I know it’s hard to believe, but another year has passed…unfortunately it was another very dry year. Nevertheless late spring rain resulted in Lake Eildon rising 20cm or so, which is unusual for December.

Lake Eildon continues to produce good golden perch. Vicky at Totally Trout in Alexandra has had a number of happy fishers hand in good reports. One angler caught six golden perch of 2-6kg by trolling in the Delatite Arm.

Bradley Ettridge and myself trolled the Delatite Arm and Brankeet Arm junction catching half a dozen golden perch on small Codger lures. Mid afternoon was the best time. We also landed a few redfin around Italian Bay.

On another trip I did with the George brothers from Kyabram, a number of golden perch were caught around the main wall on silver and pink No. 2 StumpJumpers. We also caught redfin by bobbing baits around trees near the boat harbour. On the same trip I managed to catch a 2kg rainbow trout trolling a number 26 Tassie Devil on a flat line around Bolte Bay.

Purple Oargees and StumpJumpers in green frog pattern, as well as spinnerbaits cast amongst timber, are enticing golden perch as well.

Yabbies are proving to be the best live bait. Redfin and golden perch have been caught on yabbies in the Delatite Arm. One angler caught five golden perch on yabbies in the Brankeet Arm. The redfin are a bit patchy and require a fair bit of tree hopping to locate. They should really start to fire up in the next couple of months.

Gazza at Eildon Bait and Tackle had a group of blokes buy him out of all his pink Gillies Hopper lures. They described the trout in a frenzy and said they caught about 120 trout in a couple of days near the Breakaway.

Green Celtas and Vibrax spinners are also netting trout around the Breakaway area.

A flyfisher reported catching 21 rainbow trout on a Grey Wulff fly. Nymphs have been very productive around Gilmores Bridge, with one flyfisher catching nine trout to 1kg. Orange spinners and wattle grub patterns are other flies getting good results at the moment.

Shazz and Sue at the Thornton General Store have reported that a young local by the name of Jared Dundas has been digging worms and fishing the river after school and of a weekend. He was very happy to report he has been catching many trout. Another fisher reported catching a 5kg trout on homemade dough.

The Eildon Pondage has enjoyed a very long and sustained purple patch for anglers. This has slowed up over the past month, but the odd trout is still being caught on PowerBait in green, orange and rainbow colours. A 2kg brown trout was caught near the caravan park on rainbow PowerBait.

For more information on fishing in the Eildon area, contact Wayne at Hooked on the Goulburn Fishing Tours in Alexandra (0428 345 366).

Bradley Ettridge, of Tumbling Waters, with a 1.5kg golden perch he caught trolling a small Codger lure in the Brankeet Arm of Lake Eildon. The lake has risen 20cm in December.