Bendigo

BENDIGO Roger Miles

codhuntertours@bigpond.com Fishing at this time of the year is not for the faint-hearted. If anyone tells you that winter fishing is easy, they are probably fooling themselves and you.

So why do we fish at this time of year? The answer is simple: while the fishing may not be easy, it can be very rewarding. It’s often not about the numbers of fish anglers catch, but the quality of the fish being landed.

LAKE EPPALOCK

The water levels have steadied in Lake Eppalock in recent weeks. The irrigation season has now finished, so we should hopefully see the amount of water being released from the lake reduce over the next couple of months. At the time of writing this report Lake Eppalock was at 48% of capacity.

The region has received a good amount of rain, which has been welcomed by farmers and anglers alike. The water catchments for Lake Eppalock are not quite saturated yet, but they are well on the way. If the area continues to receive some good rainfall, it won’t be too long before we start to see water levels rise in the Upper Coliban, Lauriston and Malmsbury impoundments. When these impoundments reach near capacity, this is when Lake Eppalock benefits from increased inflows. It may be several months before this occurs (if it does occur) but the early signs are very good that we may see good inflows into Lake Eppalock during winter and spring.

The fishing at Lake Eppalock over the last month has been steady. Redfin continue to make up a large proportion of anglers’ catch rates. Trolling deep diving hardbody lures and casting and retrieving soft plastics have been the most popular techniques. Anglers vertically jigging ice jigs and blades have also been getting reasonable numbers of redfin.

There continues to be some quality golden perch being caught. The numbers haven’t been high but the average size of the fish has been good.

On another positive note, there have been small numbers of Murray cod measuring up to 75cm being landed.

CAMPASPE RIVER

With the recent rainfall the water clarity had reduced in the Campaspe River. However, now the irrigation season is over and reduced flows should be coming down the river system, we should start to see water clarity improve again. How long the water clarity improves depends on the amount of rainfall the catchment receives over the next couple of months.

Over the last month there have been reasonable captures of both golden perch and Murray cod. There have been low numbers of redfin being landed, with the majority of these being small in size.

During this month there will be a significant drop in water temperature. As temps continue to fall, we see a migration of bait and larger fish moving into deeper water. For those anglers who walk the banks and fish the shallow sections of the river system, the fishing can become very tough. If you are walking the banks, a good tip is to concentrate your fishing efforts in areas where the water is deeper. This can often be on the outside of a bend, where over the years the current has created a deep hole.

Good lure options for the Murray cod have been surface lures, swimbaits, spinnerbaits and large lipless crankbaits. Good lure options for the golden perch have been small lipless crankbaits and medium-sized hardbody lures.

CAIRN CURRAN

Water levels have also steadied in Cairn Curran over recent weeks. The water clarity remains pretty good but it’s cleanest in the bottom half of the reservoir. The catchments for Cairn Curran don’t currently have the same moisture levels as the Lake Eppalock catchments have. This is because at this stage the rainfall has been less in this area. However, there is still a very good potential for early inflows to be coming into Cairn Curran over the next couple of months.

The productivity has been good at this location over the last month. Reasonable numbers of golden perch, redfin and Murray cod have been caught at this location. With the rapidly cooling water temps in June, the productivity in the golden perch fishing will reduce significantly.

The numbers of Murray cod will also reduce, but it’s a great time of year to catch a quality Murray cod. The consistency of the Murray cod fishing continues to improve in this location, due to good fish stocking from Victorian fisheries. There will be a small number of keen anglers putting in the time to land a quality Murray cod.

It’s a great time of year to think about spending some time targeting the trout population in this location as well. Cairn Curran has received some reasonable trout stocking over the last few seasons. The numbers of trout being caught in this location has not been great over the last few years. However, with the improved water clarity currently in this reservoir, conditions are a lot more favourable this season. Whether it is trolling small hardbody lures, winged lures or bait fishing off the bank with worms, corn or gents, if you put the time in there are some quality trout here waiting to be caught.

LODDON RIVER

The fishing in the Loddon River continues to be good but not easy. The system is definitely feeling the effects of a large amount of fishing pressure over the last six months. There are a lot of educated fish here which have seen many lure presentations. I reckon some of the smarter fish would nearly be able to tell you the brand names on the lures as the swim by.

As always, if you are fishing a location that receives a lot of fishing pressure, it’s a good idea to present the fish with lure presentations that they are not familiar with. That may be a lure in a new colour or different swimming action, different rattle etc.

The water temperatures can cool quite quickly like the Campaspe River system often does at this time of the year. The same trends happen in the Loddon River as the Campaspe River.

The productivity of the fishing in the shallower water reduces, and greater concentrations of bait and larger fish can then be found in the deeper sections of the system. Trolling large hardbody lures and large, heavy spinnerbaits can be a great tactic for targeting a large Murray cod in the system.

Over the past month the productivity of surface lures has been very good due to the recent hatches of bardi moths. As this food source reduces in the coming weeks, and water temperatures continue to cool, the numbers of Murray cod being caught on surface lures will reduce. However, this style of fishing is still a good tactic when targeting a large Murray cod. Fishing with swimbaits is also a great technique when targeting Murray cod at this time of year.

Some quality golden perch have been landed at this location lately, but like other systems the productivity in the golden perch fishing will reduce during June. Still, if you put in the hard yards, the rewards are there for the taking.

This 71cm Murray cod was caught on a 6th Sense Trace Swimbait slow rolled along the edge of a stump in 8ft of water.

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on that trip he landed a ripping 59cm brown trout as well as a couple of smaller models.

Lake Wendouree will continue to fish well for at least another month, I believe for the trout really focus on their natural urge to breed spawn, however due to the stocking program by Victorian Fishing Authority we should see the smaller trout 40-45cm model provide us with some excellent winter fishing due to them not wanting or needing to spawn this year.

Tullaroop Reservoir has still been producing some good bags of redfin for those anglers who have been chasing them; they have been caught mainly on vibes and jigs. Redfin catches will slow right down during the winter months. This, I believe, is due to a couple of factors. First, anglers stop chasing them because it’s too cold for some, and second, the yabbies slow down in the cooling water. Yabbies are the redfin’s main food source. Joel Smith has targeted the redfin at Tullaroop over the past few months. He prefers to cast soft plastics for the reddies, and on one of his most recent trips he was casting a pearl white ZMan 2.5” GrubZ at a weed bed when something nailed it and took off at a rate of knots, peeling line off his reel. Joel thought, “this is not a redfin” when all of a sudden a rainbow trout launched itself out of the water. Joel was shaking at the knees at the sight of this fish, and lots of thoughts started running through his mind: “Will my line break?” “Will my knots hold?” etc. He managed to pull himself together and took his time, and eventually landed a magnificent rainbow trout. He didn’t have a brag mat or scales, but I estimate the fish to be somewhere around the 3kg mark. After a few photos the rainbow was released, with Joel still shaking!

Winter time on Tullaroop over the past couple of years has been an excellent time to chase trout. They generally move in around the edges/ weed beds feeding on smelt/ small baitfish, and hopefully this year is no different.

I have ventured over to Tullaroop a couple of times over the past month, trying my luck walking the shores casting lures. I have been able to land some nice little rainbows and browns ranging from 35-40cm on Bent Minnow lures and wasabi spoons. I did encounter the samesized rainbow trout that Joel Smith caught, but unfortunately my hooks didn’t hang on long enough. When I hooked into this beast and it launched out of the water, I thought, “Wow, how big is that thing!” but unfortunately, we parted ways at the same time. The experience has made me very keen to head back and try and catch one of those big rainbows.

On my trips I haven’t seen any trout smelting but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before I do, which I am looking forward to.