What a trout season so far – don’t forget about the bass either, as they’ve been going good as well. The constant rain and wind hasn’t been much liked by the saltwater anglers. However, the trout guys don’t mind at all, as it has kept all our rivers up high and flowing well, which has given us a ripper trout season so far. We should have a few good months left as well.

Surprisingly, the bass have been going well, despite the cold conditions. Most of the bass have been caught on garden worms, but on the odd evening, they’ve been taking hardbody lures and surface lures, especially down at Blue Rock Lake. Glenmaggie has been the most productive for land-based anglers and worms fished on a light running sinker rig has been the best method.

The Strzelecki streams are fishing well, but seem to be dropping in water level quickly after a few days of no rain. It will be interesting to see how they fish as the weather warms. Most of the trout are getting caught on spinners such as Mapsos and Vibrax, but small soft plastics are working well too. The larger rivers such as the Macalister and the Thomson are fishing well – they’re worth a visit.

They’ve been producing brown trout consistently to 35cm on most lures and soft plastics as well. For the fly guys, we’ve had the odd termite hatch and dunn hatch, so we’ve had a couple of opportunities to use dry fly. Bead head nymphs are by far doing most of the damage when fished with a strike indicator.

Over the next month, bass should really come on strong and we should have plenty of opportunities to catch them on surface lures in the evenings. Both Blue Rock and Glenmaggie will be worth fishing hard for the next few months over summer.

1

Young Hamish Burge with a fantastic brown trout he caught by himself on a Berkley soft plastic.

2

Lochie Thompson with a 40cm bass caught off the bank at Lake Glenmaggie on garden worms.