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Monsters Lurking in the Deep
  |  First Published: November 2011



The recent October school holidays meant a great many anglers had a fantatsic excuse to go fishing.

John Sciacchitano of Pascoe vale near Melbourne fished Lake Purrumbete and was trolling a wide range of lures down rigging them around 15-16m down when he hooked on to an absolute monster.

The anxious fight went longer than expected but john finally landed his fish. It was a male brown trout that tipped the scales at 6.35kg; the biggest recorded fish in years.

John’s catch excited a lot of anglers, especially being the day before the yearly Camperdown Classic held on the first weekend of October. Maree and Darren, the Lake Purrumbete caravan park carers said they have been working there since February 2007 and it’s the biggest they’ve seen being weighed in.

But that’s not the only monster. Chris Finlayson caught more than one trophy fish over October with the biggest weighing 4.7kg also caught at Purrumbete.

Chris fishes Lake Purrumbete regularly and normally seems to hook on to some ripper fish but puts in a lot of time and effort to get his results: persistence and patience will always deliver results.

Because the bigger fish are staying down deep in the cooler darker water, remember to lengthen your leaders longer than normal and fish a little deeper than you normally would.

There have also been heaps of other reports of nice-sized fish caught from both lakes ranging from a kg up to 2.3kg.

Lake Bullen Merri continuous to fish well for land-based and boat anglers. The Atlantic salmon have been growing fast and are now around the 40cm length. These fish are feeding on a wide range of baits allowing for all anglers to hook up to these exciting fish.

Although they are so much fun to catch it can sometimes can be easy to go over your bag limit so be careful to keep an eye on how much you have in possession.

These fish are going to be much more exciting to catch when they are a much bigger fish so catch and release when they are this small can ensure the Atlantic salmon can grow bigger and we can look forward to some good future fishing.

The Atlantic salmon and rainbows have been caught on bait mostly such as Powerbait and glassies fished on the bottom. Some trollers have picked up some nice-sized brown trout to 3kg.

There isn’t just one type of lure or colour that is proving to work best, so mix them up until you get results.

John Sciacchitano with a male brown trout caught at Lake Purrumbete. This monster fish weighed 6.35kg.

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