Cold overnight air temperatures and cooler days drop water temperatures very quickly on the Central Tablelands, triggering a feeding binge from native fish.

You can count on this feeding binge lasting for a couple of weeks, but a lot depends on the weather.

Trout, especially browns, also feed up big at this time of year.

Larger prey items seem to be more on the menu as well. Maybe instinct drives them towards better value-for-effort meals or it could just be that those small Spring and Summer fodder has grown a little more.

Either way, it does pay to offer a larger fly, lure, or bait at this time of year.

That’s not a misprint, well slightly, it should be ‘were chewing’. I normally concentrate on predicting the future fishing action, which is what it’s all about, so please forgive me for a moment.

Over Easter quite a few bass where caught at – are you ready for it? – Lake Wallace, or Wang Dam as it is affectionately known.

This has been bought about by some small stockings over the last couple of years.

I had heard of two other bass being caught some time ago, but it was third- or fourth-hand information I could not confirm.

More recently Mark Shanahan caught a 27cm specimen out of his canoe with a small crankbait. That was enough inspiration for me – I was off!

To cut a long story short, I ended up catching three bass one on a 7cm minnow and the other two on a surface lure. Wow, what a buzz!

The same morning I landed two nice rainbow trout, the larger one 1.37kg.

Those bass were the fattest I had seen for quite a while. During Easter I can confirm of four other bass caught, all around 25cm to 30cm.

I must thank DPI Fisheries for the faith they have shown, and to thank members of the local stocking committee who have pushed for the stocking of bass for a number of years. With the results shown, it sure is looking good for years to come.

If you haven’t already, it’s time to drag out those big cod lures.

As each season wears on, more and more anglers are embracing the notion of big lure, big fish, on waterways such as Wyangala, Burrendong, and Windamere.

I reckon we have only scratched the surface. Bigger lures and better designs for casting and trolling will be the next, well, big thing.

Just don’t expect to pay $15; they will be upwards of $40 and $50, maybe more. I can hear the cries, ‘I’m not paying that for a bloody cod lure!’ but many will, myself included, and the results will speak for themselves.

Catch me most Saturday mornings on radio 2KY’s Hi-Tide program with Kieran and Bruce between 5am and 5.30.