"

Go big for bonus size
  |  First Published: June 2014



It went off with a bang! The 2014 Toolamba Easter Fishing Classic was yet again a huge success. There were almost 200 entrants in this year’s event, which is similar numbers to past events. The strength of this competition is amazing and there are countless hours put into making sure it all runs smoothly.

The fishing was reported to be on the slow side but with all the meals and entertainment provided catching a fish was just a bonus. Peter Davies took out the Boats & More Major prize landing 2 legal fish for the weekend.

To continue on with the Goulburn theme in the past months, fishing has slowed down considerably, the water levels over Easter were very low and many locals struggled to land fish over that time.

Now into the colder months I can’t see the fishing picking up too much in the Goulburn River. There will be the odd good sized fish landed by the committed fishos who are happy to put the hours in, but it’s tough work.

Reading through the Trelly’s Tackleworld reports in recent times they reported the odd yellowbelly being caught on the Codger Currawong. This is fairly strange, as this lure is a reasonably big lure for yellowbelly. Nevertheless, if they’re producing the fish I would suggest using them over the next few months.

If heading out this month using lures I would sit in the guts and troll the biggest lure as possible. ‘Big lure, big fish’ is what the leading guys are saying, so you may as well give it a go. The catch rates of smaller fish drop off now so there is no point trolling smaller lures.

There are plenty of decent big lures on the market and it’s all about trial and error using them. Be prepared to let line out and bring it in depending on water depths. Don’t always have your lure running on the bottom, the odd bottom scrape will be the best. Also if you have found a good stretch of water that looks fishy, don’t just troll past it once, spend a large amount of time at the area.

There has also been next to no reports of crays being caught locally. Normally this time of year there are good reports coming from Murch or Undera, but it seems either there are less crays in the water or less people craying.

It may be annoying to always retrieve lures while turning the boat around but if you feel confident in the area it will be worth it.

The Broken River has also slowed right down, and it has been like this for a while now. The surface action has stopped since temperature’s dropped and bait seems to be the only method to land fish out there. There seems to be more and more reports of fishos using weird and wonderful things for bait, from chicken chippies to cooked snags. I use grubs, worms and yabbies and leave the chippies and snags for a lunchtime snack!

Kialla Lakes

I have driven past the lakes over the last few weeks and I continually see the same car parked with a lad fishing right by it. I am yet to stop and ask how he is going but I can’t see someone fish the same spot continuously without catching fish.

I suspect the redfin are schooling up in the area, or even yellowbelly. I will be sure to stop in next time to see what the fishing has been like.

Shepparton Lake

The lake has been good but not great, the numbers or redfin and trout have been out numbering yellowbelly and cod catches. Best methods have been floating worms about 1ft under your float or trolling small shallow diving lures right down the guts of the lake.

It’s pretty simple stuff but it’s very productive and once you have found a certain area where you seem to hook up regularly it’s a good fun to flick a few lures around as the fish normally school up.

If you don’t have any luck casting don’t continue casting sometimes fish only want a trolled lure and it’s very hard to emulate a trolled lure while casting

Channels

The local channel systems have been fishing consistent, with targeting the drop bars and rock walls with soft plastics or worms. There have been some monster carp being caught as a by-catch and, trust me, carp on light gear is a ripper of a time. I even find myself packing some corn with me and, if the redfin are not biting, I throw some corn on and have a run.

Waranga Basin

There have been massive numbers of fish being caught at the basin. Some bait fishos have been reporting up to 200 fish being caught in a session, mostly between 15-25cm but the odd 35cm+ are being landed.

The lure fishos have not seen as much action but casting plastics or lipless crankbaits seems to be the right method to land good numbers of fish.

Reads: 1389

Matched Content ... powered by Google