The end of winter is in sight and with it comes a sense of optimism from local anglers. There are good options still to be had this month so don’t sit in front of the fire thinking about it, get out there and experience good winter angling.

As usual with Blowering Dam, the redfin will be your best target this month. Large schools will still be in the deep water anywhere from 10-20m. These fish can be targeted a number of ways but my preferred way is with lures and in particular ice jigs. These jigging lures are very easy to use and are very hard to beat when targeting redfin that are schooled up in deep water.

When you find a school simply pull up over the top of them and drop your ice jigs straight down into them and start jigging. Remember to stay in contact with your lure in between jigs as the fish will hit your lure when it falls back to the bottom after a jig. By staying in contact with your lure on the drop you can feel any little taps or loss of weight.

Redfin are also taking bait on a paternoster rig but on freezing cold days playing with bait is not much fun. Trolling with small extra deep diving hard bodies is also a great option. There are quite a few on the market but my lure of choice when trolling for redfin is the AC Slim Invaders in the 40ft model. If you want them to get down to 40ft then it is a must that you use 4lb braid. Letting extra line out and holding your rod down as close to the water as possible will also help.

This month is your last chance to get a big cod fix before the season closes to allow the fish time to spawn. This time of year is not an easy time to target cod and you should expect very slow fishing, but the fish that do get caught at are generally very large.

Soaking a big juicy bardi grub will give you a good chance of hooking a cod this month. Trolling extra large lures around any rocky points, submerged timber, rock bars or drop-offs will also give you a good chance of hooking a mega sized Murray cod.

Finding a likely looking area and repeat casting to that area with large lures will be another good way of hooking a big cod this month. Don’t be afraid to put over 50 casts into a likely looking cod holding area. The idea is to annoy the fish into striking.

Polaroiding the shallows and casting lures from the banks is a great way of targeting trout at this time of the year. Look for banks that have been stirred up from wind and boat activity and target the distinct edges of the dirty water. Very early and late in the day is a good time to cast up in the backs of any large shallow bays.

Most trout lures are worth a cast including Tassie Devils and Celtas but my preferred lures are sinking hard bodies like Rapala CD range and IMA Sukari’s. I also like using spinners that have some sort of teaser on the rear of them like the Roostertail's and Gillies Feather tails. Lipless crank baits and small paddle tail soft plastics in trout colours are also very effective.

Jounama dam is only a very short drive from Blowering Dam and offers some sensational fishing for trout with the potential of trophy sized fish.

The same techniques, areas and lures I described for Blowering will work just as affectively here.

If the gates aren’t closed and you’re willing to brave freezing conditions then another lake that always fishes well in August is Tantangra dam. This lake receives little pressure this month and the trout can be very easy to catch.

Although this lake is not known for trophy sized trout, it makes up for it with sheer numbers and trophy sized trout do get caught here from time to time. I know of at least one 10lb brown that was landed at Tantangra only a couple of months ago, so there is always that outside chance that the next fish you hook into could be that fish of a life time.