Ballarat

BALLARAT Shane Stevens

Wow, that’s all I can say. What a way to end our autumn fishing and start off our winter fishing around the Ballarat and Central Highlands region of Victoria.

Anglers have been truly blessed with some excellent weather and fishing over the past month. Great reports have been coming from

Lake Wendouree produced some big reds for Trev Holmes

casting Bent Minnow lures. Image courtesy of Trev Holmes.

most of our local fisheries, and fingers crossed that will continue in the coming weeks. I recommend that you hit the water and make the most of the opportunities while you can, as I’m sure our cold, dreary weather will not be too far away.

Moorabool Reservoir has been fishing exceptionally well over the past couple of months. The mayfly hatches were excellent and now just a distant memory. Anglers did cash in on them whilst they lasted, with some rippers being caught. I cashed in myself, landing my new Australian PB on fly with a brown of just over 4kg on a small brown nymph at the start of a mayfly hatch one session. This brown was in magnificent condition and tested myself and my gear out during a lengthy battle. We took a few photos and she was released for someone to enjoy the challenge of catching her.

During another session I landed seven trout – a mixture of browns and rainbows in varying sizes, generally 40-45cm. I caught them on a brown nymph, once again during the mayfly hatch. It shows the importance of offering the fish exactly what they are feeding on. I, like other fly fishers, can’t wait for spring to come and the return of the mayfly hatches.

Moorabool has definitely seen angler numbers increase, with reports filtering through social media, magazines and word of mouth that the trout have been on the bite. A couple of months ago you would hardly see a car there, but now you will see up to half a dozen cars at every access point. I’m sure the fish have now seen every fly and lure going around, but they are still willing to eat them, as Nathan Angee can attest. On a recent dawn

patrol Nathan was casting Bent Minnow surface lures around the edges when he nailed two brown trout in two casts, one being 5lb and the other 8lb. After a few happy snaps both browns were released to fight another day. Nathan mentioned it was one of the maddest 20 minutes of fishing he’d ever had, and one he’d never forget.

At Moorabool the fishing will slow down over the coming months, as the trout will start to focus on spawning (the bigger ones, anyway). There are plenty of smaller fish around the 35-45cm mark that will not spawn this year, which will still provide us with some winter fishing action. Water levels are now dropping slowly, exposing plenty of weed, which will make fishing a challenge in some areas.

We have been very lucky that Moorabool has basically remained full for the best part of a year now, which has provided us with

excellent fishing. The high water levels have provided the reservoir’s aquatic life with nutrient-rich fertile water and ground, which has resulted in population explosions of aquatic life over the past year. This has never been more evident than when I talk about the mayfly hatches. I have never seen so many nymphs (the subsurface stage of the mayfly) swimming in the water, under rocks, logs and sticks, and the trout responded in kind.

It’s been a similar story with the yabby population. There are yabby holes everywhere in the water; they have taken advantage of the higher water levels moving into the shallows, and no doubt they will be breeding up in numbers as well. Trout and redfin love to eat them, so it’s a win-win situation for all.

Lake Wendouree has seen plenty of angler activity over the last month, with catches reported from both land-based and boat anglers.

Wendouree, like

Moorabool, saw the mayfly hatches last a lot longer than in previous years. They were also in large numbers, and the fish were willing and eager to eat them. Over the past few years the trout have been a little hesitant to eat the mayfly off the surface, preferring to eat them subsurface before they hatch. This could be because of the birds, mainly seagulls, which feed on them off the surface. The birds aren’t very graceful when they pick the mayfly off the water, and actually scare or put the fish down. Other birds like swallows and terns hardly make any disturbance at all, and don’t seem to worry the fish.

I fished the dunn hatch on quite a few occasions landing some nice-sized brown and rainbow trout in varying sizes 40-45cm on Brown nymphs and shaving brush fly patterns, once again we look forward to the spring months when our hatches start once again.

The trout and redfin in Wendouree have been very active over the past month as they normally do at this

time of the year. There have been plenty of reports of some excellent sized trout and redfin being caught on a variety of lures, with the standout being the Bent Minnow surface lures which are ideal for Wendouree.

Myself and my son Maxi have been hitting Wendouree frequently landing some ripper browns up to 55cm and plenty of smaller redfin up to 35cm, casting lures out of a drifting boat. Wayne Rigg and Trev Holmes have been out on the local as they call it (Wendouree) nailing some absolute rippers, casting once again bent minnows. Trev on one trip caught a bag full of big redfin, which included two big reds that measured in the high 40s size. Rigzy wasn’t going to be outdone by Trev

Nathan Angee landed this 8lb brown trout on a Bent Minnow

lure at Moorabool Reservoir. Image courtesy of Nathan Angee.

Joel Smith is still shaking after landing this magnificent rainbow whilst fishing for redfin at Tullaroop recently. It was caught on a

pearl white ZMan 2.5” GrubZ. Image courtesy of Joel Smith.