If you’re after ideal conditions for fishing and camping in this region you’d be hard pressed picking a better time than this month.

The nights aren’t too cool just yet, the sun has certainly lost its bite and the days are near perfect around the mid-20°s and there’s generally little wind.

The absence of water skiers and jet skiers also adds to some great days on the water.

Thanks to regular big flushes over the last few years, when we do get a heap of rain now it generally flushes out within a few days and the water is nowhere near as dirty as it would have been a few years ago. All the built-up sediment has been washed away long ago.

When the creeks have been low they have fished superbly, especially for fishos who love to drift a dry fly. After any rain the creeks get higher and dirtier and although trout can still be tempted on flashy nymphs and big wet flies, you will have far more luck casting bright spinners or drifting juicy worms or grubs.

It seems that fish and anglers are adjusting to the high and fast flows, with heaps of reports of good trout caught from the Tumut River and lots of quality Murray cod in the Murrumbidgee, even in high flow.

It is simply a matter of changing your strategy to suit the water conditions and you will still catch fish no matter what.

If the Tumut and Murrumbidgee rivers ever become low and clear, fish as light as possible to increase your chances of hooking those bigger smarter fish. You may get busted off more often but you will also hooking more fish than you would with heavy line.

Blowering Dam is becoming a popular choice for anglers all over the country after a feed of big redfin.

There have been good numbers of redfin for almost two years, coinciding with the time the lake has remained almost full.

The pleasing thing about the unbelievable numbers is that pretty much everyone can go out and be almost guaranteed to catch an esky of fish, with plenty between 1kg and 2kg.

Over the last few months redfin schools have been spread all over the lake from the surface down to 100’ so no matter your technique or the depth you fished you could still find fish.

Even during the warmer months knowledgeable anglers were catching big redfin mostly in 40’ to 70’. The average size in the shallows has been much smaller.

This month many of those smaller fish will work their way out to deep water to start forming massive pre-spawn schools. They can be very easy to catch because they are so competitive for food and for prime positions beside the females.

Troll, cast, drift or use your sounder to find schools and then drop plastics, ice jigs, blades, vibes or lipless crankbaits and jig up a storm.

Bait fishos can do the same thing with worms or yabbies bobbed on paternoster rigs.

Whether you bob with bait or a lure, it pays to add a 1” soft plastic or fly about a metre above your offering. This will give you a chance to bring up a couple at a time and it is also handy if fishing around weed because the plastic or fly will still be fishable if you happen to foul your bottom offering.