Ahhhh, October, the days are warming and getting longer, the birds and the bees are doing what they do best and the fishing is picking up! Or so it should be.

During the School holidays I had the opportunity to take my two boys Mack and Sam for a couple of nights down at lake Bullen Merri in the hope of getting a big one. The moon phase was waning towards a full moon the weather forecasts where looking favourable and the youngens where chaffing at the bit. So all was looking pretty good.

Around this time of year both major lakes around Camperdown are capable of some fantastic fishing, with the pervious weeks showing signs of just that. You can always tell when The Bull is fishing well, as the banks of the lake are strewn with anglers tying their luck and Sunday evening was no exception.

After setting up the gear our best bet was to throw out a couple of combos of bait, glassies on a running sinker for the salmon, Powerbait for the rainbows and when we had some, a bullhead under a float for the browns or the other theory was a combo of fish baits with Powerbait.

Early evening was yielding plenty of small new released rainbows, no most occasions these tiny fish where taking the power bait over other baits, so we did the right thing and took Powerbait of our list for a while and replaced them with running sinker riggers baited with glassies, as plenty of people where catching nice sized Atlantic salmon to 700gms. For the next hour or so we caught well over a half dozen good Atlantic salmon with the best being just over the kilo mark.

Around 9ish most of the hordes of people left, it was around this time that some big rises where sighted and heard close by so a change of tactics (live bait under a float) with almost immediate results, a lovely 1.3kg Chinook salmon shortly followed by two other fish around the same weight.

After an early rise in the morning trolling was or seamed to be the best option, heading towards the “Clubhouse Bay" using 2 colours of lead core with a 25gm pink Lofty's we struck pay dirt with a fantastic Atlantic salmon of 2.7kgs - our only fish for the morning and the only fish to be caught trolling for the three days we where there.

After examining the fish's gut content I wasn't surprised to find over a dozen 4" to 5" minnows, which leads me to believe that a lot of the lakes fish are feeding off the bottom and on big minnows, not the small 1 to 2" fellas you'll catch in your bait traps.

So for the time think about other methods to get those deep holding fish. Jacko Bending did just that with a capture of a salmon around the 3kg mark whilst using a Magnum Downrigger at 110ft.

Otherwise bait fishing is your only option whether that be from the bank or out of a boat. Boat bait fishing is and has been the most productive with consistent captures of good fish and in good numbers.

Over the road at Lake Purrumbete, is much the same as the Bull with the Salmon providing the main fair for fishos. Hoses Rocks and the Waterfall are the two prime spots to fish from as fish over the 3kg mark have been taking glassies just off the bottom. While the fly flickers have been doing fairly well over the other side of the lake with browns and Rainbows being caught on BMS's and weighted emerges.

Lake Ellingamite is still producing good bags of redfin up to 1.4kgs and browns around the 2kg mark. Anglers using soft plastics or deep diving small minnow style lures retrieving them along the weed bed faces have picked up these fish, the lake should continue to fish well before the farmers start to pump water from it.

Lake Colac is starting to move with the warmer weather, with some good captures of redfin to 600gms coming from the main fishing spots such as Meredith Park and Delaney's.

Lake Modewarre and Wurdibuloc Reservoir are both on the slow side, but this is possibly due to not a lot of fishing pressure rather than the lack of fish. There has been several nice fish mainly rainbows taken of late with these fish coming in around the 1.1 to 1.4kg mark on both bait and Lofty styled winged lures. In the next month or two keep an eye on these two waters as they fire up once the temp rises.

On the political front the Fishing Party (VIC) is holding an information night on the 18th of October at the Bellarine Light Game and Fishing Club in Geelong I'll post the address asap. This will be a great opportunity to join the Party and to see what all the fuss is about.

If you have any reports that you want posted on my page, please e-mail to karl@fishvictoria.com and I'll put it on, just ensure as many details as possible also if you have a photo even better.

Till next week stay upright and good fishing
Karl

See Karl's previous report here.