Since daylight savings has finished and the cooler weather has arrived, the water temperature has come down drastically.

We experienced almost a 5C temperature drop in three weeks. Good numbers of brown trout have come to the surface and are feeding very strongly in preparation for spawning. Fishing up to 50m off tree edges and rock walls could produce good-sized fish with shallow diving lures such as Tassie Devils and Floating Rapalas or any other personal choice floating minnow. The best colours are blacks and gold’s or blacks and purples.

With the drop of water temperature, the natives will shut down with yellowbelly slowing down in particular. Reports of big fish being scarce and with most fish being picked up around the 30-40cm mark.

On the cod side of things, a lot of smaller cod have been caught and released around the 25-45cm mark. It’s now when the bigger fish should come out to play.

For those who are prepared to put in the hard yards, for some reason super-overcast conditions with a little rain and falling barometer have been most successful. This goes against everything I believed in fishing high barometers, clear conditions, although calmer water still is much more productive than windy conditions.

Most fish in these conditions have been caught on darker lures such as, black/purple, black/gold, and everyone’s favourite, the frog pattern. The best part about the next short period is there will be no skiers on the lake – thank goodness! I expect that before the cod season closes we will see some serious fish caught in this massive lake.

On the redfin side of things, they are still on the chew, but with water temperatures lower, searching for them is not as effective prior to 2pm. Plenty of fish up to 1.5kg is a very common result.

With the powers that be making the sensible decision to let a substantial amount of water go (just in case it rains in winter), the Goulburn has been flowing hard for a fair while. When it does get to a flow level of around 3,000ML, it will fish very, very well, so make the most of the last 6 or so weeks of fish of the season.

Hopefully the rivers will stay clean enough to take advantage of fish on offer.

Trying to fish the pond when it’s up and down like a yo-yo is always a challenge of late. That’s been the case so the best time is when it’s coming up.

Using old favourites such garden worms or Berkley Powerbait is always a winner on the rise with a very light running sinker and a short leader for a bait fishers.

At this time of year a small Tassie Devil in Rainbow Trout Pattern is a killer. Also the Berkley ripple shads in gooseberry and galaxia are doing well on the flats near the oval.

On 1/24th oz and 1/32nd oz jig heads or even on an unweighted hook if you can cast them out to where you need to be.