The fishing has been steady in the southern highlands, with most waters producing good fishing and some such as Lake Burbury and Lake King William being brilliant.

We haven’t seen much beetle activity at the usual hot spots like the Dee Lagoon or Lake Echo, so hopefully we’ve still got that as well as jassids to come, I just hope we don’t get a situation like mid-Autumn last year, when the gum beetle and jassid fishing was really starting to fire up, then we got a cold snap with a fall of snow that shut the fishing down over night! So here we are April already, we are really into the tail end of the season now!

Forget about Lake Meadowbank for the rest of the season, it will be drawn down to very low levels for dam maintenance from the April 3 until the end of May. Cluny Lagoon, Lake Repulse, Lake Catugunya and Wayatinah Lagoon are all worth a visit though and they traditionally fish well for the last month of the brown trout season. All methods are effective but trolling and drift spinning will be the most effective, Cluny is a great water for grasshopper imitations though, with many grassy banks that hold big numbers of hoppers.

On calm mornings lately, I’ve seen a few fish midging just out from the Binney wall so it’s always worth look a look, you can also find fish feeding on beetles along here also, otherwise around the interconnecting canals and the White water at Bradys are the spots to head to.

What can I say, where would we be without Bronte Lagoon! Bronte has been fishing well throughout the summer, although the fish have been frustrating at times with their damselfly feeding antics by being very selective. When you fool one though the browns have been in superb condition.

Right on dark the fishing has also been good, with a mate landing seven recently on a black spinner imitation. Hopefully the gum beetles or even jassids will spawn some good late season dry fly fishing on those fantastic calm warmish April days that we all love. The treed shores will be best but any of the other shores and bays will produce good fishing, the sheltered water in front of the shacks can really turn it on at times.

Echo has been a bit hot and cold, although young dynamo Nathan Huizing has been fishing it in between his mako shark chasing forays. Nathan and his mates recently fished the Large Bay area getting follows every second or third cast and landing a few on Strike Pro Flats minnows and Rapala UL minnows, they also saw many fish rising. Echo could well be a prime water in April as it fishes well when the Gum Beetles are around in mass.

King William has fished well the whole season; I can’t see why it won’t keep it up, until the weather turns anyway. I’ve had some good fishing around the Gravel Pits with fish rising to a Glister Tag or a Zulu well, when cleaned these fish contained plenty of shrimp, they had no problems rising to the dry though.

The Lake is getting low now so the best bet is to head to the Guelph Basin, plenty of fish in some great country, low riding English Hopper flies work well here as does the Glister or Red Tag, I’d also hang a small size 14 or 16 007 nymph on a dropper off the hook bend of the dry, they love the 007 here.

The beetles have been absent from the Dee also so fingers crossed, hopefully April will be the month for them and the jassids, if not the morning wind lanes and midge feeders are always reliable after a calm  night.

Lake Burbury really has turned it on. A mate of mine in mid-February had three mornings on his own up there in ideal conditions, on the first morning he landed 18 with most around 1kg with some of the rainbows approaching 1.3kg and all in great condition.

The next two mornings although not as good as the first still gave up plenty of fish, he drove home very satisfied! April can be even better; with the settled weather that is usual at this time of year. Cubit Mudeyes in both sizes 6 and size 8 and bead head Green Nymphs and wet mudeye imitations work well.

I prefer the water north of the bridge, that’s only personal preference though, the water south all the way down to the Darwin end is also great fishing.