Aug 21, 2026

Trellys Fishing Report 21st August 2026

Spring is in the air, I can feel it. We have had a couple of days pushing up towards 20 degrees already, and the fishing has really started to pick up in many areas.

In the warmer areas like North Western Victoria and Western NSW, the Yellowbelly are starting to really fire. This week alone I have seen photos of good numbers of Yellowbelly caught at Menindee in NSW, along with Mildura and Barham on the Murray River.

Up this way in North East Victoria, the Yellas have started biting too. Not quite as well, as the temperatures here are slightly cooler, but they have definitely started to bite, and that bite will only get better as the weather warms up.

Let’s break this down:

Lake Hume

Lake Hume is one of the lakes that has seen an increase in Yellowbelly activity this week.

Vibol Ean is an Asian bloke with a Facebook page that I follow. He has been catching some quite large Yellowbelly off the bank at Lake Hume, using yabbies as bait.

Vibol uses a combination of saltwater yabbies and freshwater yabbies and has success with both.

I also saw a few photos online this week of some large Yellowbelly caught up there during the week using a LiveScope fish finder and lipless crankbait lures.

Then there is my own report. I fished Lake Hume last week myself. I fished off the bank at Ludlows Reserve using worms as bait and caught 2 carp! WOW!

I think the Yellowbelly that are being caught are mostly out in the Murray arm around the Bowna area. That has always been a Yellowbelly hotspot.

Lakes Eppalock, Nillahcootie and Cairn Curran

I have grouped these 3 lakes together because they are similar fisheries on similar waterways and have all just experienced similarly sharp jumps in water levels.

I have been over to Lake Nillahcootie this week and caught Yellowbelly. I caught 2 Yellowbelly and a carp, and lost 2 other fish.

I was just angling off the bank with worms.

Worth noting is that the water clarity in Lake Nillahcootie is poor. It was really clear earlier this year when it was low, but because it has risen so quickly because of flooding, the water is really dirty and will take a while to settle.

The fishing isn’t red hot, but it has improved on what it was just a few weeks ago.

Once again, this week I have seen photos online of some nice redfin caught at Lake Eppalock. I also saw a photo of a nice Yellowbelly caught over there on a small soft plastic as a by-catch to a very lucky redfin fisherman. All of the fish that I have seen caught there have been from boats.

I have not heard any reports from Cairn Curran Reservoir, but Nillahcootie, Eppalock and Waranga Basin are all fishing similarly, so I dare say there would be a few fish just starting to bite at Cairn Curran too.

Waranga Basin

Again this week there have been a few redfin caught at the Waranga Basin. I know of around a dozen or so redfin caught at the basin this week, and one really fat Yellowbelly.

All fish have been trolled on a variety of medium-sized hardbody lures. Just like Lake Eppalock, I have not heard of any fish being caught off the bank.

Yabbies

As I said earlier, spring is just around the corner, and for me springtime means yabby time! I am really hoping that this year I will have better yabbying success than I did last year. Last year was a disaster. Many of my favourite yabbying spots completely dried up.

I put my yabby nets in just last night for the first time. I put two bait traps in 2 dams, one in each dam. In one dam I caught 1 small yabby with no claws and no front legs! How it got into the net I don’t know. I can only assume that at some point there were 2 in the net and the other one escaped.

In the other dam I caught a few quite large black yabbies with blue legs and claws. Stunning looking crustaceans.

It wasn’t an epic haul of yabbies, but hopefully it is a great sign of some improved yabbying to come this spring.