VIC
Autumn fishing is firing up BALLARAT
Shane Stevens
We are now well and truly into autumn, which is one of my favourite times of the year to target freshwater species around the Central Highlands region, in particular trout and redfin. There are a couple of reasons why this is one of my favourite times of the year: the mayfly start to hatch once again, and water temperatures generally start to fall, which means trout will start to forage back in around the shallows once again. Also, both trout and redfin really start to feed up in preparation for their annual winter spawning campaigns, and generally they become very active feeders during the months of March, April and May. The fishing around the Ballarat region has really started to fire up, with excellent reports filtering through from many of our local waters, which include Wendouree, Moorabool,
Nick Whelan sneaks up to Lake Wendouree during his lunch break to fish the dun hatch. When the conditions are right, one lunch time he managed to latch onto a 65cm brown trout on a Shaving Brush. Image courtesy of Nick Whelan
A variety of lures that I will be using over the next few months on our local waters. Newlyn and Tullaroop. I’m sure there are other waters that are fishing well too, but I haven’t heard on the grapevine about them. The fishing on Lake Wendouree over the last month has really fired up. The weather conditions have been more conducive for fishing Wendouree – water temperatures have dropped, and we have had plenty of overcast days. This has fired up those feisty rainbow and brown trout we saw jumping all over the lake in the spring and early summer months. Steve Angee has been out on Wendouree casting soft plastics and Bent Minnow surface lures. He said it’s been some of the best fishing he has ever experienced. On one drift which was approximately 94 APRIL 2023
500m long, Steve said that he landed six trout in varying sizes up to 45cm. He had hit after hit, and dropped a number of fish off as well. He said that nearly every cast his Bent was getting hit. Steve continued to fish all over Wendouree that day, and caught trout and redfin in all areas of the lake, including a ripping 65cm male brown trout on a Fish Arrow soft plastic. I have fished Wendouree on numerous occasions over the past month, mainly from the boat, casting Bent Minnow lures. On one session I fished with Pete Cartledge and the action was thick and fast. We hit the water at about 11am, and caught fish after fish. Pete said it was the best session he’s
ever had casting Bents. The fish varied in size from small rainbows around 30-40cm, and browns from 30-46cm. We also caught some nice sized redfin around the 30cm mark. Fishing lures over the next few months will be one of the most productive methods used by many anglers, whether you fish from the shore or out of a boat or kayak. My suggestions are obviously surface/subsurface lures like Bent Minnows, small shallow-diving hardbodied lures and soft plastics. The autumn run of mayflies have started to hatch on Lake Wendouree. The news spreads very quickly around the angling fraternity that the duns are on the job, and anglers come from all over the state to fish the dun hatches. The dun feeders can be caught from both boat and shore. As soon as they start to hatch, which is generally around midday through to 3:30-4pm, the fish will start to feed on them. Nick Whelan has been getting amongst the mayfly/dun feeders whilst fly fishing from the shore. Nick sneaks up the lake during his lunch break when the conditions are right: overcast skies and a gentle breeze. On a recent session Nick caught his new PB for Wendouree, a ripper brown trout that measured 65cm, which ate his Shaving Brush fly. The fly patterns that you will need to catch them are: nymphs (brown),
emerger patterns (e.g. Possum Emerger and Barry Lodge Emerger), dries (e.g. Shaving Brush), and finally, spinner patterns (black and red/orange). At Moorabool Reservoir the fishing has really improved over the past month. It appears that some of the weed has flowered and now started to die off in some areas, opening up more available water to fish. There is still a lot of unfishable water, so don’t think you are going to just lob out there and fish the whole of the reservoir – you will still need to find the clearer areas which will enable you to fish. I headed out to Moorabool recently to assist with a Clean Up Australia Day, where we collected rubbish from around the shoreline, which had been left by unthoughtful anglers. Whilst collecting rubbish, I noticed trout jumping out of the water chasing damselflies and dragonflies everywhere. This got me very excited, so my son Maxi and I snuck out for a dawn patrol looking for a feed of redfin. We went to one of my favourite spots which was clear of weed. We started off casting Bents with no luck, we then changed over
Moorabool Reservoir is renowned for its mayfly hatches, and the trout like to eat them when they are hatching, Norm Moiler a regular who fishes during these times, was fishing with a Shaving Brush fly pattern when this 6.5lb brown trout decided to eat it. Image courtesy of Ralph Jahnke.
Lake Wendouree produced the goods for the author with a 46cm brown trout on a T26 Bent Minnow, cast out of a drifting boat.
the paddle-tail soft plastics. They worked for a while, and then we swapped back to the Bents. This turned out to be a good move, as the redfin were eager to eat them over the next hour or so. We landed approximately 30 redfin in varying sizes, and were able to keep enough for a feed. There were quite a few trout jumping out of the water, feeding on dragonflies. I managed to put hooks in a couple but unfortunately, they didn’t stick. I’m really looking forward to fishing Moorabool over the next few months, especially after what I witnessed from this session, and also the knowledge that there are a lot of trophy 10lb plus swimming around. I have been speaking to a couple of people who fly fish Moorabool religiously every weekend, Ralph Jahnke and Norm Moiler. Ralph said the reservoir is alive with fish jumping everywhere, chasing the damsels and dragonflies, and now the dun have started, the fish are feeding on them also. Ralph said they have generally stuck to fishing mayfly patterns, to hopefully give them the best chance of catching
