Trellys Fishing Report
Corio Bay
Spring is here and the fishing is already starting to heat up across the region with some of our favourite species starting to heat up. Pinkie Snapper have been in good numbers in the inside Corio Bay and in particular the Geelong waterfront. Anglers have been having great success casting soft plastics around the structure with snapper to 40cm being taken aswell as a variety of other species including salmon and at times in plague proportions, trevally and flathead. It’s also well worth throwing around a few bigger hard bodies around as a few Snook have been holding in the area too.
Clifton Springs
Calamari have been holding between Clifton Springs and Portarlington with boats finding patches holding lots of squid. The Squid haven’t been super spread out, usually catching majority of them in a close proximity so if you start catching a few in one area it’s well worth going back over the same ground and trying again for more. Size 3.0 jigs have been the most popular sizes to run with white and pink jigs being the two main standout colours.
Queenscliff
Queenscliff boat ramp is back open and operating! Anglers that have been waiting for this have wasted no time in getting stuck into the calamari in the bight lately with some quality squid being taken. Size 3.5 jigs have been working very well with bright colours working best. This time of year is a great time of year to chase the big squid in the bight and should only get better as we go further into spring.
Portland
Portland is still fishing very well for Barrel tuna with reports still rolling in. Cape Nelson has been a hotspot with majority of the fish coming from there on skirted lures. There has been quite a variety of size on offer from 30kg right through to over 130kg.
Bullen Merri and Purumbete
The Crater lakes have continued to fish exceptionally well over the past week with trout and salmon all on the chew, anglers fishing from both boat and land have been having great success on the troll. Daiwa double clutches, Rapala F7 and Tassie Devils have been doing all the damage.
Vic Trout opening
The Victorian Trout season opens this weekend allowing us anglers to go back to our favourite streams and rivers for a fish. The Victorian High Country is always a fantastic option to go for a fish especially the Goulburn River as it has been LOADED with rainbow trout to 5kg. Ecogear mx48’s are a fantastic lure to throw around aswell as pink T-Tail soft plastics.
Local Rivers
The rivers around Shepparton have been running high for weeks and the Goulburn is absolutely pumping at the moment. These heights might be like this for a while with heaps of water being pumped out of Eildon to make room for the snow melt off and also the predicted spring rains. It does make fishing very limited in the Goulburn River as its can be dangerous to access the washed away banks. If you're looking to fish rivers around Shepparton stick to the Broken which has also been running high but far less flow compared to the Goulburn. The Yellowbelly will be loving this flow so target back waters or areas where the water is not as hard running. Casting small Spinnerbaits or lipless crank baits will work well this spring when the water is higher. Scrub worms are always good baits in spring time especially until the shrimp come out.
Shepparton Lake
As the weather warms up the fishing will also get better in the Shepparton Lake, we should start seeing more Redfin, Yellowbelly and Silver Perch being caught in the warmer months. The key to catching these species on lures is rigging them weedless. This could be soft plastics on a weedless jig head or lipless cranks with single hooks. Small divers can work great as well by running doubles or cutting your forward-facing part of the treble off. There still will be plenty of trout active through spring with the trout bite usually staying consistent until at leave October/November. Small soft plastics, spinners and baits such as Worms and powerbaits will all work this spring.
Kialla Lakes
We have had reports of Yellowbelly being caught from all 3 lakes at Kialla. The main lake has been the stand out but if you're not getting bites head over to the other smaller lakes and try them. They can be a little trickier to fish but the fish are not as pressured. The best method in the past week has been fishing around the rocky banks especially when the suns been on them all day. Crank baits, football jigs, small Chatter baits and soft plastics have caught fish in the past few weeks so we would expect this to continue.
Waranga Basin
There is plenty of water at the basin and the shallows are producing plenty of fish. Redfin up for 35cms have been reported casting small blades and plastics around the small flooded trees on the Rushworth side of the Basin. Out a bit deeper we are hearing that some Yellowbelly are starting to become active with trolling Codgers in 12/15ft working great. Bait fishing from the banks has been productive with worms being best for Redfin and Carp. There has yet again been some cracking sized Yellowbelly released into the basin from Greens Lake these fish are going to be great fun to catch for years to come.
Lake Eildon
Fishing this past week has slowed down a little with less big cod reported. There still has been some 70/80cm fish caught mostly on Spinnerbaits or big Chatterbaits. We should start to see some good spring time cod fishing with many heading to Eildon due to it being an all-year-round cod fishery. There has been some big trout caught with both rainbow and browns being reported. Trolling small diving lures or tassie devils has worked best so has floating powerbaits from the banks. Eildon will be full of life this weekend celebrating the opening of the trout season.
The Goulburn Fishing Festival is back and will be held on Saturday 3 September. For the occasion, the Goulburn River and Eildon Pondage will share in 2,000 massive ‘stonker’ rainbow trout to 5kg, which’ll be stocked at numerous sites on the river. They’ll have a combined weight of 7 tonnes, guaranteed to create lifelong memories for lots of fishers and their families. There will also be plenty of fun FREE activities from 9am to 3pm at the Eildon Community Centre, plus fishing clinics at the Eildon Pondage and tours of our Snobs Creek hatchery. To find out more and to register for fishing clinics and hatchery tours, visit www.vfa.vic.gov.au/goulburnfishfest.
