Crater Lakes

Hunt for trophy trout

CRATER LAKES

Rod

Shepherd It looks like the La Niña weather pattern is diminishing, as finally more and more warm weather occurs in the south west. Water temperatures in our larger crater lakes have yet to substantially increase, so our trout fishery is still going great guns without the need to downrig for fish.

Lake Purrumbete remains the go-to lake, especially for anglers looking to nail a trophy Chinook salmon, brown or tiger trout. That said, these fish are not being caught in large numbers, and nor should they be. This is partially due to the inclement weather keeping many boaters off the lake, but also because these trout do not get to this size without being a tad crafty.

First and last light are the prime times to be on the water. The shallow, weedy bay between the boat ramp channel exit and Horan’s point remains the top spot to wet a line, but don’t discount the water from Horan’s Point around to the quarry. Fishing several metres out from the shore-hugging weed growth is a great area to concentrate your efforts.

There are still plenty of mainly small redfin out there ready and willing to steal a bait or three set out for trout. Don’t throw these nuisance fish back alive. Instead, dispatch them quickly before disposing of them in the lake where they will very quickly form part of the food chain. Throwing dead fish into a rubbish bin only creates bad odours, plus it’s a definite health hazard. Of course, if they are big enough to fillet, please do so.

Lake Bullen Merri is abuzz with tiger trout to 5lb, plus Chinook salmon in varying sizes and weights up to and beyond the tigers. The occasional rainbow and brown to 5lb are also being caught.

Flat line trolling medium diving minnow lures around the lake’s fringes is doing it for many boaters, and static bait fishing with pilchards near drop-offs from 4-10kg is accounting for many Chinooks.

Lake Elingamite’s level is good, and some sizeable brown and rainbows to just over 2kg are taking trolled or cast lures close to the weed growth around the edges. So too are redfin to 1.4kg.

The Mount Emu Creek is flowing hard and dirty into the Hopkins, but a couple of local intrepid anglers have scored the odd brown trout to 800g taken on surface lures cast from the bank and worked across the larger pools where the flow is markedly decreased. A nice Elingamite brown taken on the troll on a medium diver.

From page 98 and redfin that live in Wendouree, and can be found in the weeds or under rocks as

they migrate to hatch into dragonflies. The migration/hatch generally starts in the evenings just on dark, potentially going all night. The trout and redfin will venture into the shallows or around the lake edges to feed on them. These fish cannot resist a feed of mudeyes. As anglers, we need to adapt our tactics to match the hatch to give us the best opportunity to catch a fish. The fly fishers will use mudeye fly patterns, both subsurface and surface patterns, such as Craig’s Night Time (subsurface) and Muddler

Minnow (surface pattern). For those anglers who like to fish baits, there is nothing like using the real thing – a bug/spider or a couta mudeye fished under a bubble float. At Wendouree, I generally fish my mudeyes about 3-4ft under a float, depending whether I am fishing from the shore or a boat.

Moorabool Reservoir continues to draw lots of anglers, fishing flies, casting lures or fishing with baits. The fishing in general has been a bit on the slow side, in contrast to previous years, which I cannot explain? The high water levels have made it difficult to fish in some areas, depending on the method you use. It’s OK for the anglers who fish lures and baits, but for the fly fishers it’s pretty hard, as there are plenty of trees and bush that will happily catch your flies on your back cast. Trust me, I know.

The lure of a trophy fish continues to draw many anglers to fish at Moorabool. Igor Krasnowsky is one such angler who made the drive up to Moorabool and was rewarded for his efforts, landing a fish of a lifetime: a magnificent 69cm brown trout estimated to weigh between 8-10lb. Igor was fishing a Woolly Bugger fly in one of the many bays at Moorabool, when a beast decided to inhale his fly.

“The fish just grabbed my fly and took off like a rocket, peeling my fly line off the reel,” Igor said. “I saw the backing on my fly reel for the first time in a long while.”

A tug of war ensued for a period of time before he eventually landed a magnificent brown trout. Igor had some photos taken prior to releasing this big guy, and upon release he said it was a fish of a lifetime, and that he felt very lucky to have caught it.

Tyler Ridgwell has also been out fishing Moorabool, casting small hardbodied lures. Tyler has been catching plenty of redfin, which are excellent for a feed. On a recent trip he was fishing an area which has produced plenty of redfin and the odd trout over the past couple of months. Tyler said he had just landed a redfin (which travel in schools) and was expecting to catch another when his lure was slammed by a trout that immediately launched out of the water trying to throw the hooks. The trout was unsuccessful in its endeavours, after a good scrap Tyler landed an excellent sized brown trout of 45cm. After a couple of photos it was released.

Hepburn Lagoon has been flying under the radar, with not many reports filtering through. I have been out there a couple of times myself, and I’ve seen fish but unfortunately I’ve been unsuccessful at catching one so far. This has not been the case for Ezra Dowling, however, He has made the trip up from Melbourne to fish Hepburn on numerous occasions, landing some excellent-sized rainbow trout around the 3-4lb mark. Ezra has been fly fishing using a variety of patterns, with the Magoo being a favourite for the Hepburn lagoon rainbows.

The water level at Hepburn, like everywhere, is higher than it has been for a long time during our summer months. This is a win for us anglers. For those who know Hepburn, weed is a massive problem, especially during the warmer months when the water is drawn down for irrigation purposes. At these times it becomes very difficult to fish. My advice at the moment is to make the most of the high water levels and get out there and get amongst them, as Hepburn produces some seriously big rainbow and brown trout, and a few good sized redfin as well.

Ezra Dowling has been rewarded for his persistence fly fishing at Hepburn Lagoon, landing this 3lb rainbow trout on a Magoo

fly pattern. Image courtesy of Ezra Dowling.