The last month has produced some good fishing at times in the few remaining waters we have left, but low water levels are making access more difficult as each dry week goes by. The Wimmera River in most sections is now very low and weedy, and the only lake with good access for boaters is Lake Wartook. Most anglers are not bothering too much with the local fishing scene at the moment, but there has still been some good fishing for the keen ones amongst us.

The river is looking pretty sad in most stretches with low water, weed, salt pools and algal blooms all a real problem at the moment. However there still fishable pools of water at Riverside, Horsham Weir and lower Norton which are looking good compared to the rest of the river.

There has been some great fishing in the river at Riverside with yellowbelly and a few Murray cod to 65cm hitting lures and spinnerbaits. The occasional good-sized silver perch has also been caught, mostly on Ondex spinners, which have also been good for the yellowbelly. The water is fairly clear and healthy at Riverside and lurefishing has been outfishing bait by about ten to one.

Above and below Horsham Weir, catfish, yellowbelly, carp and Murray cod have been caught. Baitfishing is successful here, particularly in the evenings and after dark, with yabbies and worms the premier baits.

At lower Norton some good redfin to nearly 1kg, plus the occasional yellowbelly, have been taken on lures cast at the snags. Carp are abundant here, and there are catfish too. Both have been taken on worms.

The trout fishing was excellent in Lake Wartook over Christmas, with good numbers of rainbow trout to 1.4kg being captured, along with a few decent brown trout. I recently fished off of the wall with mudeyes suspended under bubble floats and took three good size rainbow trout and a big brown trout.

The trout are biting the best very early in the mornings and so far the hot weather hasn’t put them off the bite. This is a bit unusual for this time of year but I’m not complaining. Plenty of redfin are being caught too but they have been mostly very small. I’ve seen bigger sardines than the average Wartook redfin at the moment!

The lakes’ boat ramp was still in the water at Christmas, but that won’t be the case soon unless we get rain.

The fishing has fired up in Taylors Lake over the last month although the water level is now very low and boat launching has been difficult. A number of anglers here have been taking good bags of redfin and a few yellowbelly on yabbies and gudgeon. Some fish are also being caught on lures. The redfin are averaging around 500g but some bigger fish have been caught. Most of the yellowbelly have been of decent size.

The Murray cod have also been active here with many small cod being caught by anglers fishing for yellowbelly with yabbies. A nice 80cm cod was taken here last week on a lure. Trolling for cod is well worth a try here now as the water has cleared up. If we get a windy week though it soon churns up dirty again.

Baitfishing with worms from the bank has also been turning up a lot of carp from Taylors Lake at the moment as well.