With the dam spillway coming to the end of overflowing the lake has the potential to restabilise. Barra are appearing more consistently and although they are just between 60cm to 90cm, they are being caught in good numbers.

Every time the water stabilises the fish seem to turn on resulting in numerous catches. We have had as many as 25 hook-ups in a session. The areas to fish seem to be around B and D, particularly in and around the smaller black wattle trees that have weed around the bottom. These fish are being caught on small hardbodied lures like Rapala Shad Raps and X-Raps; other lures that seem to work well are Jackall hardbodies and smaller B52s.

For the disbelievers (myself included) this proves there are still plenty of fish in the lake after the first massive water event that pushed the dam over the wall. With the recent overflow even more fish went over the wall including many of the 1m+ fish and plenty of 15cm to 30cm fish.

With the recent stocking we spoke to Kurt at the Gladstone Hatchery and asked for his informed opinion on stocking. Kurt suggested that we place the fingerlings up the dam as far as possible to prevent the smaller fish going over the wall if there was to be more rain.

The local rivers are still full of quality barra. The rivers are just starting to clear up from the recent overflows, which left the water very dirty.

On a recent trip to the Boyne we caught a 112cm barra that was clearly in a bad way and I would suggest not fishing there for fear of infection. The fish we have caught in other waterways have been exceptionally good, though mainly small around the 80cm mark.

The lures of choice are Slick Rig 130s with the area 51 jigheads. These lures work exceptionally well in saltwater and you have the opportunity to change weights for different tidal movements and depths. We are also using Jackall hardbodies and Rapala Shad Raps for places like Baffle Creek for barra.

Offshore fishing has been exceptionally good with big Spaniards and wahoo on the deeper reefs around the Sandy Cape shoals and Stuart shoals. For big fish try using big lures like the Rapala deep divers or Halco Laser Pros.

Reef fishing has also been great with some boats filling their bag limits thanks to the reef being well rested from recent bad weather.

If you need a guide or some advice on fishing the local oceans, rivers or dam you can give me a call on 0427590995 or email --e-mail address hidden--