It’s hard to decide whether to chase the yabbies or the fish at the moment

Now that warmer weather is here the fishing sure has fired up a few notches with some excellent yellowbelly, redfin and trout being taken right across the Wimmera. The yabbying has also been great with waters such as clear Lake, Jalumba Swamp, Rocklands, Green Lake and Lonsdale producing some fine catches of great eating yabbies.

In fact the yabbying has been so good it is often a hard decision to choose between spending a weekend yabbying or chasing the fish. I like to do both, which makes Lake Lonsdale ideal for me, let’s hope they keep some water in there for us this summer.

This is still our most popular water with some hefty brown trout to 2.8kg being taken along with rainbows to 2kg. Most of these trout are being taken on mudeye fished under bubble floats or Powerbait on running sinker rigs. Trolling lures is still taking a few trout but mudeye fishing has been far more productive. There are a few nice trout being taken by fly anglers with wets such as Mrs Simpsons and Woolly Buggers working well.

This is a great time of year to be chasing the yellowbelly in the river and areas such as Horsham Weir; lower Norton, Dimboola and Jeparit have been producing good catches of yellowbelly on lures such as Stumpjumpers and Ballista Dynos and triggers as well as spinnerbaits. Bait fishing with worms and yabbies has also been working well but there are huge numbers of carp about this year and eager to take any baits thrown at them. There has also been a few catfish and silver perch about along with a few nice redfin, particularly between Jeparit and Dimboola.

After many months of not much action here, the reddies have now started to fire up and they have been a bit on the large side too. Anglers trolling diving minnows or drifting with gudgeon and small yabbies have been delighted to bag some hefty redfin to 2kg with most averaging around 1kg. These are excellent reddies to catch and even better eating. The yabbying has also been good here after dark. Water levels are a bit of an issue here, as this often the first lake to be drawn down come summer, so it pays to check the levels before making the trip.

There has been plenty of trout getting caught on mudeye fished under bubble floats with most trout caught around 1-1.5kg. I haven’t heard of any big trout being taken here for a while but they are definitely in here, perhaps fishing after dark is the way to get on to the bigger ones here at the moment. The redfin fishing has been excellent with many being caught up to 1.8kg on small yabbies and gudgeon. Trolling small minnow lures has also been working well on the reddies here.

There has been a few nice redfin getting caught here along with a few yellowbelly around 1kg. Bait fishing with worms and small yabbies has been working well but you do have to go through a lot of carp before you have a chance on the reddies and yellas. The general ratio from most anglers I have been speaking to is 15 carp to one reddie or yella. There has also been a few small Murray cod and silver perch being taken here lately as well.