With spring well and truly upon us, the fishing is starting to fire up. The rivers are now open for trout fishing, and lake Eildon is till open for chasing cod. Over the weekend the mountain bay fishing competition was held, and this saw plenty of great catches including one cod that measured in at 117cm!
The water temps in the lake are starting rise but the trout are still on the chew, anglers have still had success flat lining the likes of winged style lures such as Tassie Devils and Stings, and small hardbodies such as Rapala’s and Atomic in about 50-75mm. Coinciding with the water temps increasing, the Yellowbelly are starting to turn it on. The Delatite arm has been the most productive for the Yellowbelly, with reports of around 40 being caught in the competition over the weekend. Both bait and lures have been working, scrub worms being the choice of bait, and soft vibes and plastics being the choice of lure. Working around the trees and the rocky banks either off the bank or in the boat is the place to be. With Lake Eildon dodging the closed Murray Cod season, plenty of people have been cashing these greenbacks. Again, the competition over the weekend saw some monsters landed, with most of these fish being caught on bait. If bait fishing is the preferred method of fishing, scrub worms have been working on the cod, with the saying elephants eat peanuts ringing true. If you have access to some yabbies though, these would be the bait of choice. A few cod have still been caught on lures though, trolling big deep divers or casting larger spinnerbaits being the go. The Redfin are still a little bit quiet in the lake, but once some more consistent warm weather arrives, this should change.
The rivers have now been open for over a month, and some good trout have been landed. Most of the high country streams have been producing fish so far, with both the upper reaches and lower reaches fishing well. If you’re looking at targeting some bigger fish, it’d be worth walking the lower sections of the rivers where the bigger water is and doing this before the snakes come out and water becomes to warm.
Worms and mud eyes have been productive in the rivers, and the go to lures for the start of the season have been spinners such as blue fox and Celta’s, as well as some smaller hard bodies, including Rapala’s and Oargee Lil Rippers.