It is good to see the circle of life is changing again. The daylight hours are getting longer and water temperatures are finally heading in an upward direction.

The fishing has remained steady but with water temperatures slowly starting to rise again it should not be too long before several locations in the Bendigo region start to fire.

Lake Eppalock continues to be the most productive destination in the Bendigo region. The fishing has been good over the coldest months of the year this season. There continues to be reasonable numbers of redfin being caught at the lake.

The majority of anglers have found that the average size and numbers of redfin being caught has been lower over the past few weeks. Some anglers have managed to find schools of better-size redfin up to 1kg between 2-4m. Several anglers have also landed large redfin bait fishing with worms in depths between 4-6m.

The fishing for golden perch continues to be very slow and it should improve slightly as water temperatures rise. Unfortunately I believe it will be a year or two before recent stockings will start to be caught in any significant numbers by anglers.

I am very excited about how good the redfin fishing will be at Lake Eppalock when the water warms up over the spring and summer months as the lake had nearly reached capacity. With the high water levels combined with reasonable inflows the redfin population will explode after they breed during the spring months.

The fishing in the Campaspe River has been the most productive in the section between Lake Eppalock and Elmore. There continues to be good numbers of redfin being caught in the Campaspe River directly below Lake Eppalock. Redfin are being caught on small hardbodied lures and soft plastics.

There are also good numbers being caught by anglers bait fishing with worms. There have been small numbers of trout also being caught in this area. Small numbers of golden perch have also been landed by anglers bait fishing around the sunken timber with worms.

Prior to the closed season for Murray cod there had been small numbers of Murray cod being caught by anglers casting spinnerbaits. The average size of the Murray cod being caught had been between 45-55cm. Water clarity is currently average in the upper section of the Campaspe River. Water clarity is poor below Elmore.

If the spillway at Lake Eppalock starts to run good volumes of water over it then soon after the fishing should improve significantly. Given the high water levels already in the Lake there is a very good chance the spillway may run for a long time this year.

Water clarity is currently poor at Cairn Curran. The fishing at this location has been disappointing in recent times. The redfin fishing has been slow with only low numbers of small redfin being caught. There have been small numbers of trout being caught.

The best results for trout anglers is with bait fishing with mudeyes and corn. Hopefully water clarity will improve later in the year. More than likely it will be several months before we see any major improvement in water clarity.

The most productive fishing in the Loddon River has been in the section directly below Cairn Curran. There have been good numbers of redfin being caught in this area. The majority of the redfin have been caught on soft plastics and small hardbodied lures.

Water clarity in the Loddon River below Laanecoorie continues to be poor and more than likely will only get worse with spring rainfall.

It will be a while before we see any significant improvement in water clarity in the Loddon River. With water temperatures starting to increase we should start to see a few golden perch being caught over the next couple of months.

Given the high water levels in the catchments along the Loddon River then there is a very good chance there will be significant flooding in the Loddon River over the spring months.

Good numbers of redfin are being caught in the Campaspe River.