Thank goodness for the warmer conditions up here, I was wondering if it was ever going to turn.

Now we have predictions of very, very hot and dry weather conditions well into next year, all points to outstanding fishing condition for the next six months or so. But with the extra heat it will be interesting to see what happens with the blue green algae now that a fair chunk of the underlying trees and shrubs are pretty well dead. Let’s hope it doesn’t bloom too much.

These predictions in the weather really suit the natives and reddies up at the lake and the consistent flows in the Goulburn (we hope) will really see a great end to spring and right through summer. I said last month the yellowbelly fishing was going to be great and so far it hasn’t disappointed with good numbers of fish being caught all over the lake with Frasers being a standout early in the season.

It is about now that they will really school up in big numbers. Don’t be surprised if you catch a large female, and there may well be several smaller males sniffing around as your fish comes to the surface. So if you are fishing with a mate always cast in behind and if there is another fish double hooks are heaps of fun.

The golden rule is slow, slow, slow if you want to try something different try drop shotting your favourite soft plastics. I have used Berkley Gulp in Banana Prawn and Camo Craws to great success it is a lot easier to fish almost dead stick with this method rather than just a jig head. If you are using this style and you are catching tiny reddies its a good sign that there may not be any large yellas in that area, so it may pay to move.

You may also want to fish in deeper water off the points with Jackall syle lipless crankbaits and deeper diving suspending hardbodied lures. Rip ‘em down hard and just let them sit and hang. Quite a few small cod have been taken as by-catch but remember cod season is still closed until December 1.

Good numbers of trout have been caught with the Bonnie Doon end producing great fish up to 2.5kg and surprise, surprise, all browns. I’m starting to wonder where all the ‘bows have gone. I know one thing, someday when the water gets back to around 30-40% some big rainbows will be caught around the 5kg plus range.

In October the river got down to a decent flow of around 1000ML per day, which is a great height to fish the Goulburn and it has produced some cracking fish up to 3kg with plenty of fish between 500g-1kg.

It’s this time of year in the rivers when the Berkley Black and Gold T-Tails and Ripple Shads come into their own. Gulp 1” crickets will also be a hard meal for the trout to refuse. Use these little guys with a 1/32oz or 1/24oz size 4 jig head.

The Acheron is in the best nick it has been for quite some time and is producing good results with fish up to 1kg reported recently. The Rubicon hasn’t fished as well as past years which is no surprise after the flogging it got recently, so let’s not keep flogging it guys?

Before the Eildon Trout Festival there were a lot of fish released and the pondages have fish fantastically of late with fish from 500g-2kg and everything in between, so come up and get into them.