The angling around the Ballarat district has certainly got the WOW factor.

Anglers around the district need to start think smarter now the warmer weather is upon us. It’s no good going fishing in the middle of a 30C bright and sunny day and expectg to catch a trout or redfin. Morning, evening and late into the night is when we should concentrate our efforts.

Hepburn Lagoon is back. Hepburn has been through a couple of stages since the drought broke with initial stockings of rainbow and brown trout in 2010 and follow up stockings each year.

Fly fishers and bait anglers have been having a ball catching brown trout averaging 1-3kg on evening or early morning. Fly fishers have been catching then on floating mudeye imitations. Mudeyes are hatching in their thousands and trout are being caught in only inches of water.

Lake Wendouree is unbelievable at the moment with trout and redfin being caught from the shore and boat: what a fishery to have in the middle of Ballarat. Anglers will need to fish the lake early mornings, on overcast days, evenings and late into the night to get the best results as the lake is only about 1.8m deep and on a bright sunny day the trout will sit on the bottom and wait for water temperatures to cool down over night.

Cam Griffin, a relatively new to the flyfishing scene in Ballarat has been having a ball catching some beautiful brown and rainbow trout fly-fishing from the shore. The most successful fly pattern Cam has been using is a Tom Jones fished with a very slow retrieve.

Mal Stevens has been loch style fly fishing out of the boat stripping wet fly patterns catching both rainbow and brown trout but missing quite a few trout when lifting his flies out of the water to recast. When lifting your flies out of the water to recast just hang them in the water for a couple of seconds because a lot of trout follow the flies all the way in and try to grab them as you go to recast.

Bait anglers have been having a ball at Wendouree using Powerbait on a running sinker rig or fishing a mudeye suspended under a bubble float. I fished up there recently with my three boys with my youngest son Max at 2.5 years old caught his first trout a beautiful rainbow trout of 1kg on Chartreuse Powerbait: what a rewarding day for a proud father.

Lake Fyans still continues to fish well for brown trout with bug mudeyes the best bait to use suspended under a bubble float. Fly fishers will need to start fishing the lake on evening and into the night with wet and dry mudeye patterns. This is the best time of the year when some very large trout come cruising into the shallows feeding on these delicacies.

There are many other waters in and around the Ballarat district that I have not mentioned and are fishing exceptionally well, but to get the best results fish early and late