Corio Bay
Corio Bay has offered some good fishing this week with pinky snapper and Australian Salmon in good numbers and spread right across the bay, in particular around Western Beach and the yacht club. The fish in this area can be targets from any size boat, kayak and landbased. Another advantage to the fish being here is that you will be able to find shelter on most wind directions if it’s choppy. Both these species will chew very well on soft plastics on the bottom and at times the salmon can be sighted busting on the surface. Keeping an eye on the bird movement is huge when trying to find the schools busting as they will be fast onto it.
Clifton Springs
Clifton Springs through to Portarlington has still been producing some good Calamari and king George whiting fishing this past week. Good customers of the shop Adam and Zues had a great session on the weekend landing numerous squid just near the mussel farms with bright orange jigs working best. Whiting have been feeding at their best when the tide is moving tis hardest or late in the evening or morning. Fresh squid and pipis.
Crater Lakes
The Crater lakes down the west coast are slowly starting to fire up with trout reports becoming more and more consistent. Lake Bullen Merri has been good for landbased anglers fishing from the bank with mainly Tiger Trout on the chew. Purrumbete has had better quality browns on the go with plenty of Redfin. Lake Elingamite has also fished well this week with solid rainbows on the edges hitting shallow diving jerkbaits, bent minnows and swimbaits.
Goulburn River
It’s been a great week for those chasing Crays in the Goulburn River with a heap of reports of legal sized Crays being caught.We have had reports from those in Seymour, Murchison, Arcadia and also in the heart of Shepparton.Nets are consistently coming up with plenty of Crays with some big ones amongst plenty of smaller ones which is a great sign for the fishery.For those fishing we have had more reports from up stream of Shepparton with the water clarity much better the odd fish still seems to be biting.Trolling stumpjumpers and codgers between pulling nets has seen a couple of legal for reported from the Murchison area this week.Bait fishing can be a little more difficult this time of year especially with how active the Crays are as they seem to enjoy a fresh feed or worms and chicken so if your bait fishing be aware you might go through more worms than usually because of this.
Shepparton Lake
The cold and frosty mornings are perfect conditions for those chasing trout in the Shepparton Lake.
There has been plenty of reports from those fishing early morning with small soft plastics and divers around the boat ramps.Floating powerbaits has been a great way to chase trout in the winter at the lake and this past couple of weeks has been no different with plenty of fish being caught around the grass hill on bait.We have also had a report of trout being caught trolling Tassie devils behind a kayak out in the rowing lanes where there is less weed.
Waranga Basin
The winter soft plastic bite is in full swing with promising reports coming in from those fishing the basin recently.The Keitech 3-inch easy shiners have been the best soft plastic lately rigged on a 7g Bassman jig head with a slow roll working best.The Redfin have been holding around points and by reports you just need to work the entire area to find the active fish. So, starting shallow and moving deep or start deep and continue to move shallow.Sometimes you have to sit off the points and cast back to the ridge bringing your soft plastic down the drop off.Trolling RMG Poltergeist has again been a great way to target Redfin in the basin with some nice pan sized fish caught trolling around Harriman’s Ramp in 12/15ft of water.
Kialla Lakes
The fishing in the lake has slowed up for the winter but there are still some local anglers heading down for a fish and catching the odd fish. It seems to be mostly Redfin being caught on the edges with bent minnows and jerk-baits working best.You have to really focus on the pause using these lures in the winter so a couple of slack line twitches then a 3/5 second pause.The rocky banks or around the willows seem to be the best spots lately with fish being caught super shallow mostly in the afternoons. Drifting scrub worms or floating night crawlers has also been popular in the lake with a couple of Redfin reported this week via bait fishing.
Lake Eppalock
Much Slower this week at Eppalock with not as high redfin numbers reported to the shop, a few anglers managed to pick some up on worms and soft plastics but fish were hard to find, no reports of yellowbelly this week but if targeting them deep diving hardbodies would be our bet as most fish recently have been caught in deeper water. As we get further into winter conditions will keep getting tougher, don’t be afraid to mix up what you’re using. A spinnerbait may get a yellowbelly angry enough to have a crack or a cod and rigs running two plastics are great if dropping onto a school of redfin as it will give you double the chance. Saturday morning would be our pick this weekend if taking the family out as there should be a nice bit of sun.
Serpentine
Not a bad week this week as a few nice cod were caught and some good yellowbelly numbers as well, a local angler managed to get a nice 78cm cod on surface using a codcracker and a few other legals on hardbody’s with purple being the colour of choice. The yellas were picked up on a mix of hard body’s and spinnerbaits, overall some really nice numbers this week compared to the last few weeks which is great and hopefully carries into this weekend.
Cairn Curren
Not much to go off this week as most anglers targeted other waters but we would be targeting deeper water for redfin with hardbody’s blades and plastics, motor oil , white , red and black are all great colour choices for targeting redfin and would be our top picks this time of year. We had no reports of cod or yellowbelly but that doesn’t mean none were caught, we would suggest trying larger weedless plastics around the 6 – 8 inch range and be ready to set the hook, deep diving hard bodies like Australian crafted and profishent and old mates would be our next choice all make some great colours.
Campaspe River
A handful of nice catches reported this week mostly being cod, a couple on surface and a few on weedless plastics (6.2 inch bait junkie/white) slow rolled through slow moving pockets. Clarity is good around Axedale to Elmore so using natural colours could do well. Yellowbelly were picked up on half ounce spinner baits casting tight to logs. For surface cod in this system we have found medium size surface lures to work best as they have a more subtle landing on the water which is good if the cod are sitting shallow.
Bridgewater
A few nice cod reported this week caught mainly on hardbodies trolling the river, most were pulled from deeper sections. A few were also caught using bait (chicken & cheese) closer to town. A few yellas were caught on scrub worms and apparently a few carp were getting about taking worms also. Like most places this time of year will tend to be a bit slower but persistence is key.
Bendigo family lakes
Pretty quiet week for the lakes around town with many reports of any solid catches, a few redfin at Weeroona on bait and a couple at tom thumb, we didn’t hear of any at Crusoe, this time of year baits probably the best choice as any fish will generally eat worms etc which is going to give you the best chance at catching something. If using lures soft plastics at the 3-4 inch range would be our choice in either paddle or curl tail. Spinners are a great option for redfin too, look to use some with red in them.
