Summer is now over, and how good were the past couple of weeks?
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Sunny, warm and mostly light winds.
Just a perfect lead-in to autumn, the season considered the most stable of them all.
Hopefully, the next few weeks should be milder and balmy.
The winds should be lighter as the leaves on trees change colour and fall.
The months before winter should be great for fishing.
The natives, such as cod and yellowbelly, will feed up to get through the winter, and the imports, redfin and trout, will begin to fatten up, ready for their breeding season.
All in all, autumn is possibly the best season for fishing in our region, so get yourself ready to catch plenty of fish.
The Hume is the best spot to fish for redfin, but it is also a waterway to catch trophy-size trout as well as yellowbelly.
While redfin are on the bite for most of the year, trout are best during the colder months of winter.
Just a bit further down the road is Dartmouth Dam.
This is a mecca for trout, mainly during winter, but they can be caught any time of year.
However, you will have to fish either early in the morning or in deeper water during the day.
The best method is to troll a Ford Fender, which is an attractor for trout, trailing either a lure or bait such as worms or a mudeye.
Mudeyes, the larvae of a dragonfly, are like lollies for trout, but the colder months are the best time to fish the Dart.
Checking on the best places to fish, still out front is Lake Eildon, mainly because of the number and variety of species.
The big four are plentiful: redfin, trout, cod and yellowbelly.
Closely following Eildon are the two major rivers, the Goulburn and the Murray.
Both produce cod and yellowbelly, and while there are silver perch, these are a protected species.
The same goes for trout cod and Macquarie perch, both totally protected.
Then follows Lake Mulwala, but both the Murray River and Mulwala are in NSW, so you will need both a fishing licence and a boat licence from that state.
Although Lake Hume at Albury is considered Victorian, all impoundments downstream are NSW waters.
When fishing in the north-east, remember it does get colder during winter, and high water flows make it more dangerous to wade.
Other places that should be tried are Waranga Basin, which fishes well for redfin and an occasional cod or yellowbelly.
Lake Nillahcootie and Lake Buffalo in the north-east are also great options.
Then there are the irrigation channels, one of the favoured spots for the dedicated yellowbelly angler Mick, known as ‘The Demon’.
The lesser waterways, including the Broken River, Broken Creek, Boosey Creek and Honeysuckle Creek, all have their ardent anglers.
This part of the state is well supplied with great fishing spots, and now that it’s autumn, they are all worth a try.
Time to talk saltwater fishing.
Rod Lawn from Adamas Fishing Charters at Queenscliff said the change from summer to autumn had been a smooth one — balmy waters and less wind so far.
Rod said he had been bagging plenty of whiting among the grass beds from Swan Bay to St Leonards, as well as on the Sorrento side of the heads.
Salmon were running in the rip during the run-out tide, along with kingfish, and outside were large schools of couta.
Rod mentioned he was seeing signs of tuna, but they were hard to get to bite.
Western Port Bay was providing action, with whiting, flathead and some snapper, mainly pinky size.
There were gummy sharks biting around San Remo and in the deep water near Cowes.
Further west along the coast at Portland, Rod said that tuna up to 15kg were being caught close to shore, while the bigger fish were much further off the coast.
North of the NSW border at Eden, John Liddell reported that most of the action was inshore, from Boyd’s Lookout to Green Cape.
At Narooma, Graham Cowley said the fishing was similar, with snapper, morwong, flathead and kingfish providing most of the action.
At Flinders Island, James Luddington reported catches of gummy shark, whiting, some snapper and flathead.
Enjoy autumn and stay safe!