Trout time is here! Cold nights and foggy mornings really signal a switch for many anglers to head up into the hills and explore the rivers in search of trout. And this time of year is pretty much ideal as the rivers are generally running fairly stable still, clear enough to fish effectively, and the fish are normally pretty active.

Customers Steve and Mickey went to the Goulburn River recently. The boys geared up with feeder cages, dough and powerbait and a pellet-based berley. Although a dropping river level wasn’t ideal they boys still caught 5 trout using this method. They also moved about between a few spots between Thornton and Alexandra to find some water that was productive.

The Goulburn river has been producing plenty of fish for anglers fishing lure and fly also. Staff member John fished with mate Goran last week on the river and found plenty of fish around the riffles and runs using tungsten weighted nymphs. Fishing the flies deep and sweeping them along the current seams is a super effective way to pick up a number of fish that are holding along these areas.

Customer Pat broke put the fly rod and headed up to the river also and picked up a few fish using a similar method, with river conditions proving to be almost ideal for the nymphing technique.

Customers Chip, Chee, Rey and Christian have fished the Western crater lakes from the shoreline over the past few weeks. Both Bullen Merri and Purrumbete have been fishing well for both trout and salmon. The boys have caught salmon to around 3kg, and a mixture of rainbow and tiger trout to around 1.5kg also. Long casting lures such as spoons and ‘fluttering’ harbodies have been the most productive, with smelt pattern soft plastics not far behind. Fishing out along the drop off and ledges has been where the fish have been cruising.