Dedicated fishers who have persisted have come up trumps, catching fish of varying sizes with lures outfishing bait.

The boys from Bendigo, Hromenko, Stevens, Miles, Scoble, Harrison, Blow and company, spent countless hours searching the lake and turned up plenty of fish over 70cm mark. Peter Hromenko topped the table with a beautiful fish of 105cm on a Bassman spinnerbait. Roger Miles was part of this crew and managed a magnificent 95cm fish off the surface.

Mr Lowrance, Dave Silva, had many guests staying with him over the holidays and they fished hard every day, trolling up plenty of fish. The pick was caught by Grant Noonan on a purple and black Oar-Gee and measured 97cm.

The run of big fish continued when Mulwala gun Dan Hawkins trolled up a 93cm cod on a Bassman spinnerbait.

Keen Echuca lure fisher Winton Brown made a day trip over to fish the top end of the lake and was rewarded with several nice fish to 96cm.

As usual, local George Jovanovic spent countless hours towing big deep-diving lures around and was rewarded with two nice cod over 1m.

All these big fish mentioned were released, so well done to all concerned.

Joe Lineham came up with a story about the one that got away. After numerous attempts to land a big green fella, and armed only with a set of lip grips, Joe’s leader gave way. All he could do was watch a fish estimated around 1m swim away.

Mr. Oar-Gee lures, Wayne Lennon, took a day trip down from Wagga with a keen young angler Zac Manning, who had a great afternoon trolling up a couple of fish to his new PB of 57cm.

I had an afternoon and evening session with Paul Hetherington and Anthony Pavlou. Paul opened the account with a nice 48cm golden perch on an Outlaw spinnerbait. Anthony followed with a cod on a Bassman Mumbler, then a fish on one of his new personally designed lures. I tangled with four cod, with two taken from the surface. The best of these fish was only a touch over legal size but all in all, seven fish in a couple of hours made for some great fun.

Fishing below the weir is proving very hard for all lure anglers, as was shown in the recent Golden $$$ Fishing Challenge. Wagga boys Graeme Clark and Jim Taylor took home the big money with three quality goldens. Gravo and Billy Bob from Deniliquin came second place, while event favourite Joe Lineham and partner Will Smith finished third.

Over the next month the lake should continue to fish well with most deeper parts producing fish. The river hasn’t fired yet but plenty of undersize fish will be about to pester the bait fishers.

The local Yarrawonga and Mulwala Angling Club’s yearly competition will be on April 19 and 20 and a great weekend is assured. For more information call Mal at Mal’s Tackle Box on 03 5743 1711.

If you do come across a good fish around the Yarrawonga and Mulwala area, I’m keen to hear about it and will try to report it in future issues –email me.