After a complete blow out over the past week and a bit there
was finally some reprieve and anglers snuck out between showers to get a fish
in. Although not setting the world on fire it’s certainly not a waste of time
going out fishing in the rain.
Freshwater: the Hopkins and Merri Rivers are continuing to
produce some nice trout on a mixture of baits, lures, soft plastics and flies.
Max Fry has been sneaking up the Hopkins and casting flies into the pools with
great success. Using small bait fish patterns and insect patterns he has been
scoring a trout nearly each session. The fly rod comes very handy when you have
a smart trout that has seen plenty of lures in the past as you can quickly put
a fly in front of them and because they aren’t a big bait they more than likely
will eat them. People often ask what type of flies are good for trout but to be
honest it depends entirely on what the trout are fixated on eating. One day the
water may be clean and the minnow are on the menu and the next day it’s dirty
with insects and other things flushed into the system; which is why fly
fisherman carry a massive selection of flies and in some cases people carry the
materials to quickly tie up a fly to replicate the bait on the day. It’s a very
technical style of fishing and probably why it’s not as popular as it used to
be. If you’ve always wanted to try fly fishing but don’t know how, then speak
to the Warrnambool Fly Fishers club and the boys and girls there will be more
than happy to help you out. We can put you in touch with the right people
within the club too if you’d like. Hopefully this rain gives the rivers a good
flush out and that stagnant water that we are experiencing can be flushed out
of the systems. In the local lakes things have gone quiet again over at Lake
Purrumbete after a red hot week or 2 where multiple fish were caught around the
10lb mark. A few anglers that I know who have fished it recently haven’t even
seen a trout let alone caught one but that could be due to the foul weather
too. When it subsides and the weather gods calm down we can expect anglers to
throw lures such as bent minnows, soft plastics and long slender minnow
patterns cast to the weed edges around the lake. What we usually see is a lot
of bait out in the deep and the big trout push them to the surface and explode
on them. This is a great time to be throwing some surface lures such as the
bent minnows or other styles like that. Using a relatively fast retrieve will
get any trouts attention and can prove quite visual too when they launch out of
the water after it.
Estuaries: the estuaries around the district have all but
opened after the huge seas we had over the last week which was a very welcome
sight for all. After nearly engulfing Proudfoots on the river the Hopkins was
opened on Friday night just before the huge swells rolled in. This has given
the system a much needed flush of salt water that has seen the water turn a
great colour. The bream should be making their way down the bottom section to
get the oxygen rich water that is flowing into the river. I don’t think it will
stay open for long due to the amount of sand that is down there, but it would
only take the upper reaches to start flowing to make that happen. There has
been some nice fish caught around the Kinnears area and along Kings Head wall
on a mixture of soft plastics and hard bodies. At night the perch have been
taking cut mullet fished in the lower reaches of the river too. Tim Vincent
scored some nice bream to 40cm casting in the 60km/h winds last weekend,
fishing in the clean saltwater moving in. Soft plastics with reasonably heavy
jigheads worked a treat. Another good option when the wind and swells rise is
the lower Moyne at Port Fairy. Local Scott Gray has been down nailing some
trevally, mullet and bream using soft plastics fished when the swell is
highest; meaning the walk ways and rockwalls are all underwater! Tim Vincent
and Ben Woolcock headed across for a look Monday when the weather was wildest;
fishing grub style soft plastics (Z-Man ST Grubs and Rapala Crushcity Creeper)
with 1/8 and 1/6oz jigheads they scored trevally, mullet and flathead.
Saltwater reports have been all but non-existent recently; a
mixture of very few fishing as well as unfishable conditions on the weekends
when most can go. If you do head out over the next week, let us know how you
go!