Ballarat

Trout season underway

BALLARAT

Shane

Stevens Another trout season is well underway, our lakes and reservoirs are all full and overflowing, and the trout are mooching around in the shallows feeding on

Geoff Cramer nailed this lovely brown trout casting a Bent Minnow surface lure from Tullaroop Reservoir. Tom Jarman landing a ripper brown from Newlyn Reservoir on a black Woolly Bugger.

flooded-out worms, grubs and so on. The warmer weather is just around the corner, and the insect activity is bringing our fisheries alive once again after our winter slumber.

It’s a fantastic time of the year around the Ballarat and district for fishing, with a bit of sunshine; we all get enthusiastic, as do the trout in our waterways. As anglers, the anticipation of which fishery will fire up and when – and the potential to catch some ripper fish – is what our sport is all about. Our fisheries once again were heavily stocked by Victorian Fishing Authority over the winter months, which will give us ongoing catches for the coming few years. Anglers are thinking back to last trout season, where and when they caught some fish, and what bait/lures worked well, in preparation for this year.

It’s all part of fishing, which can and has been halted once again by COVID restrictions; much of our very early season has been halted just as some of the fisheries started to produce some excellent catches.

On the other hand, we can look at it from the trout’s perspective; they can feed all day and night on the newlyfound food sources without any interruption from us anglers. Still, hopefully this is only short-lived and we will be back out there catching a few fish.

Tullaroop Reservoir is my favourite early season fishery, and the water levels are higher than at this time last year. The water clarity is improving, with the trout feeding in the shallows early in the morning and in the evening, on grubs, worms and midge. On overcast days the fish are freely feeding on smelt. Tullaroop is just a smorgasbord of food for the fish.

The reservoir over the last few years has transformed

from a generally barren waterway to one of the most productive trout waters in the state. There are now extensive weed beds all over the reservoir, which are home to a host of insect life, for the trout to feed on. Over the next few months the water surface will be alive with damselflies and dragonflies buzzing around everywhere. It’s unbelievable to see how fertile this water is now compared to a few years ago. Tullaroop has been heavily stocked with brown and rainbow trout over the past few years by Victorian Fishing Authority. We are now really starting to see the fruits of the stockings with excellent well-conditioned fat rainbow and brown trout in varying sizes.

Geoff Cramer and I ventured up to Tullaroop recently, and we were quite surprised to see the water level was higher than at this time last year. It’s over virgin ground which will be full of food, for the trout to feed on. We didn’t see any surface action from feeding trout, and probably a good reason for that as there were only a few midge buzzing on the surface. This will change, as I mentioned earlier.

Our plan of attack was to cast a few surface lures around to see if we could catch the eye of a feeding trout. It didn’t take long before Geoff was hooked up on a ripper brown trout around the 4lb mark on a Bent Minnow lure. After a good tussle Geoff landed the brown, we took a couple of photos and she was released to fight another day.

I continued prospecting along a very likely looking shoreline, when a brown stopped my Bent Minnow in its tracks, ripping plenty of line of my reel. After a good tussle the hooks pulled free, that’s fishing.

I cannot wait to get back up there, as I believe the fishing will be awesome at Tullaroop until at least early summer, when the weather really warms up

and water levels drop for irrigation purposes.

Newlyn Reservoir has really fired up early this season; the water has been overflowing down the spillway for a few months now. The trout have ventured in around the edges in search of food, and anglers have reaped the rewards, with the trout eager to eat a fly or lure. Tom Jarman, one of Australia’s leading trout guides, likes to fish our

Central Victorian lakes and reservoirs during winter and spring before concentrating on the rivers during the warmer months. He has been catching some magnificent brown trout from Newlyn over the past few months, mainly on Woolly Bugger fly patterns, with black and olive being the most successful colours. Tom generally likes to walk slowly around the shoreline looking for any disturbance from a feeding trout before casting. On days when it’s quiet, he will just prospect with the team of Woolly Buggers, generally with success. He says it’s just a matter of putting in the hard yards.

Ross Goyne has had some recent success at

Newlyn as well. On one session Ross decided he would cast some surface lures, but luck wasn’t on his side that day – he hooked into three fish before losing all of them as well as his favourite Bent Minnow. Ross decided he would go back and seek revenge, armed with a Stick Caddis fly this time, and he wasn’t disappointed. He was soon hooked up to a solid fish, and after a lengthy, nervous fight he landed his PB (personal best) 65cm brown trout estimated at 7lb. Ross took a couple of photos and released her for someone else to enjoy. At Newlyn the fishing will only improve over the coming months, for all methods of angling.

Hepburn Lagoon is fishing extremely well also. As most anglers know who fish Hepburn regularly, as soon as the warmer weather comes and irrigation is required, the water levels drop which reduces the amount of fishable water. The fishing definitely slows down, purely due to the water levels. Tom Jarman has been exploring what Hepburn has to offer, fly fishing from a boat. Tom has been loch-style fly fishing from the drifting boat using an intermediate sinking fly line with a team of Woolly Bugger fly patterns similar to the ones he has been using at Newlyn. He has been getting excellent results, landing some very nicesized brown trout around the 4lb mark. The use of water craft on waters like Hepburn and Tullaroop has certainly opened the options up to these fisheries over the past couple of years. Remember that Hepburn is an electric-only waterway, and that all other marine safety guidelines need to be adhered to.

Moorabool Reservoir, which is one of my favourite waters, is up over new ground. Reports have been limited due to restrictions, but as soon as they are eased it will be game on. I, like a lot of other anglers, am looking forward to tackling some of the ripper browns and rainbows lurking around the reservoir; early season fishing over the past few years has been exciting to say the least. I can’t wait to get amongst them myself, given the results I’ve had over the past few years.

Lake Wendouree has certainly flown under the radar over the winter months, with only a few reports filtering through. With the anticipation of mayfly and mudeye hatches starting over the next couple of months, this will definitely see angler numbers increase, which will result in more reports coming in.

Adrian Wright, who likes to fly fish Wendouree with a few mates from down Bacchus Marsh way, snagged a ripper brown trout measuring 63cm on a Magoo fly pattern. Adrian was fly fishing from a drifting boat. He said the fishing was quiet that day, and he had only one touch which he was lucky to bring to the net. After a couple of quick photos, she was released to fight another day. Adrian said he is looking forward to the next few months leading into Christmas, because the fishing is generally very good.

Image courtesy of Tom Jarman.

Tom Jarman has been catching some magnificent brown trout loch-style fly fishing from Hepburn Lagoon using an intermediate fly line teamed up with an olive

and black Woolly Bugger. Image courtesy of Tom Jarman. Ross Goyne landed his new PB trout in Australian waters from Newlyn Reservoir on a Stick Caddis fly.