This article is all about the bass. I apologise to those who are used to me talking about the trout, but it’s very exciting that the bass are finally going great.

Summer has kicked in and this is when bass really get on the chew. Plenty of anglers have been taking advantage of the hot weather and getting out to our local streams, which are now fully stocked with these great fish and are having a ball.

Fisheries have done a great job and most of our streams now have bass in them. The catchments that are producing the most are the rivers and tributaries adjoining the Thomson, Glenmaggie and Blue Rock catchments.

The bass are growing well and we are seeing plenty of baby bass anywhere from 12-21cm commonly in our streams with the odd one pushing 35cm in the same areas. These bigger bass are most stocked post-2002 and the smaller bass are the recent generations stocked over the past couple of years.

The important thing to remember when chasing bass is that they don’t seem to bite in the middle of the day. All the bass are getting caught after 3pm until dark. Also, it’s the hot days that fish well. If you have a cold overcast day, they don’t seem to want to play, but as soon as you get a stinking hot day, they go crazy.

The majority of the fish are getting caught on lures, so lure size is important. As most of the fish aren’t very big yet, select floating, shallow diving or sinking bibbed minnows in 3-5cm; there are some bigger fish in Blue Rock getting caught on bigger lures. The ultimate lure has been small tiny spinnerbaits or jig spinners, which are a spinnerbait body that you can attach your own little soft plastic onto. One of the best working lure has been a jig spinner with a small 2” grub tail attached. These will take the smaller bass as well, plus they are relatively snag proof.

As regular readers would know, the Strzelecki streams have had some trouble over the past year with trout stocks, and fisheries were very interested in doing further investigations on stream habitat and trout quantities. No more surveys have been done yet, however they assure me they are getting around to it.

Nevertheless, we have had some good news that the trout numbers are healthier than they were 1 year ago and, in Traralgon Creek in particular, we have semi descent numbers of trout in the lower reaches. I have seen a few trout being spooked as high up as Koornalla Park, which is promising. The numbers are still a lot lower than they were 3-4 years ago, but it’s a start and it looks like we have new trout moving upstream and taking up residence again in the deeper holes on the river bends.

This is very similar to what’s been happening in the Morwell River and the smaller streams further south, however the trout are a bit wider spread throughout the upper reaches. Hopefully Traralgon Creek will fix itself and return to normal. I still think there are some habitat issues though.

For more information, contact Will at Allways Angling in Traralgon on 51748544. You will get expert advice and great deals on fishing bait and tackle. Tune into Rex Hunt and Lee Rayner’s Off the Hook on 1242 to hear Will’s report on what’s going on in Gippsland!