Although the air is cooling down, the fishing this month is hot, especially at Blowering Dam and in the trout streams and rivers.

Blowering redfin are a good target. Schools are starting to become more concentrated in the deeper water as prepare for the annual spawning effort.

These fish are still trolling targets but extra-deep diving lures will be needed.

Fish will be anywhere from 6m-25m down but I find that there almost always are fish holding at 11m-13m so I always start my exploring around there.

The AC Slim Invader in the 40’ model is perfect for locating schools while trolling, as are heavily weighted soft plastics.

Even if you do not troll a heavily weighted plastic, it pays to have one rigged and as soon as you catch fish trolling, pull up and throw the plastic out and continue to catch fish until they shut down. Then do it all over again.

Alternatively, you can have an ice jig or blade rigged ready to go, as these lures are as good or even better than the plastics.

Murray cod and golden perch will be feeding up before the onset of Winter so they too will be worth focusing on this month.

Mid to late afternoon is the best time to target the natives at this time of year. The water is at its warmest in the late afternoon and the fish feel more comfortable and at their most active.

Natives are a lot like us in that they take in warmth from their surroundings so in the middle of a hot summers day they, like us, seek shade and wait until the sun goes down before becoming active. But when the nights and mornings are cool, they wait until the water warms by mid-afternoon before they go about their business.

Blowering trout can be a bit hit and miss but from now until the end of Spring the water will be more to their liking and they are certainly worth targeting.

I find trolling or casting lipless crankbaits is the best way of finding trout here. These lures will catch just about anything that swims so you are not going to miss out on catching any other species in the process.

The other reason I like using lipless lures is that they sink so you can cover the entire water column while trying to work out where the fish are holding.

Summer trout fishing in the district was at times pretty tough with very little rain making the smaller streams run very low and clear. This meant the trout were super-spooky and very hard to catch for most anglers.

On the other hand, the Tumut River was in full flow due to the massive 8000ML a day releases from Blowering, which made fishing very difficult. But those who put the hard yards in were still rewarded with some quality fish.

Now that things have got back to normal and the Tumut River is relatively low and the creeks have been getting regular top-up of rain, the trout fishing is about as good as it gets.

With only weeks left in the season, if you have been putting off your trout fishing then now would be a great time to get stuck into them before you have to wait until October.

Whether you are fishing the Tumut River or one of the smaller rivers or creeks, it will be very hard to beat indictor nymphing and glo-bugging this month.

If you’re not into fly-fishing or think that you can’t fly-fish, then simply use a nymph and/or a Glo Bug on your light spinning rod. Use a small amount of split shot on your line and allow the flies to drift along somewhere close to the bottom and you should hook a few fish.

Spinning with small hardbodies like IMA Sukaris, Asari Matsutas or Rapala CD minnows in trout colours, clear colours or very natural colours is another great way of hooking plenty of trout this month.

The key to getting good numbers of fish is to keep covering lots of water. Once you finish fishing a pool or the fish stop biting, move upstream and get stuck into some more.

If you put the hard yards in this month you should be rewarded with plenty of fish.