Frost, fog and rain are needed, I know, but these old bones are creaking and groaning — bring in the sunshine and warm things up.
Oh well, just six more weeks.
That said, the fish don’t know it’s cold and wet.
They have been providing hardened anglers with plenty of action, laughing at softies like me.
Cod, yellowbelly, trout and redfin have been on the bite non-stop since the start of the current season — since the beginning of June, the start of winter.
All the usual spots have been providing plenty of action.
In our region, the best spot has been Lake Eildon.
Fishing the river arms has been best, although good fish have been caught in the deeper water near the wall and in the boat harbour.
As the closure of the cod season draws near, don’t forget that you can still fish for cod in Eildon, as there is no closed season in the lake. Although both bag limits and size limits still apply.
The fishing in the Goulburn is still nearly as good as Eildon, with cod, yellowbelly, and in the upper reaches, good trout.
The odd one out is redfin — for some reason, they have become scarce in the river.
As far as redfin go, they seem to be confined to the Hume, Waranga Basin, Lake Eppalock and Greens Lake — and not forgetting Lake Eildon.
You might catch the odd redfin in other spots where they once existed in large numbers, including the irrigation channels and the surrounding rivers, such as the Murray River and Broken Creek.
The best winter fishing is at Dartmouth, where the trout are at their best after breeding.
While there are six species of trout, the main two are rainbow trout and brown trout.
These two are prolific in the Dart, and both can be caught using the same methods: a bait or lure trolled behind a grid fender.
So-called because the blades are similar in shape to the overrides on the early model Ford bumper bars.
Baits can include worms, both garden or scrub varieties, and mudeye, black crickets and grasshoppers.
Lures are the Tassie devil-style in a clown pattern, as well as minnow style and small jointing lures.
With most of this week being wet, conditions on the rivers have been slippery.
Anglers who fish from the bank need to be careful.
It will be the same for some time, so be cautious.
Time now to take a look at saltwater fishing.
According to Rod Lawn from Adamas Fishing Charters at Queenscliff, conditions have been better.
Rod was still catching pinky snapper.
He said it was a couple of months until the bigger fish would move into the region.
He also said there were still flathead, squid and some tuna off Barwon Heads in the deeper water.
Meanwhile, north of the NSW border at Eden, John Liddell said the boys from Freedom Charters were bagging good-size snapper, morwong and flathead on the inner reefs.
While off the shelf, there were tuna and kingfish.
At Narooma, Graham Cowley said it was a similar story around the island.
Well, that’s all. Stay warm and good fishing.
9°C