Trellys Fishing Report
Corio Bay
The Grammar School Lagoon continues to offer some great fishing this past week with Kayak Anglers getting amongst the action with Pinky Snapper, Silver Trevally, Salmon and Flathead. Again, Soft Plastics are proving to be lethal at the moment. As mentioned the Grammar school offers great access to smaller boats, kayaks and land based anglers trying to escape the wind if it gets high. The Geelong waterfront is worth putting some attention to at the moment also with a few reports of Pinky Snapper starting to be caught and at times Australian Salmon have been sighted busting the surface. As per usual the soft plastics are standing out with small baitfish profile plastics working best to resemble the small bait in the area.
Bellarine Peninsula
The Bellarine Peninsula continues to offer some good King George Whiting fishing at the moment with this week Clifton Springs has been the hot spot with 5-7 metres proving to be the most productive depth for them. Burley definitely goes a long way when chasing them in the bay and the best for that is pilchards diced into cubes and put to the bottom in a metal burley cage. Throwing a pellet burley certainty helps too. Baits like Pipi and Squid whilst fishing a fast moving tide are all the factors you want when chasing them.
Offshore
Gummy Shark reports offshore continue to roll in with Gone Fishing Charters again being right in the middle of the action with the boat constantly landing numerous sharks a session. The 30 metre line is a super reliable area to hunt these tasty critters and with fresh blood baits deployed you’re in for a great shot.
Surf Beaches
The Surf Beaches across the surf coast have been a popular night time land based option to those after a Gummy, Pinky or Salmon. Bait fishing with Squid or Salmon are by far your best baits when chasing the Gummys or something bigger and for the salmon it’s hard to go past Blue Bait. Both rigged on a Paternoster rig.
Wurdi Buloc
Wurdi Buloc Reservoir has continued to fish well for Brown Trout to the keen angler getting up early in the cold and fishing the main rock wall with shallow diving jerkbaits. It aint easy getting up that early in the cold but with patience the rewards are certainty there.
Goulburn River
The nights are now starting to drop right away and this has meant some cold fishing sessions for a couple of regular customers in our Shepparton store.But these cold sessions have been worth it with a couple of cod around the 70cm mark caught, the bites are not regular so you will need to be switched on to turn a bite into a fish. Bigger lures seem to be the best option in the cooler months with these recent captures in Shepparton coming on Balista Tremors with the surface bib.In other areas the daytime bite around Nagambie has probably been the best spot along the Goulburn with some smaller cod around the 45/60cm mark being reported. Trolling 15ft diving old mates, casting Bassman Compact Spinnerbaits and also scrub worms from the bank has been the best ways to target these fish. Around Murchison we are still hearing plenty of carp reports with some monster mud marlin being caught on night crawlers.
Shepparton Lake
This cold weather is now starting to turn the trout on with more and more reports coming in. It’s easy to tell when the trout are on the chew because sales of powerbait go through the roof. The best method lately is fish the powerbait or worms under a float and cast it out into a weedless pocket. The other area where you can pick up trout is around both boat ramps as the hard bottoms make it hard to get caught up in the weed.
Waranga Basin
The nights have been cool but the day time weather have still seen some great fishing conditions for those heading to the basin. The edge bite in the late afternoons seems to be the best way to target high numbers of fish with small hardbodies or 2inch soft plastics being the best lures to chase the Redfin. Floating worms or lightly weight worms have also been a great way to chase these smaller fish on the edge. Those fishing Out deeper are finding some bigger fish in lower numbers with trolling and vertical bouncing blades and ice jigs being the best methods. 16/18ft seems to be the best depths so you want your lure just running above the bottom with the odd scrape of the bottom while trolling. With the blades the zx43 seems to be the best ones this week with it being a little heavier it’s much easier to fish in the deeper water. You want you blade to stir up the bottom so make sure you're letting it hit the bottom before flicking it up.
Kialla Botanical Gardens Lake
The small lake at the botanical gardens is loaded with carp and can be a grey place to take the kids or just something different for us adults.There is numerous was to chase these carp which is the best part. You can sight cast super shallow with small jerkbaits or bent minnows and just gently flick your rod tip keeping the lure as close to the top as possible. There has been some big carp caught on flys with plenty of space to get the fly rod out. Floating worms seems to be the favoured technique for families with the carp cruising in all kinds of dept from 10cm to about a meter deep. It’s not a trophy native spot but a session on light gear can be a great way to spend an afternoon.
Lake Eppalock
Yellowbelly seem to have slowed down a little now but best efforts are using Curl tail soft plastics (e.g., Zman 2.5-inch grubz), lip-less crankbaits (e.g., Jackall TN50), and soft vibes (e.g., Zerek fish trap). Redfin also seem to be slowing down a bit now as weather continues to get cooler using Light spin outfits with soft plastics (e.g., minnow imitations, curl tails), deep diving small profile hard body lures, and traditional spinners or worms is probably going to give you the best opportunity. For cod look for rocky banks and points with large standing dead timber using large swimbaits, surface lures, and deep divers.
Campaspe River
Still a few yellowbelly getting about the past week which is great to see, popular baits such as Gulp 3-inch grub minnow, especially in black colors. Soft vibes like the Zerek fish trap, Jackall transams, and Samaki vibelicious are effective. Other good choices are lipless crankbaits like Jackall TN50 and TN60, as well as blades are all great options. A few nice cod caught this week near Rochester on hardboys and one on surface, Focus on areas with plenty of cover such as logs and submerged trees, especially during low light conditions. Redfin and carp catches seem to have slowed down a bit but dropping worms or corn on a hook is probably going to be the best option if targeting them.
Cairn Curran
Not many anglers in shop headed over here this week so not a huge amount of info to go off but if chasing Yellowbelly Spinnerbaits, stump jumpers, and paddle tail soft plastics. Slow-rolling these lures near structures is particularly effective. Targeting cod Hard body lures, surface lures,spinnerbaits, and swimbaits. Focus on casting towards structures and using baitcaster combos for better control and power. Redfin can usually be found using bait such as worms, curtail grubs blades and spinners are also great options in nearly any color.
Loddon River
Not a great lot of info in the shop this week sadly but sticking to larger profile lures for cod and using spinnerbaits to temp out some yellas will be a good option, make sure to session each part of the river hard to try and stir the fish up to get the bite.
Laanecoorie
Fishing the bite windows has proven effective in catching fish throughout the whole Loddon system with some good yellas being caught trolling and casting the timber and rocky points in the afternoons especially as the water starts to cool off. The majority of the fish have been coming on medium sized hardbodies including 15ft old mates and larger profile jackall TN70 – 80s.
Bridgewater
The Bridgie stretch of the Loddon has provided some better quality fish over the past weeks. Although few and far between, anglers who have put the extra effort and fished the moon phases have been rewarded with some quality cod around 80cm. Fishing hardbodies with a larger profile around the 80-90mm mark haver stirred up some fish. Bait was also effective in plucking the odd cod and yella, with scubbies and yabbies getting the fish, in particular around the bridge and boat ramp.
Serpentine
A slower week here on the cod side with just a handful of catches reported to the shop, suggest using hardbodies or surface to try a temp them out, look for large lay downs, undercut banks and slow-moving sections, make sure to thoroughly fish through each section of water. A few nice yellowbelly reported on shrimps and small yabbies in the deeper holes. Spinnerbaits and small hard bodies are great for yellowbelly, keep the retrieve slow and steady.
Bendigo Family Lakes
Catches in general seem to be slowing down across the local lakes (Weeroona, Tom Thumb, Crusoe} redfin and carp always being caught on worms add some corn to the hook or bread I wanting to target carp. Still the odd yellowbelly caught between the lakes on lures but not a common catch. Perfect chance this weekend to target trout at crusoe with current weather conditions, spinners and powerbait being great options.