"

Spring action fires up anglers
  |  First Published: October 2009



Newlyn Reservoir, only about 20 minutes from Ballarat, has seen plenty of action.

I mentioned a few months ago that there was a few really good sized brown trout out there chasing smelt during the winter; well they are still there.

The water has risen due to good spring rains and the trout are cruising around the edges feeding on the grubs and other crustaceans that have been flooded out. I wouldn’t expect anglers to go out and get a bag full of fish as the reservoir hasn’t been stocked for quite a few years but what you get will be well worth catching.

Ballarat angler Andrew Dellaca decided to head out to fish Newlyn on evening casting a Berkley 3inch smelt pattern soft plastic along the lake margins. Andrew caught a lovely brown trout of 60cm and around 5-6lb to the lure, and after a good fight Andrew the fish to fight another day.

Ballarat’s other waters close to home well worth trying over the next few months before the weather gets to hot and water level fall again: these are Cosgroves Reservoir and Dean Reservoir. Jubilee Lake at Daylesford has just had a release of trout up 2kg by Fisheries Victoria into the lake and small water worth looking at is Talbot Reservior at Evansford.

Lake Ellingamite

Lake Ellingamite at Cobden continues to be one of the places to go. It’s only a small lake; boats up to 4.5m with a shallow draft are suitable, as you have to pull yourself out with a rope that has been anchored out in the lake through shallow water not deep enough to motor out. Once out into the lake the water deepens to about 20’ deep in the middle. Gordon Thompson has still been catching rainbow and brown trout up to 6lb on mudeyes suspended under a bubble float.

I recently visited Elingamite and while flyfishing managed to catch a magnificently conditioned rainbow trout of 3lb on a Black Woolly Bugger retrieved slowly and lose another one about the same size. Whilst there two other anglers caught about 20 redfin casting Tassie Devil lures out of an anchored boat, with some fish up to 3lb.

Lake Fyans

Lake Fyans up in the Grampians region that continues to fish well with brown trout being caught around 1.5kg. Kevin Brady, a member of the Ballarat Anglers Club caught three lovely fish on mudeyes fished under a bubble float. Lake Fyans will fish well over the next few months as the Grampians region has had plenty of rain up there and the water level is about 40% full; the best for many years. There are reports that Fisheries will stock the lake again with trout - we hope they do.

Reads: 2184

Matched Content ... powered by Google