Reel Life | Casting the lines again

Their decline has been blamed on a number of reasons, including overfishing by the early settlers, the introduction of trout and redfin into the country, the degradation of our rivers, including their de-snagging, and finally, the breeding and reproduction methods of the fish itself.

Efforts have been made to breed Maccas at Snobs Creek Hatchery.

Scientists have had great results in breeding Murray cod, trout and yellowbelly but only limited results in breeding Macquarie perch. This is the reason why these native fish have now been placed on the totally protected list, so now any caught by anglers must be returned to the water unharmed.

To recognise a Maccas is easy: they look similar to a redfin in body shape; their fins are not red, the upper body is green, and the lower body is a yellowish-white colour.

There are just a couple of places in the state where you will catch them in their wild state by far. Their largest population is in Dartmouth.

Goulburn River peaked late last week and is now receding. If there are no more heavy falls, then we should be back to normal levels within a week or so, and this should return fishing conditions back to normal for this time of year prior to the rise.

Fishing had been good. In fact, a hundred meters upstream from my favourite spot, one angler landed eight fish in one session, and he released them back in the river to be fished on a later date.

Last week, redfin were on the bite at Lake Eildon, the Hume Weir and Waranga Basin. Most were taken on lures, but live shrimp, small yabbies and worms have all been successful in gaining feed.

There are a couple of places you can fish while you wait for rivers to subside; they are Dartmouth, Lake Eildon, Lake Hume and Waranga Basin.

At Dartmouth, you can fish for trout; you can no longer target Macquarie perch, but for trout, early morning and early-to-late evening are the best time to fish for trout.

At Lake Hume, you can also hunt for trout, but there are also redfin and yellowbelly to be caught, and at Lake Eildon, anglers can catch yellowbelly and Murry cod.

So, while flood waters recede, there is still action open to all. While Victoria suffered from floods, the Murray River missed out, so fishing over the borders is still happening in the best spots, of course, as always.

Lake Mulwala is renowned for some of the best cod fishing and, to a lesser extent, yellowbellies. Fishing the Murray requires a NSW fishing and boating licence.

It would help if you also watched out for the dangerous blue-green algae, which is triggered by the warm weather and the increase of nutrients in the water. It would help if you stayed out of contaminated water. It will cause skin rashes, and if ingested, it can cause organ damage; also, keep pets and livestock away from blooms of blue-green algae.

So now, with limited freshwater fishing, Let’s head south to fish saltwater.

Rod Lawn from Adamas Fishing Charters at Queenscliff reported good fishing both inside the heads and outside the bass strait. He was bagging snapper in all the unusual spots, mainly pinky size, on both bait and soft plastics. He was also catching King George whiting along the grass beds from the mouth of Swan Bay.

North to St Leonards and the White Lady Marker, then on the eastern side of the bay from Point Nepean to Sorrento, the best bait is tenderised squid. One of the best methods is to keep your bait fresh and make sure you fish the sandy patches between the grass and weeds.

Rod said while tuna fishing was slow and patchy, there were still schools of southern bluefin off the bluff at Barwon heads.

He said the best method was to watch for seabirds diving on the schools of bait being hunted by tuna.

The method Rod uses to fish for tuna is to troll up six skirted lures or several hard-body lures of various colours, looking for bird activity.

Rod said he was catching trevally, salmon and flathead in Western Port.

The fishing was about the same, mainly along the shipping lanes off Hastings and in the deep off Cowes.

John Liddell, north of the borders of Eden, said the boys from Freedom Charters were breeding snapper, morwong, flathead and some gummy sharks from Boyd Lookout to Green Cape, while off the shore, there were tuna and kingfish.

Graham Cowley at Narooma was catching similar to Freedom Charters, mainly around Montague Island.

According to James Luddington, large flatheads and gummy sharks were providing action off Flinders Island.

Stay safe as we come to the end of the holiday period, and good fishing.

Trelly’s tackle