We have received some very solid rainfall in the Seymour area over recent weeks, and you won’t find too many people complaining about that. It has, however, put a little bit of a dampener on the excellent fishing that has been on offer in the Goulburn River.

Rain has caused the Goulburn to dirty up to an extent that I have not seen for some time. This has made lure fishing extremely difficult. Lure fishing is not completely out of the question – it is just much tougher. We put this to the test a couple of weeks ago by spending a day on the river at Mitchelton Winery. Although it was a long time between strikes, we still managed some excellent redfin. All of our fish were taken on lures.

There were quite a few boats on the water with anglers using bait, and they had some very good fish to show for their efforts. The good news is that in late summer the river started to clear up very quickly, and providing we don’t receive any more heavy rain it should revert back to its normal state.

If you have not yet taken my advice and made that trip to Seymour then it is high time you did. Be warned though – there are some very big cod in the Goulburn here, so you will need to use suitable gear. Apart from the size of the fish, there are a lot of snags for them to use in their defence.

You should consider a 6-8kg outfit as a minimum. Whether you use overhead or spin gear is personal preference. Lines should be at least 30lb braid with a minimum of a 40lb fluorocarbon leader. Even heavier line than this would not be considered too heavy. The heavy gear does not seem to deter the redfin, so it can be used on both species. Some anglers use lighter gear while targeting the redfin, and this is quite acceptable, but it can cause you a few problems when a cod decides to get in on the action.

Further downstream, the Murchison area has provided some very good fishing for anglers fishing from the bank with bait. Both Murray cod and golden perch have been plentiful.

Many anglers are starting to spend more time chasing redfin. This has largely been brought about by the increase in the popularity of practising catch and release on our native fish, which is certainly a very welcome trend. However, these same anglers occasionally like to take home a feed of fish. If you fall into this category and would like to have some very good light gear action on redfin, and take home a feed, then give Waranga Basin a go. At the moment it is fishing very well from both bank and boat for anglers using bait. It is a little too dirty at the moment for good lure fishing, but this should improve over the next month or so.

I have already received many emails and photos from anglers who have made a trip up here. I am always happy to provide advice or an update on current conditions, so feel free to email me if you want a report before you make the trip. Hope to see you all up here soon enjoying the action.

David Gurnett with a nice redfin from Waranga Basin. The Basin is a good place to catch a feed of these tasty sportfish.