It’s safe to say that the cracking summer didn't quite eventuate.

In fact it's been very hit and miss, completely different to the last two summers in many ways. We haven't had any significant rain fall for three months whereas the previous two summers delivered plenty of spring and summer rain topping up the lake at consistent intervals which kept the water levels a lot steadier than this year.

With the basins that feed water to the irrigators needing a lot more water this year the lake has been dropping at an enormous rate, the release into the Goulburn has been between 6,500-8,500ML per day which in real terms means the lake has been dropping 5-8cm every day, which is a whole lot of water in any ones language. It seems to have unsettled the fish and their behaviour greatly.

There have been a few fish caught lately with local Ian Kemp catching a great 72cm Murray cod while trolling with his favourite purple 4m diving hardbodied lure. A few reports have been starting to flow in with yellas mostly around 30-35cm which fight very well for their size. With a bit of luck they will come back on the chew in March to feed up hard before the cold kicks in.

The only consistent thing has been the time the fish have been caught. Right on dusk also is also providing best results whereas the last two years you would catch them right through the day. The only species which have been chewing through the day is the reddies. While not massive in numbers, good sized fish of 1-2kg are common.

On the trout side of things there have been a couple of nice fish caught, with brown trout of 1-1.5kg loving the Berkley black and gold T-tails and Tassie Devils in the clown pattern doing the damage.

The amount of water being released a three pronged effect on the waterways up here. Not only is the lake affected but the river and pondage suffer also. The best places to fish with the water so high and fast in the rivers is at the junctions of the rivers and the calmest back eddies you can find.

Cast into the slower water with top-water hardbodied lures and where possible long pauses give long pauses in the retrieve and bang! They are not big fish but good fun all the same.

The Pondage is up and down like a yo-yo still making fishing difficult. Once again best time is when the water is coming up; Powerbait still smashing them.

The Acheron has also been fishing well with nice fish to 500g caught on scrub worms. It's easier to fish to with the water not flowing as hard.