The Gellibrand River at Princetown has been excellent for bream and estuary perch to 34cm.

Lure anglers have down well using minnow lures that dive to at least 1.5m, especially in the first 500m upstream (or the first big bend) of the road bridge. Downstream of the bridge towards the mouth, plastics and blades tend to take over as the river not only widens but also shallows out and casting, not trolling becomes the general trend.

Bait anglers fishing live shrimp and locally netted whitebait suspended under a float have done well in the perch department in and around the bridge. The mouth to nearby Latrobe Creek has also been another hot spot.

Nearby Clifton Beach has been on fire for Australian salmon to 1.5kg with the odd bigger fish to 2.8kg thrown in for good measure. After dark, school shark and the odd gummy shark to 20kg have come on the bite. Chunks of unskinned eel have been the best bait.

The Curdies River has been sporadic for bream, as they seem to have moved out into Peterborough Lake. The average fish seems to be around the 34-36cm mark but some thumpers to 44cm have recently been taken on bait.

Local live shrimp, greyback minnow and cut slivers of juvenile salmon have taken the majority of fish.

Plastic fishos have found it tough, as exceptionally shallow fishing amongst the weed growth is required here.

One method to my knowledge that has yet to be fully employed here is surface fishing. Whether it’s a slow retrieval of minnow poppers or lightly weighted plastics just breaking the water’s surface tension on retrieval has yet to make waves amongst the local fishing circuit.

I’ve tried this method on occasion over the years for mixed results and have yet to come to a definite verdict.

My home lake is Ellingamite and I as well as many others in the know love fishing it. Many other lakes in the district can hold trophy trout at times but this lake seems to cough them up year round!

If you can tell me of another lake that can regularly produce trout to 2.5kg and redfin over 1.5kg I will eat my battered, sun bleached and sweat stained cap!

Even over the warmest months, Ellingamite has still consistently produced the goods. Being a very shallow crater lake, one would assume that the trout would either die off over summer or, at least become extremely stressed.

Not so here.

For example, one fish in question was recently taken at 1pm on a very warm, sunny day and the water’s surface temperature was 21C. The depth I was trolling was only 2.5m and the fish was extremely well conditioned.

Explain that?

The author with a very well conditioned brown trout from Lake Ellingamite in very warm conditions.