Fishing can be a frustrating sport. One day you can catch them and think it is easy and the next day not a thing.

But what brings us back time and time again is the chance to catch that trophy fish.

Camperdown angler Steven Riches just happens to be one of the lucky anglers out there to catch a trophy brown trout. Recently Steven was fishing minnows for a feed of tasty redfin at Purrumbete in about 20m of water when a large brown trout of 10lb 5oz grabbed his minnow.

We don’t know who got the biggest surprise, the trout or Steven, but cool heads prevailed and the brown trout was successfully landed.

My suggestion to all anglers out there is to remember to always check your gear before you head out, because you just don’t know when it could be your turn to catch that trophy fish.

Ballarat and district anglers have had to on the road to catch a few fish. At Lake Purrumbete the trout have gone a little quiet for the moment but the redfin are still biting. Brian Nygaard has been catching them around 15-20m deep, fishing minnows suspended just off the lake bottom. As mentioned in previous columns on Purrumbete, the redfin like moving bait.

At Lake Bullen Merri there have been reports of trout being caught trolling lures at depths of 10-12m; downriggers or paravanes are required to get lures down to these depths.

Lake Fyans is one of my favourite fisheries. Jim Williams, a very keen fly angler from Melbourne, has been flyfishing Lake Fyans recently. He has been catching plenty of small to medium sized redfin and also brown trout to 1.5kg by casting brown and green Woolly Bugger fly patterns out of the boat.

Lake Fyans will continue to fish well into the end of autumn and winter when the fish will start to chase the minnows around the lake which brings exciting and frustrating fusing as well.

Lake Belfield is not far away from Lake Fyans, located at Halls Gap. The redfin have been on the bite, with Luke Barby catching them one after another while flyfishing. The bait anglers and lure casters have also been catching them. They range from pan size up to around the 1kg mark.

Lake Belfield has a few boating regulations that must be followed: you’re only allowed to use electric motors if you are planning a trip there.

Back closer to Ballarat there is a handful of waters for us anglers to try like Newlyn, Cosgrove, Dean, St Georges Lake and also Jubilee Lake at Daylesford.