You’d be hard pressed finding a better place to chase trophy golden perch than Blowering dam this month.

As the lake margins slowly start to warm, the goldens become very active and spend a lot of time in this warm water, sunning themselves and feeding heavily on everything from frogs and yabbies to worms and nymphs.

Polarised sunglasses are a good aid to spotting yellas because they often sit right in the thickest of weed, waiting to ambush something swimming past. Without a pair of polaroids they’d be almost impossible to spot.

If you don’t own a pair or conditions don’t suit the use of them, then blind casting with lures towards the bank is your best bet.

It is important to cast as close to the bank as possible because the yellas often sit in water as shallow as 30cm. Casting from the bank works really well but you must walk very slowly and cast well ahead of where you’re walking – these fish are right on the bank and easily spooked.

It is hard to go past good old spinnerbaits: The yellas love them and they rarely foul up in the weed or on snags. But I do really well on the lipless crankbaits each Spring, although they tend to pick up a lot of weed.

Long, slender paddletail soft plastics such as the Ecogear Grass Minnows and Power Shads rigged on 1/8z heads are your next-best bet. These plastics swim and look very natural and can sometimes turn on even the most shut-down yellas.

Fishing around the edges with small to medium yabbies or a big juicy earthworm is another good way of targeting the yellas this month. Both these baits are best used on a paternoster rig to keep them up out of the weed and in the fishes’ faces.

Trolling is probably the most popular technique employed by locals at Blowering and during Spring you find that there will normally be at least one Nilsmaster tied onto the end of at least one rod on almost every boat on the dam.

Although these lures are very popular and seem to work to some extent each year, I like to give the fish something a little different to increase my chances of hooking the monsters this dam is really famous for.

Some of the lures I troll with great success are not your typical trolling lures. For example, lipless crankbaits, especially the size 2 Prism Murrins, are perfect for shallow-water casting but I’ve found these lures also perfect for shallow trolling as well.

Spinnerbaits, soft plastics, Chatterbaits, Rock’n’Runners and even buzzbaits are all lures I’ve caught yellas on while trolling at Blowering. It pays to try something different and think outside the square for results.

I have recently started my own guiding business and one of my destinations is Blowering, where during Spring I take clients out in my electric powered canoe to polaroid big golden perch in the shallows with lures. If you’d like to join me or would like to find out a little more, email me or visit www.uniquefishingadventures.com.au .

There have been some very good reports of redfin over the past couple of months with hundreds of fish over the magic 2kg caught all over the dam, mainly by jigging or trolling.

These fish can be hard to find at times but once a school is located, they are quite easy to catch. Cast to them with sinking lures, drop ice jigs or a bait.

The redfin should move a little closer to the banks this month, back in range of shore fishos. Small lures or bait around drop-offs and points should get you action and also the chance of being belted by a big yella.