With most of the holiday makers back at home this month, the waters should settle down again after all the boat activity.Lakes in the district will change as the waters warm up even more during February and March. Bullen Merri this summer and early autumn will become the place to be for fisherman chasing bass. These northern fish have been stocked over a number of years and every summer we see a larger number of these fish being taken. It only seems a matter of time before fishermen using spinnerbaits, deep diving lures and plastics, fished deep around the rocky areas will be rewarded with fish that should be up around the one and a half kilo mark. Purrumbete has been fishing well for Atlantics. The best method has been to anchor up in 30 metres of water, berley, then use pillie fillets, whitebait or glassies lowered to the bottom and then raised a few turns of the reel. Atlantics over four kilos have been taken using this method.Lake Colac has been reliable for redfin and will continue that way while things are warm. The once popular Lake Modawarre now neglected by the fisheries seems to have purged itself of some of those huge carp that it has been known for. A recent fish kill of what only appears to be carp, was estimated at 100 tons. No apparent reason has been found as to why they died, but if what ever killed them only affects carp, it may be a handy thing to copy in a few other waters.Local streams continue to produce a few nice fish on the fly. Lower Gellibrand has again turned up some very nice browns to 3.2 kilos on Rebel lures. The lower section below the Ocean Road carries small numbers of fish but usually they’re thumpers. As is the norm for February and March a number of locals spend plenty of time chasing blackfish in the middle section of the Gellibrand with great success. Remember, on those hot, muggy nights, take a few little yabbies and you cannot go wrong on these lovely eating native fish.As the calmer warmer months close in on us remember lakes like Elligamite will have an evening hatch that will bring some of those prize browns to the surface. If you do fish this lake into the dark make sure you have a very good torch with you, as it can be very hard to find the channel back to the boat ramp without one.