Reel Life | Goodbye cod, hello trout

This year has been a good one as far as fishing goes, with good hauls of cod, yellowbelly, redfin and trout.

Down south in the saltwater, the season has also been positive. In the past week, local reports say anglers using both bait and lures have had good hauls.

The Goulburn, Murray and Broken rivers have been great spots for cod and yellowbelly.

On the downside, most cod have been juveniles.

Well, for future anglers, cod were also being taken in the lakes: Eildon, Mokoan, Mulwala and Waranga Basin. Cod in excess of a metre have been caught at Eildon, which is open to cod fishing all year, although size limits and bag numbers are still in force.

Meanwhile, yellowbelly are more plentiful as the weather warms up; worms, lures, and small yabbies are the best bait.

While shrimp are a top bait for the yellowbelly, they are not available at this time of year. An old trick for having them year-round is to freeze them when they are plentiful. Place fresh shrimp between sheets of paper on a bed of sawdust. While not as good as live shrimp, frozen shrimp are good alternatives, too.

The same baits can be used for redfin, as can lures and soft plastics. Redfin will also readily take bladed lures such as an Ondex, which has a tuft of red wool attached around the hooks.

The best redfin spots are Eildon, Waranga Basin, the Hume Weir and Green Lake, to name a few.

Next on the list are trout, both brown and rainbow, which are the most prevalent. The trout season will reopen on Saturday, September 7. However, you can still fish for them in lakes such as Dartmouth, Eildon and the Hume.

This is just a reminder that to fish in the Murray River, you will need NSW fishing and boating licences. This also includes Mulwala, but not the Hume; it is considered Victorian water.

At this time of the year, Dartmouth is at its best, with a chill in the air in the morning before it warms up during the day.

The brown trout are busy regaining condition after spawning, while the rainbow trout are in the middle of their spawning run and are also feeding.

Troll a fender with either a lure or a bunch of worms, or you might like the more relaxing method of angling from the banks.

Down south at Queenscliff, Rod Lawn at Adamas Fishing Charters said that while it was still a month away from the start of the snapper run, there were still plenty of pinky-sized fish on the reefs along the inshore reefs as well as off the heads at Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads.

Fresh salmon, fillets and small fresh squid were doing the trick; Rod said there were also flathead and some gummy sharks around the dive sites.

Rod said squid were biting along the grass beds inside the heads on both the Point Nepean and Point Lonsdale sides.

If it is not suitable to go offshore, the action inside the heads was also good. The fishing inside Western Port Bay was seeing snapper, leatherjackets, gummy shark and King George whiting on the bite.

North of the border at Eden, John Liddell said the angling action was along the inshore reefs from Boyd’s Lookout to Green Cape. He said Mark and his crew from Freedom Charters said they were bagging snapper, morwong and other tablefish, including kingfish. However, there were few tuna.

Further north, at Narooma, Graham Cowley said the fishing was the same around Montague Island, but flathead and bream could be caught in the lake when it was too rough to go offshore.

Well, stay safe, both on the roads and in the water. I hope your footy team is going better than mine and George’s.