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No slowing down as the cooler weather arrives
  |  First Published: July 2013



The fishing in and around the district shows no sign of slowing down.

Lake Wendouree just seems to be ramping up and hopefully we look forward to a very wet winter and have our fisheries back up to high water levels after a very dry autumn.

Lake Wendouree

Lake Wendouree is simply fantastic. There is now a massive population of small baitfish in Lake Wendouree and trout are chasing them all over the lake. I have been fishing the lake for 25 years and I haven’t experienced smelt feeders here and what an exciting and extremely frustrating fishing it can be.

The brown and rainbow trout are now solely tuned in on feeding on smelt which are using the weeds as cover from the predators in the lake: trout, redfin and birds.

Trout are smashing through schools of baitfish which can be seen breaking the surface to evade the hungry trout. This fishing is exciting and frustrating as trout are moving very quickly through the water chasing smelt and cover a lot of water. You have to very quick and accurate in casting lures or flies and predict which way the trout has gone.

John Monteduro landed two nice fish up to 2kg on smelt patterns recently and Cam Griffin and Scott Xanthoulakis have been having a ball on brown and rainbow trout to over 2kg on smelt patterns like Woolly Buggers in colours that resemble small bait fish.

Flyfishing is not the only way to catch fish on the lake at the moment, as bait anglers are catching good fish and trolling lures is catching trout and redfin with small hardbodied lures and soft plastics.

Hepburn and Newlyn Reservoirs

Newlyn Reservoir is fishing very well for trout and redfin; all forms of general angling have been successful .

Hepburn lagoon is very hard to fish at the moment with low water levels and lots of weed but as we get winter rains the level should rise and will be high on anglers’ lists to fish going on the results of the past fishing season.

Tullaroop Reservoir

Tullaroop Reservoir will be a good water to target during the winter months. The fishing pressure on this water is relatively low with good water levels and a healthy population of trout from stockings over the past few years should produce some excellent catches. Tullaroop generally fishes very well during the winter months and the trout scan be seen chasing smelt all over the reservoir. Flyfishing, lure casting and bait fishing are all very productive methods of angling.

Tooliorook Reservoir

Lake Tooliorook is another water that desperately needs water. It should continue to fish well during the winter months, although reports have been a bit patchy of late. I’m sure with a bit of water in the lake it will fish well again, as it has a healthy population of both brown and rainbow trout. Going on how the lake fished last winter we should have excellent results there should be rainbow trout in excess of 3-4kg.

Bait fishing with Powerbait, salted whitebait and bluebait or mudeyes fished under bubble floats will catch fish as well as trolling bright coloured lures. Flyfishers should use bright coloured flies as well as Woolly Bugger patterns fished from the shore or if in a boat look for the rocky shorelines.

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