Ballarat

Top winter trout fishing

BALLARAT Shane Stevens

Angers who have braved the elements over the past month have certainly been blessed with some awesome winter trout fishing around the Central Highlands Region of Victoria. I can’t remember the fishing being win-win for anglers.

I have said over the past few months that Tullaroop Reservoir would be one of the top winter fisheries, and it has certainly not let me down. Anglers have been reporting excellent catches of both rainbow and brown trout. They are being caught from both boats and from the shore, with all angling

Gordo Dow having a purple patch at Tullaroop Reservoir, landing a 5lb smelt feeding rainbow trout

on a damsel fly pattern. Image courtesy of Gordon Dow. Gordo said it was the result of putting in the hard yards and covering plenty of miles by foot to catch them.

I’ve had a couple of days where I couldn’t do a thing wrong and other days where I never got a sniff, but that’s the luck of the draw. Some days the fish are up and about, while other days you will hardly see one. I walk the shoreline watching and waiting for the fish to feed on smelt, and as soon as I see one, I get my flies out as fast as possible – hopefully in the right direction. They are bloody frustrating. They move so quickly, smashing through the schools of smelt but if you get your flies in the right spot, they are willing to eat them most of the time (at other times not even a look). A Newlyn Reservoir smelting brown trout caught by

Tom Jarman. Image courtesy of Tom Jarman.

so good at this time of the year. It will probably taper off when we hit the middle of winter and the trout have changed their focus from feeding to spawning, but there is an old saying – make hay while the sun shines.

I also believe the Paul ‘Fossil’ Walker nailed this 57cm Lake Wendouree brown trout casting a Bent Minnow type lure, under the watchful eye

of the master Trevor Holmes. Image courtesy of Trevor Holmes.

Moorabool Reservoir produced the goods once again for Geoff Cramer, landing a lovely 2kg+ rainbow trout on a Bent Minnow style lure.

excellent fishing we are having is due to the fish stockings and the stocking strategy that is in place by Victorian Fishing Authority as part of the Target One Million campaign. The amount of extra fish stocked into our waterways is a methods rewarding the anglers. Don’t expect to head to Tullaroop and catch a bag full of fish though; you still must put in the hard yards to reap the results. On some of my trips I’ve had the opportunity to catch them, but luck hasn’t been on my side. It’s a matter of

making the most of every opportunity that is on offer.

Gordon Dow from Bendigo, who regularly fishes Tullaroop, has been having a purple patch recently, landing some excellent rainbow to 5lb and brown trout to 6lb on the fly.

Devon Lock and cousin Tristan Lock have been catching some quality brown trout lately, trolling lures from their kayaks at Tullaroop. The boys have been trolling hardbodied lures in around 4m of water or casting surface lures along the outside of the weed beds. On one of their most recent trips, Devon nailed a magnificent 62cm, 6lb buck brown trout trolling a Daiwa Double Clutch lure which certainly gave him a run for his money. Tristan was looking like having a donut until he decided to cast Bent Minnow lures along the outside of some of the weed beds which are scattered along most shorelines nowadays. He worked a weed bed with the Bent when a healthy brown trout came out and engulfed the lure, to save the day. Tristan said this method has worked well for him over the past couple of years.

I have had reports from other anglers who have been fishing baits from the shore catching some very nice rainbow trout up to 5lb. The baits they have been using are scrub worms, PowerBait, salted whitebait or bluebait, and also mudeyes under a float. I expect Tullaroop to fish well now right through until late November early December for trout. Hopefully we’ll get plenty of rain and the water will come up over fresh ground again like last spring.

Lake Wendouree has been a little on the quiet side, with not many reports filtering through. This