Blowering Dam has been really firing lately, with cricket scores of redfin caught by pretty much everyone.

The most successful technique by far has been jigging with lures or bait, but many redfin have also succumbed to deeply-trolled lures. If you want to experience redfin fishing at its best, I’d suggest you plan a trip to Blowering soon.

Bait anglers have been getting plenty of nice redfin jigging with worms and small yabbies on paternoster rigs. Best results have come moving the bait slowly up and down off the bottom.

Bait anglers fishing for redfin have also been doing well from the bank at the dam wall and any other deep drop-offs.

Lure fishos jigging for redfin have had the most of success using ice jigs but there have been plenty caught on soft plastics and quite a few on lipless crankbaits, both rattling and the silent plastic or rubber versions.

Jigging for redfin is great fun but first you must find them. Either cruise around and search for schools with the sounder or troll until you catch a fish, a sure giveaway that you have found a school.

This time of year Blowering redfin hold deep, anywhere from 6m to 18m, although the majority seem to hang around in 8m to 13m.

There are plenty of lures that will get you to these trolling depths. AC Slim Invaders are my favourites but Ferralcatts, Strike Zone Squirts, Halco Poltergeist 50s and Luhr Jensen Deep Secrets are all worth a shot.

Soft plastics such as the Berkley Gulps or any 2” to 3” curl-tail plastics are worth a troll – that’s right, a troll.

The key to getting plastics down into the strike zone is to rig them on 1/2oz to 3/4oz jig heads and if you want to go deeper, simply go to a heavier jig head.

It sure beats messing around with downriggers and lead lines. This technique also works great on the trout.

Trout anglers should be out in force this month as the ‘unofficial’ Blowering trout season begins.

Most flatline trolled lures will do the job. The usual Tassie-style lures in any gold colour are always worth a shot but it does pay to experiment with colours during the day until you find the right one for the conditions.

Fly fishing or lure casting from the banks or in the many wind lanes are other good ways of targeting the trout.

Fly anglers seem to do best after dark with big wets like Hamill’s Killers, Mrs Simpsons and Woolly Buggers, but by targeting the wind lanes during the day it is possible to get a few on the dry fly as well.

When it comes to lure selection for trout I could go on for hours but I find the best lures are soft plastics, Rapala CD3 and CD5 minnows and spinners.

I recommend trying different lures as often as possible. I have caught more Blowering trout on lipless crankbaits over the past couple of seasons than I have on any other lure.

Night trolling for Murray cod is gaining a large following at Blowering.

There have been some absolute monsters caught this way recently and also at this time over the past couple of years.

Most cod lures will do the job but we find the bigger the lure, the better when targeting the resident green fish. It’s hard to beat the AC Invader 120 and 150.

Bait fishing can also be very productive this month but worms or grubs can be a bit of a lucky dip at times because most fish species in the dam will eat these baits.

If you want to target the Murray cod in particular, I recommend you use yabbies, preferably fairly big ones.

Bigger crayfish will keep most other species away, increasing your chances of hooking a big cod.

If you are coming up to Blowering Dam, it pays to be prepared for the worst weather. A beautiful, glassed-out, calm day can turn to howling gales, rain, snow and steep whitecaps in just a couple of hours.

So always prepare by taking extra warm clothes, a jacket, a beanie, gloves, thermal underwear if you own some, and wet weather gear – just to be safe.

Being over-prepared can make the difference between a comfortable day out on the water and a miserable day.

The first week of June will see many anglers out in their Winter woollies in the hope of one last trout for the season.

The fishing in the Tumut River just before the close of the season is often incredible.

The fish are preparing for their spawning run and are gorging on anything that swims below the surface or lands on it. As the old saying goes, you almost need to hide behind a tree to bait up!

Because it is in low flow, one can access most of the river, making it possible to get to your favourite hole with ease.

Usual trout techniques will work at this time of the year but I think that the most important thing is to cover a fair bit of the river because the trout will definitely stack up in the better runs.

If the hole you’re fishing hasn’t produced within 10 to 15 minutes, move on and continue to do this until you catch fish.

The majority of the biggest fish for the season are caught on the last weekend of the season – food for thought!