Mayflies have responded in a big way to the warm weather on a few of the Ballarat lakes, creating great dry fly action.

The flyfishing continues to produce good trout captures with mayfly duns and spinners about in good numbers. They’re now the main dietary target of the stocked trout. These hatches are very dependent on weather conditions, which need to be overcast and windy for the duns or mild, sunny and a light wind for the spinners. Trout have ranged from 250g to 900g, with the odd bigger trout seen.

Bait fishermen are also taking the odd trout on mudeyes under a float. The most productive time of day is early morning.

December will see the mayfly hatches continue. Keep a look out for the adult stonefly hatches that can sometimes fool flyfishermen into thinking the trout are on mayflies.

Bait fishermen have been taking some big rainbow trout to 1.5kg with one group catching and releasing a total of 12 rainbows. Earthworms were there best bait. Tuna oil was also used to attract the trout.

Mayflies have begun to hatch, but this has only just started with emerging nymphs trouts main target. These mayfly hatches should continue through December.

There’s been some small trout caught there recently, possibly as a result of a recent stocking of yearling fish. They’ve been taken on earthworms, scrubbies, maggots and mudeyes suspended under a float.

Think carefully about how many of these smaller trout you keep because the reservoir is only small – we need to give some the chance to grow big. Bait fishing will be the most productive method in December.

Tullaroop continues to fish well with bait anglers taking good trout from 1kg to 2.5kg on live minnows, mudeyes and scrubworms. Flyfisherman Dave Edwards fished the lake recently and told me that he sighted the odd nice trout smelting and managed to hook and lose two trout that he estimated to be in the 6lb range. Dave’s choice of fly was a size 10 Tom Jones.

Anglers fishing Tassie Devil lures around the dam wall are taking brown trout from 250g to 1kg, while bait anglers are having success along the western shoreline, fishing earthworms on the bottom and mudeyes under bubble floats.

Bait fishermen continue to do well using maggots under a float along the dam wall. Most trout have been small rainbows so I guess that, like Dean, a stocking in the not distant past has given the reservoir a boost of small but keen trout.