There was a time when I would gladly camp out at this time of the year on the banks of Dartmouth Dam to fish for trout, but as the years passed, my eagerness to do so also passed. I have become soft in my dotage.
These days, I am more inclined to rent a cabin or motel room complete with a heater and other mod cons and pick weather that is not frigid. At Dartmouth, you have a choice of all the above, as well as houses to rent and a hotel that serves excellent meals and refreshments.
A drive up the hill to the boat ramp, and you are fishing some of the best trout waters in the state. If you want to avoid fishing the lake, there are other options, including the runoff from the spillway.
If Dartmouth is not your choice, there is the Hume, which is on the way to Dartmouth; this waterway is noted for redfin, cod, yellowbelly and trophy-sized trout.
Lake Eildon is one of the most popular fishing destinations in Victoria, and there is also Lake Mulwala on the Murray, which is noted for big cod. Remember, Lake Mulwala is part of NSW, so you will need to hold a fishing and boat license from that state to fish.
Fishing the Goulburn, Broken and Murray rivers and Broken Creek are worth the effort for yellowbelly and cod, as both species are on the bite. The yellowbelly are just coming on the feed after their breeding period, while Murray cod are almost ready to start their breeding; in fact, the cod season will close on September 1.
Waranga Basin is fishing well, with redfin being caught on worms and lures; if you are trolling lures, make sure that they are bouncing along the bottom. You can also use soft plastics, spinners and bladed lures. A vexed lure with a tuft of red wool is one of the best, but make sure you use a couple of rotating connectors to stop your line from twisting and forming knots.
Lake Hume is another top spot for redfin; cast a line near structures and trees and keep searching until you find a school of fish. As at Waranga Basin, worms and lures work well at the Hume.
The difference between the two locations is that the fish are usually larger in the Hume than in Waranga Basin. Lake Eppalock, near Bendigo, is another good redfin spot.
Cod fishing has been good despite the rain. Rising river levels are not good for us, but the fish don’t mind it; the rising water covers fresh feeding grounds for the fish. All we anglers have to do is make sure we put our bait close to the bank where the fresh feeding grounds are. At this time of the year, with water being muddy, bait is the best method. Worms are best, but chicken and cheese are also worth trying, or yabbies if you can find some, but at this time of the year, you can forget about shrimp, they will have gone into hibernation.
If you are using lures, solid-body diving lures in a frog pattern (dark green with darker green spots) are worth trying, but having said that, whatever colour you can catch a fish with is the correct colour.
For yellowbelly, a lure with a rattle in it called a Jackall is one of the most successful lures when fished around trees, rocks and other objects in the water.
Down south, saltwater fishing is worth the effort, with plenty of whiting being caught around the mouth of Swan Bay among the grass beds.
Rod Lawn at Adamas Fishing Charters, Queenscliff, said he was catching rat-sized kingfish around the dive sites off Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove. He said the fishing was good, with flathead, pinky snapper and trevally among the catches.
North of the NSW border at Eden, John Liddell said most of the fishing action was along the inshore reefs, with snapper, morwong, gurnard and good-sized flathead being caught between Boyd’s Lookout and Green Cape; John said the crew at Freedom Charters out of Twofold Bay was also bagging big gummy sharks.
It was a similar story further north at Narooma, according to Graham Cowley. He added that there was a school of rat-sized kingfish north of Montague Island.
That’s it for this week; stay safe and good fishing.