Hunter Valley

Hot weather fishing strategies

BATLOW Wayne Dubois

waynedubois@westnet.com.au

The middle of summer can be a challenging time on the water for some anglers. For starters, the heat in the middle of the day can be unbearable at times, not just for anglers but for fish. And with so many people on holidays at this time of the year, the extra boat traffic can also be a nightmare for both anglers and fish.

That being said, the small creeks and rivers are great at this time of year, not just for the fact that the trout are very active and are almost always willing to hit stuff off the top, but the fact that the big lakes will be getting hammered by fishos and skiers. The major rivers can be very busy during the summer holidays as well. When fishing a river I try to get to some private property, or head way up or downstream of any reserves or major access points. By doing the hard yards and putting in that extra bit of time, it’s still possible to get some great water to yourself at this time of the year. As the old saying goes, ‘do the miles, get the smiles’.

BLOWERING DAM

Blowering is always super popular over the holiday period, and there can be thousands of water users on and around the lake at any one time. This can make it difficult at times, with water skiers and fishos whizzing past almost constantly. However, if you look hard enough you should still be able to find a bank or bay that isn’t too busy, and it’s in these areas that the best fishing is to be had.

Quite often during January the natives can become very hard to catch due to the crazy amount of boat and fishing activity. However, like I said, if you can find an area that isn’t getting too much boat activity the fishing can still be good. Alternatively, you can leave your fishing until after dark where the fish become more at ease, and the temperature is much more comfortable for anglers as well. REDFIN

Redfin should be your target fish during the day as these guys don’t let a bit of boat traffic affect their feeding too much. Jigging is always good at Blowering

Dam – just find a school by sounding or trolling, and then hook into them with some jigs, blades, vibes or soft plastics.

Trolling for redfin can be sensational during January. The schools will be spread out but once you find them you may just end up with multiple hook-ups. Once you find a patch I’d suggest pulling up and casting lures like lipless crankbaits or blades. If you’re not into casting, simply turn back around and troll back through the school, then continue to do this until the fish stop biting.

Small hardbodies, lipless crankbaits and blades are your best lures to troll. That’s right, I just said blades. These lures are typically known to be casting lures, but so too were lipless crankbaits not so long ago, and now lipless cranks are one of the most successful and popular trolling lures you can use.

GOLDEN PERCH

The golden perch fishing during early spring this year was not so good thanks to abnormally cold weather,

which unfortunately persisted until the end of spring. Now that the weather has finally started warming up, so too has the golden perch fishing.

Trolling or casting with smallish lures like #3 Prism Murrins, TN50 or TN60 Jackalls, 60mm Slap Walkers, Storm Hot ‘n’ Tots, Troll Craft Double Downers, Balista Dynos, Balista Trances, small StumpJumpers or any of the smaller Viking lures is a good way to target the golden perch at this time of the year.

The other productive technique during the summer months is bait fishing around shaly banks, rocky points and submerged trees. At Blowering if you can’t catch any shrimp, the best bait is medium-sized yabbies for golden perch, and it’s best to rig them on a paternoster rig to keep them from burying themselves into the bottom.

Alternatively, use a yabby like you would a soft plastic – just rig the yabby on a hook and add a small running

sinker, but only if needed to get down. Then simply cast the yabby out and allow it to flutter to the bottom. Once it hits the bottom, give the rod a slow and gentle lift of around a metre or so, then allow the yabby to fall back to the bottom. Repeat this all the way back to your feet. Fishing this way is far more fun and far more rewarding than the ’chuck it out, sit and wait’ style of bait fishing.

TROUT LAKES

The trout lakes like Tantangara and Eucumbene will be busier than usual, but still certainly be worth a visit this month. There will be far fewer anglers to contend with up there than at Blowering Dam, that’s for sure, and the trout fishing can be sensational (particularly at sunset and after dark).

Trolling and casting lures in the middle of the day can yield a few fish, but concentrating your efforts

to the last hour and a half of daylight and through the night will increase your catch rate considerably.

Bait anglers will have to wait until late afternoon to get some fish, because most trout will not feed much during the hot days. That’s why you can still get the odd one to strike a lure out of aggression during the day, but if the fish isn’t hungry or doesn’t feel like eating it’s not going to hit your bait. For this reason, if you fish during the middle of the day you are far better off casting lures to try to entice a reaction strike from the trout.

The best lures I find up here are slender minnowstyle paddle-tail soft plastics, such as the Ecogear Grass Minnows. Natural colours are best, particularly the rainbow trout imitation colour.

Other great casting lures up here are the lipless crankbaits, rubber vibes, sinking minnow-style

hardbodies and blades. I like to use conventional blades up here, but I also do quite well on the Ecogear ZX range. The ZX is a bit different from your conventional blades in that it’s a different shape, which looks very much like a shrimp or yabby. They also have long feelers and swinging hooks off the back, which makes them look very much like the real thing. Given that a lot of the big brown trout in these lakes are

As you can see, on top of the sensational trout fishing the Tumut River and its backdrops are next level. The small streams in the area will be your best bet at seeing more fish than anglers this month.

Blowering Dam can be very popular in January, and when the redfin are on it’s pretty easy to see where they are biting.