Everything we have taken for granted has changed. This will also include our recreational activities, including fishing, being in quarantine, trying to find food, cancelling or postponing sporting or other gatherings, loss of employment, and on it goes.
How is fishing affected by the lockdowns?
Well, when you think about it, not that much, as long as you keep contact with other anglers to just a nod or a wave from beyond the prescribed metre-and-a-half distance. When you are sitting on the bank of a river or stream in the open, make sure you don't touch another person's gear and use sanitiser to keep your hands virus-free.
Where things might get iffy is when you go to purchase any new fishing gear or bait from your local supplier, but if you can put this activity off until we eventually receive an all-clear it should be okay.
In the past few days the fishing has continued in our region and last week I met Jake, a primary school student and keen angler. He just so happens to live close to the Main Eastern Channel and he fishes there quite a lot. On his last outing he hooked and landed a cod and was quite chuffed with his achievement. Keep it up, Jake, and continued good fishing.
Speaking of the Main Eastern, it is a local waterway I have not mentioned for some time; it is, however, well worth a try. Fishing around the drop bars and other structure is always worth the effort. Where once it used to be a haven for redfin, other species are now being caught, including silver perch, yellow belly, cod — I have even heard of trout being landed.
I like to fish near the bridge on Mitchell Rd. There is always some likely looking water and both lure casting and angling a bait are worth trying.
Eildon is continuing to be productive despite now being below 38 per cent capacity. This will make launching a boat difficult but my window-cleaning friend said this would be no problem — he uses a one-person kayak and it takes no effort to launch.
At Waranga Basin redfin are still biting. Trolling a diving lure along the bottom, especially around the Harrimans Point area, is one of the ways to fish this waterway. Redfin are still being caught among the tree line at Eildon but the method of fishing is different: you need to drop a bait or jig alongside a tree to about five or six metres and if there is no action, move to another tree.
Wading the rivers and streams in the high country is worth trying. Casting baits or lures to likely spots is resulting in the hook-up of some nice pan-sized trout, both brown and rainbow. A new species called tiger trout has been released but I have little to no information about them or where they can be found.
Cod are still biting in both the Murray and the Goulburn rivers, as well as the Broken Creek around Nathalia and the Broken River near Gowangardie. I am also hearing of cod in Lake Mulwala and the Ovens River.
Down South at Queenscliff, Rod Lawn from Adamas Fishing Charters said he was blown off the water last weekend but when it settled down he was boating some good hauls of snapper and flathead off the coast, and whiting and squid among the grass beds inside the heads.
North of the border at Eden, John Liddell said Mark and the boys from Freedom Charters were still fishing the inshore reefs and bagging snapper, morwong and other table fish. He added that kingfish were biting off the shelf.
At Narooma, Graham Cowley said they were getting plenty of snapper and other table fish off the inshore reefs, and the flathead fishing was good along the sandy bottom between Montague Island and the coast. He said he had seen some good bags of bream inside the lake and some large flathead biting around the structure.
At Flinders Island, James Luddington said he was catching flathead, gummy shark and an occasional kingfish when angling around Lady Baron and the nearby islands, including Mount Chappell Island.
Finally, let me urge you all to keep safe and well, wash your hands often and follow the advice of the health experts.
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