker and a small hook. The reason for the small hook is so the power bait can make the hook float and keep it off the bottom.

Rainbows have been coming out frequently sized between 1-1.5kg to baits and trolling. Over the northern side of the lake there have been anglers putting in a lot of time and effort both early mornings and late nights. They are using bullheads suspended under a bubble float for healthy brown trout over 2kg. The fish are deep in the belly and full of minnows, which are a good indication they are in healthy state and feeding up well.

Down the road at Lake Purrumbete the fishing still continues to run hot with good numbers of redfin still coming out caught mostly on minnows fished off the bottom. There have been regular catches of brown trout up to 1kg, but the larger fish continue to stay down just out of reach of anglers.

With winter approaching fast the thermal line should start to slowly rise and lift the fish with it. Be sure to keep persisting because you never know when they will all come on the bite over these two months.

As for the bream, anglers are still having fun on the undersized bream and occasional big ones coming across up to 40cm.

The Curdies River has been fishing well with bream to all sizes on a variety of baits; best results are on fresh water yabbies and scrub worms.

The mouth has been closed for the last few months, which has caused the car park at Bogey Creek to flood, which still hasn’t stopped anglers launching their boats with 4wds.

The smaller cars have had a little trouble so just be wary when putting in.

Most anglers have been heading downstream to the lake and catching good numbers of bream and salmon to all sizes.

There has been a lot of loose weed floating around in the lake so be sure to check baits regularly.