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Give Local Streams A Try
  |  First Published: April 2005



Things have been cruising along not too badly down this way. The early season wet dried up in February and March and we have been thrown back into a normal year, which means that trolling lures at about 7m in Bullen Merri should work nicely. In late March into early April, the fish will respond well to larger style Lofties and Tassie Devils in white and pink. Chinook have continued through early autumn, taking baits fished in berley trails.

Purrumbete continues to be the pick of the brown trout waters. Tassies have also been successful in this water –try trolling them around the outside of the weed beds. Plenty of smaller rainbows have been taken on most methods with mudeye under a float being a good stand-by. Using this method also puts you in the picture for one of those big browns.

As things cool down, I wonder whether we may see the old-fashioned method of trolling blue bait, to tempt the odd big Chinook. Trolling blue bait on dusk was a sure thing in years gone by when the lake was well stocked with Chinook. It could be worth another try.

I believe some of our local streams are overlooked by visitors to the area and think that they are well worth a look. The Gellibrand River carries a good stock of brown trout. There are plenty of fish up to 1kg with some monsters taken in the lower reaches around Princetown. These magnificent river browns are capable of pulling the scales to 8lb and are suckers for rebel lures when conditions are right.

Lake Colac shuts down at this time of the year, but for those chasing redfin, both Purrumbete and Ellingamite are worth a look. As I have mentioned before, the browns in Ellingamite will be sipping insects off the surface at dusk on any calm night at this time of the year.

Wurdibuloc Reservoir has continued to fish well into the autumn with a few very big browns taken by some keen Geelong flyfishers doing the late night shift with mudeye imitations. West Barwon has also been fishing well for anglers casting Tassie Devil style lures in the dark purple and four x colours. This is another spot that seems to attract the locals in the know and not too many visitors. If you are coming west in the near future, plan to try a few of our lesser-known waters - it may just pay off.

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