VIC
Small waters, big results BALLARAT
Shane Stevens
The warmer weather has definitely arrived, so anglers need to change their mindsets and tactics to ensure we give ourselves the best opportunity to snag a fish or two. I mentioned last month that we should be looking at heading out early morning and evenings, in general the coolest parts of the day, this
there are many small dams and reservoir located in our forests, within 20-30 minutes of Ballarat, that have good numbers of mainly redfin and some of them grow to trophy sizes as well. My thoughts are grab some maps or look on Google Maps and head out and do some exploring, the results will speak for themselves. I must also mention, hard yards will still need to be done to catch the good ones, but it’s
like others. Donnie has been catching plenty of smaller models and some excellent sized redfin, some in the high 40s. Many any of us anglers drive past, a lot of these small waters to go fishing elsewhere. Donnie mentioned that time of the day has been influenced his results, as mentioned early morning and evenings have been best, covering as much fishable water as you can, not just having half a dozen casts, and if you
lures or soft plastics, if one doesn’t work try another and so on, vary the speed of your retrieve, try something different mix it up until you find the winning formula. Hayden Wilson has been having a purple patch recently whilst chasing redfin around the Ballarat area, targeting quite a few of the smaller waters also reaping the rewards, catching some rippers nudging the 50cm mark. Hayden has also spent a fair bit of time out at Moorabool Reservoir, hitting it up at the prime times, with results speaking for themselves, nailing some big redfin on ZMan Baby Goat soft plastics with Gold Jig Spinner attached, which has been catching the eye of the local redfin. Hayden said it’s getting harder to fish out at Moorabool with all the weed, “I’ve been casting the plastics over the weed into the clear pockets and working those areas, using a high stick retrieve, which is basically holding your rod upright when winding your lures/plastics in. This keeps them high in
Cohen Bandy, Luke Taylor and Paul Dawson got in amongst the redfin at Tullaroop Reservoir on Vibe lures. Photo courtesy of Cohen Bandy
Angus James nailed a magnificent Lake Wendouree redfin using a ZMan Baby Goat on a jig spinner soft plastic. Photo courtesy of Angus James. could also be expanded to have a look at many of the small waters that are dotted around the Ballarat and Central Highlands Region of Victoria. We are lucky that
worth it in the end. Donnie Rogers is one such angler who does plenty of exploring around the Ballarat and surrounding areas, in search of waters that don’t get heavily fished
don’t get a hit, leave and go somewhere else. Time and effort is the key, look for structure fallen trees or weed beds, the redfin use these for cover to ambush their food, try different
Donnie Rogers has landed some ripper redfin from some of our smaller waters around Ballarat including this beauty from O’Keefe’s Dam near Creswick. Photo courtesy of Donnie Rogers.
Hayden Wilson has been having a purple patch recently catching plenty of big redfin around the district, including this one caught from Moorabool Reservoir. Photo courtesy of Hayden Wilson. 94 MARCH 2023
the water column and less likely chance of them being fouled up with weed.” Redfin are definitely in those clear pockets of water, it can be frustrating hooking up on weed at times and then when you get them on bringing them back through the weed is another challenge, but it’s worth it. There are still some areas that are not choked up with weed, yet it’s a matter of putting in the yards and
walk a fair way to fish the steeper/deeper banks where it hasn’t grown yet, once again it’s worth the effort Hayden said. Darcy Stokell a newcomer to Ballarat, but not a new comer to fishing spending plenty of time fishing the Wimmera area, I’m sure many of us will run into, as Darcy is working at Rehfish & Co one of our local tackle shops. Darcy has been hearing all the
reports, which have been filtering through about Moorabool Reservoir and how good the fishery is and how big some of the trout and redfin are that are out there. Darcy decided that we would head out and find out what all the fuss was about. His plan was to fly fish the evening rise if there was one and hopefully fish after dark for a while, hoping the mud eye feeding
