Ballarat and district anglers are blessed at the moment, with exciting fishing action in almost every water we have.

This lake is fishing extremely well for both trout and redfin with the best spot still seeming is the jetty at the boat ramp. There is always someone fishing from the structure from daylight until dusk and they keep on catching rainbow trout around 1kg. The best bait is Powerbait fished on a running sinker rig; any colour seems to work.

I with my two son’s Will and Zach caught a very nice bag of 200g-1kg redfin on a variety of lures from Pink Tassie Devils to tiger striped Ecogear lures. The redfin seemed to be schooled in one particular spot and every time you trolled over that area you caught one or lost one. We also managed to catch and release some lovely 1.5kg rainbow trout on the same type of lures

The talk of the town has finally quietened down. With the warmer weather and all the fishing action the rainbow trout have gone off the bite with only the odd fish being caught, but if you catch one it will be a ripper.

Shane and Jason Jeffrey have been back down there giving their best shot and trolling around the lake using hardbodied trout and bream lures with some success on rainbow trout up to 3kg but they have put in some serious hours to get a fish.

I would suggest the trout will start to move around again when the weather and the water temperature cools down around April/May.

Another little water tucked away down at Cobden has been fishing well with quality rainbow trout around 1.5kg caught on mudeyes fished under a bubble float. Brain Nygaard reports that one angler caught 8 trout down here for the day and his mate fishing next to him in the boat didn’t get a bite - that’s how it goes.

The lake in the heart of Ballarat has been fishing well with rainbow trout up to 1.5kg being caught using various methods from Powerbait with a running sinker rig to mudeyes fished under a suspended bubble float. The fish are in excellent condition.

On a disappointing note the lake is discoloured due to dredging works that are taking place on the lake and our much anticipated mayfly hatches have not occurred which lake Wendouree is renowned for.

This waterway is full and overflowing and the trout have finally moved in around the edges feeding on midges. Evening and early morning seem to be the best time with both rainbow and brown trout in excellent condition being caught. Flyfishing seems to be the best way to catch these trout: midge patterns are obviously the fly of choice.

The redfin are absolutely on the chew at the moment with bags of redfin being caught all over the lake using baits lures and even flies. Those anglers that have been catching lots have been finding schools of fish and cleaning up using yabbies suspended over the side of the boat.

Fishing around the district has been excellent and we look forward to that continuing but as we are now in the summer months the trout fishing will probably quieten down a little and the redfin fishing will take over. I expect Cairn Curran will be an excellent destination to catch some. All angling methods would be successful from fishing worms on the bottom to jigging lures from a drifting boat as Cairn Curran is an excellent redfin fishery in the warmer months.