A variety of angling options from the hills to the sea

Gun fisho Luke Evans is filling in for me this week, here’s Luke:

There’s been a variety of fish and a variety of results in the variable conditions, allow me to elaborate. Some strong wind early in the week in Jindabyne made it a little difficult to fish, but the end of the week made up for it with some great trouting conditions. With the weather warming up in general, insect life is beginning to increase, so the trout are feeding closer to the surface. Flat lining Tazzie devils, or Rapala’s in the rainbow trout colour is attracting a few nice fish. Casting from the bank is also producing a handful of fish, early and late in the day. When casting from the shore, cast ahead of yourself at all times, with trout moving over new ground from the snow melt, don’t be surprised if you see some thumpers hunting in the shallows.

Down the coast, the estuaries are also starting to warm up, and with this flathead, bream and whiting are moving around allot more. A Running sinker rig with a Nipper or Beach worm, on a run out tide is producing the all 3 of these species. Popular spots have been Tuross, Wallaga Lake, Narooma and Bega River. For flattys, 65-75mm soft plastics with a 4-6 gram jig head are working on the tide change, covering lots of ground and staying in contact with the bottom is critical when targeting these fish. If you’re using plastics for flattys, 6-8 lb braid with a 10-12lb leader should do the trick. Remembering if you catch a few smaller flathead in one area, keep casting, they could be smaller males, hanging near a big female.

A mate of mine fished Burrinjuck on the weekend with no success. Lipless crank baits, spinner baits, vibes, hard bodies and soft plastics couldn’t trigger a response after a long day of casting, and even a switch to trolling couldn’t get anything to take. But he did say the bait fisherman bobbing yabbies and worms around the trees with un-weighted hooks were catching their bag limit in very short spaces of time. To tackle goldens on bait, try 10lb braid with a 15-20lb leader, and an unweighted size 6 hook, and once hooked, steer the fish away from the trees as best as you can, moving the boat into deeper water is worth a try if something BIG grabs your bait.

Canberra’s urban lakes have been doing really well with the warmer weather we are having.  I’m really starting to see some good size yellow belly and Red fin coming out of Lake Burley Griffin.  I’m finding downsizing the lure is the way to go. Small soft plastics, 55-65mm in dark natural colours, hopped and flicked around the rocks, fallen trees and manmade structure is the way to go. I’ve put the bait caster away and switched to my spinning out fi and had a ball on the local inhabitants in the process. Time permitting I may be hitting Lake Tuggeranong later this week. Try connecting your leader to jig head with a loop knot: it gives the lure a lot more action than just a simple blood knot straight to the jig head. I’m finding it sinks more naturally when falling through the water as well. The only thing you have to worry about when using this knot is being slammed while the lure is sinking by a big Yellow Belly or Red Fin. Hold on and enjoy. In other news the Pejar Trout Classic is on this weekend - Pejar is a known big trout haunt and typically well worth a visit at this time of year, especially pre-dawn, contact Tackle World in Goulburn for more details.

Put your Bungs in.

Luke Evans.