Let me ask you a question.
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Do you have a favourite fishing spot?
I don’t mean where you catch a lot of fish, but a place that you just like being at.
Mind you, if you catch fish there, too, that is an added bonus.
I posed that question to myself, and after some thought, I came up with Dartmouth.
It has many things that appeal to me.
I like the great outdoors.
The freshness of the country.
The wildlife.
The wilderness.
The lake.
And, of course, the fishing.
I love to camp by a fire.
Cooking in the coals.
Waking to the sound of wild birds.
I just like that part of our bushland.
So that’s mine.
What is it that floats your boat, dare I ask?
Is it the fish you catch?
Is it something else?
Now let’s look at places that fish well.
In our region, you could choose just about anywhere along the Goulburn — from the pondage to where the river runs into the Murray.
The river is one of the most productive fishing waterways in the state.
It has a great collection of species you could fish for, with natives and imported fish in good numbers and size.
For example, take the Goulburn — Murchison to Bunbartha.
A small sample of the river.
Just about any spot along that section of river is worth dropping a line in.
You have a choice of cod, yellowbelly, silver perch, an occasional redfin, trout, trout cod and carp.
All in good numbers.
Such is the health of the river, you can catch shrimp, yabbies and Murray cray, as well as the fish that predate on them.
At this time of year, the channels are worth a try.
The Main Eastern is always worth casting a bait or lure into.
Try either a bladed lure like a Celta, with a twist of red wool over the treble hook, or a hard-body diving lure in a redfin pattern or in a purple colour.
Cast along the bank no more than a metre and a half from the edge, and cast downstream.
I have bagged quite a few redfin using that method — mostly good-sized fish at that.
The channel that heads west out of Waranga Basin fishes well for yellowbelly, and they love a lure with a rattle in it.
Now, according to Mick — the demon yellowbelly angler — he puts his success down to the way he retrieves the lure after the cast.
He said, without giving away any secrets, the best method is to copy the swimming action of a bait fish.
Twitch the rod tip and use short, sharp, jerky winds.
Over the past week, the best results have been from Eildon, with cod and trout being the most common catch.
Anglers trolling fenders and solid-body lures in the early morning are bagging trout.
Then, at the end of the day, cod have been caught on surface lures and bait in the river arms.
Some redfin have also been caught among the trees.
And now, at the end of this week, comes the start of winter.
Now it’s time to take a look at saltwater fishing.
Rod Lawn from Adamas Fishing Charters, based at Queenscliff, said the fishing along the coast had been as good as it could be at this time of year.
Fishers have been bagging plenty of resident snapper on the reefs from Point Lonsdale as far west as Barwon Heads, as well as to the east from Point Nepean.
When the snapper were quiet, the flathead were biting on the sandy bottom, as well as kingfish, salmon, couta, silver trevally and other species.
Inside the heads, whiting and squid could be had among the grass beds, as well as snapper on the reefs.
According to Rod, it has been a good season.
Once the winds early in the week settled down, it was back to good fishing all along the coast, with more tuna being caught around Portland.
Rod said the good fishing sort of petered out at Western Port Bay.
He said as you went further north, the weather became worse.
In fact, the NSW south coast was bad — but got worse the further north you went.
This made fishing a no-go.
Both Eden and Narooma were a case of stay-on-shore.
Well, hopefully a better report for next week.
Stay safe and good fishing.