Ballarat

BALLARAT Shane Stevens

Anglers around Ballarat and the Central Highlands region of Victoria have been treated to some excellent fishing over the past month. Autumn is one of my favourite times of the year to fish, for several

Moorabool Reservoir brown and rainbow trout like to eat Bent Minnow surface lures. This big guy couldn’t resist eating Steve Angee’s

Bent recently. Image courtesy of Steve Angee.

reasons. Firstly, the water temps start to fall, which trout in our waters prefer, the mayfly hatches occur once again, and both trout and redfin really start to feed up prewinter when their attentions turn to spawning.

Lake Wendouree has certainly been in the spotlight over the past month, with some excellent catches of trout and redfin being recorded. The trigger for this was probably the temperature drop in the water, given how shallow Lake Wendouree is, and the start of the mayfly hatches.

Early in the month, I ventured out on Wendouree on numerous occasions fishing mudeyes suspended under bubble floats. The trout were only too eager to eat the local spider mudeyes. It didn’t seem to matter whether it was bright and sunny (which is not normally conducive to good fishing on Wendouree) or overcast with a bit of breeze – the fish were tuned in on the mud eyes. The trout that we caught on those trips varied in size, with plenty of rainbows and browns around the 1-1.5lb mark with the odd good one in the low 50cm mark.

The trout fishing continued to improve throughout the month, with the mayflies starting to hatch and in good numbers. It took a few days for the fish to start to feed on them, but they are well and truly looking for them now. I have been out chasing the mayfly feeders out of the boat with some excellent results. I have tried to pick the right days, with a bit of wind and overcast skies, which normally produce the best hatches. However, this doesn’t always go to plan, with the clouds dispersing and the wind dropping. You might think these conditions don’t suit. Well, think again – the dunns have hatched and the fish have fed on them. So much for all the theories of the best conditions, it’s only the trout that make up their minds when they will feed.

We had one such trip where the wind dropped and the dunns came up, and the fish were eating them off the

surface. We were able sneak up on them using the electric motor, using dry flies which included Shaving Brushes and Orange Spinners, we cast our flies in front of the trout, that were sipping down the Dunn’s, they found our flies too irresistible not to eat, landing some rippers up to 56cm.

Other days we have been fly fishing out of boat, we have used brown nymph’s which is the subsurface stage of the Mayfly hatch with excellent results. The Mayfly hatches should and hopefully continue throughout the rest of the month.

The Ballarat Fly Fishers Club recently hosted the Lake Wendouree ‘Jim Thomas’ Two Fly competition. This fly fishing competition is held over two days, and each entrant submits two flies, which are placed into packages and randomly drawn out by competitors. The flies drawn out by the competitors are the ones that the angler must use throughout the competition. If they happen to lose one or both they can purchase a maximum of two flies for the remainder of the competition.

This year’s competition saw 50 fly fishers from all over the state converge on Lake Wendouree. The weather conditions were not ideal, with bright blue skies and no wind on the Saturday. There were a few fish caught in trying conditions, and Jim Williams was on top of the leader board

with a 46cm brown trout. Sunday morning saw overcast skies and a gentle breeze, and because of these conditions, some 14 trout from 35-57cm were caught, photographed and released. Jim Williams showed his class by landing another couple of fish which included the winning fish, a magnificent 57cm brown trout which was caught on a Tom Jones fly pattern. In total for the weekend there were 22 trout caught and released and numerous missed opportunities. Wendouree is definitely a destination for those anglers who like to chase trout.

Wendouree has also produced some excellent catches of redfin over the past month. They have been caught on a variety of methods, including fly fishing, trolling lures and casting lures. Most anglers have targeted the rowing areas when searching for the redfin.

Steve Angee has been up chasing the reddies on Wendouree using Chatterbait lures. He said he puts the time

and effort into a few of his favourite redfin haunts and has reaped the rewards over the past month, landing his new PB 48cm redfin and another smaller 40cm model on the same session. The redfin have really taken to liking the bladed Chatterbait-style lures over the past few years, so it’s definitely worth having one of those in your tackle box.

Moorabool Reservoir is back on the radar for anglers, with some excellent catches of both trout and redfin. Anglers using flies, baits and lures have been catching plenty of goodsized rainbow and brown trout, ranging in size from 1-1.5lb, and the odd bigger model up to 10lb. The redfin range from 3” to 2lb and there are plenty of them in some areas, to the point where I have moved away from certain areas to get away from the redfin when I have been chasing trout.

On recent trips to Moorabool, I have been casting Bent Minnow surface lures which the browns and rainbows seem to find them too irresistible to eat. I have been catching plenty of these feisty little guys, but so far the bigger trout have eluded me.

The mayfly hatches started at Moorabool in big numbers. When they start to hatch can range anywhere from noon until about 3pm. The trout, especially the little guys, are up feeding on them with gusto. On one session I landed 10 fish, all on brown nymphs. I’m just waiting for one of the bigger rainbow or brown trout to come along and eat my nymphs.

Steve Angee has been out at Moorabool catching plenty of these feisty rainbow and brown trout, once again on Bent Minnow lures. On one of his most recent sessions, Steve started off catching a couple of small rainbows around 1-1.5lb, he then put hooks into an acrobatic rainbow trout around the 5lb mark. Steve said it eventually threw the hooks, then a couple of casts later he ripped into a bigger brown trout. Steve

eventually wrestled the big guy in, which he estimated to be around 6-7lb. After a couple of photos the fish was released to fight another day. Exciting times ahead for anglers out at Moorabool over the coming months.

Tullaroop Reservoir is still producing some excellent catches of redfin. Rod McNeight and his boys Justin and Thomas have been back to Tullaroop, nailing some excellent bags of redfin. Rod mentioned they moved to a different area at Tullaroop that he hadn’t fished before and scooped the pool. Nearly every drop of their red and gold vibe lures, the redfin nailed them.

“We jigged our vibes very slowly up and only about 6” off the bottom in about 12m of water and when it would drop down to the bottom they nailed it, if you moved the vibe too fast nothing? Rod said the reddies where in varying sizes a lot around the 30cm mark which they released, we kept the bigger ones for a feed which included some absolute rippers up to 48cm, it’s one of the best bags of big redfin, I have ever caught, hopefully they continue to bite for a bit longer as they are magnificent to eat.

The trout in Tullaroop should start to fire up now the weather is cooling, going on last year and previous. The trout move into the shallows and around the edges chasing smelt. This can be exciting and frustrating fishing at the same

time, last year was an excellent year for those anglers’ chasing smelters, using flies and lures, land based and from boats, quick accurate casts are required to catch these guys and I cannot wait to venture up and catch a few. I tip I would put out there to anglers ensure your gear is up to scratch as there are some big suckers lurking around in Tullaroop and they definitely like to feed on smelt, don’t get that fish of a lifetime on, only to have your gear fail on you.

Lake Wendouree Two Fly winner Jim Williams being presented the Jim Thomas trophy by Ballarat Fly Fishers Club Vice President Nick Roche and Event Sponsor David Johnstone from Hurley’s Fly Fishing. Rod McNeight and his boys Justin and Thomas have been bagging out on big redfin at Tullaroop. This fish measured 48cm and was caught on

a vibe. Image courtesy of Rod McNeight.

Lake Wendouree Two Fly competition winning brown trout of 57cm caught by Jim Williams.

This 56cm mayfly-feeding brown trout couldn’t resist the author’s Orange Spinner at Lake Wendouree.