The excellent fishing just continues on and on around the Ballarat and district and the anglers continue to reap the rewards

The action just seems to go from one lake to another; when the fishing slows down at a particular lake another one fires up.

This water seems to be a Mecca of fishing activity at the moment. This 40Ha lake is located approximately 5km to the west of Lismore. With an average depth of 4m, it is home to rainbow and brown trout, redfin and eels. Lake Tooliorook has unpowered camping facilities with a toilet block, a playground for the kids, a jetty that is suitable for disabled anglers, and boat launching facilities.

Lake Tooliorook was one of the original waters selected by Victorian Fisheries for the drought recovery program in 2010 and received a initial stocking of 10,000 100g yearling rainbow trout followed up stocking in 2011 with 7,000 rainbow and 5,000 brown trout. Trout are up to 2.5kg and the fishing is excellent.

Redfin have re-stocked from over flowing channels and lakes when the drought initially broke and they are now the focus of the fishing action at the lake. Bryan Rivett has been catching big bags of these delicious table fish around 500-750g.

The best bait has been local minnows which can be obtained by using a drag net or bait traps suspended from the jetty. The best time to gather local minnows is around evening and after dark.

Anglers have been catching the redfin by jigging a Baltic bobbers while others have been catching them on worms fished on the bottom. Keep changing spots until you find plenty of redfin and then the action will be thick and fast.

The trout have still been on the bite at the lake with fish up to 2kg on mudeyes suspended under bubble floats in shallow water around the 1.8m mark. As the water temperature cools down even more with a few cold nights and frost the trout fishing action down at the lake will be awesome for methods of angling.

The success story of 2011 is staring to produce some magnificent rainbow trout up 3kg on baits fished from the shore.

Worms and Powerbait are the successful baits of choice as we head deep into our autumn months. With the cooler water temperatures so important to the trout I believe we will see some double figure trophy trout being caught down there and I will certainly will be targeting some of the fish mainly trolling lures like Rapalas, Ecogear and the ever reliable Tassie Devil.

The trout are certainly on the bite at the moment with anglers lining the shore line day after day catching rainbow trout up to 2kg on lures, bait and fly. The coming months once again will see some sensational fishing action in the lake.

Located near Maryborough just to the north of Ballarat, this lake has seen the fishing action slowly start to improve. Regular fly fishers at Tullaroop have seen a few trout moving around the edges of an evening with reports of trout to 1kg being caught. Tullaroop in a magnificent autumn fishery with the trout normally chasing smelt around the lakes margins with great fishing actions is to be had.

These lakes will see mayfly hatches in the coming months around midday and we will experience some awesome fishing action with trout up to 2kg at both venues.

Flyfishing with nymphs, emerger and mayfly dry fly patterns will the reap the rewards.