Spring time is a mixture of stormy weather, rising water & air temperatures and greatfishing.
The golden perch are the primary targets during spring as they school together for their spawning season. In flowing rivers, goldens travel upstream and congregate belowweirs and locks which impede further progress upstream. As fisherman we can take advantage of this annual event by fishing below these barriers at hungry schooling fish.
Locally we have barriers to fish migration at Berembed Weir, Beavers Creek Weir on the Old Man Creek, Yanco Weir, Gogeldrie Weir, whilst
further south we have Hume Weir and Yarrawonga Weir.
To target these fish you can either baitfish with worms, small yabbies or yabbie tails, but the best baits are shrimp. Goldens like moving bait so if you’re in the boat keep baits up off the bottom and ‘bob’ it close to snags and other structure. From the bank, don’t let the bait sit for too long in one spot. Cast to different positions searching for the fish, rather than waiting for them to find your bait.
I prefer to fish for goldens with lures using small spinnerbaits or small hard bodies such as hammerheads, extractors or the smaller AC Invaders. Casting for goldens is a bit different to casting for cod, as goldens are often found on smaller ‘twiggy’ snags and amongst weed beds and reeds, whereas the cod prefer bulkier snags.
Remember when fishing below weirs that there is a minimum distance you are allowed to fish. It varies from structure to structure, but most of the Murrumbidgee’s weirs are 50m from the wall, whilst larger weirs along the Murray are a lot greater distance. It pays to check with your local fisheries officer as fines apply.
Burrinjuck and Blowering have started their annual golden rush of fish. Blowering is a tougher dam to fish than Burrinjuck, but the fish are often greater in size than their counterparts in the ‘Juck. When searching for fish in the big dams, there are certain areas to target such as rocky points, snaggy areas, weed beds and anywhere a creek runs in. All of these features attract schooling fish. Use small minnow styled lures or bibless to stir up a fish or two and keep an eye on your sounder to locate fish that may be present but not biting (you can target them at a different time of day when they may be on the chew).
Avoid the temptation to troll around aimlessly as you waste too much time in unproductive areas. Select structure, identify fish using the sounder and fish it repeatedly.
Goldens are a classic morning and evening feeder, so don’t be disheartened if you’re not getting fish through the middle of the day. Use this flat period to search for the fish and when the shadows lengthen target the best areas with vigour.
Blowering is fishing really well at the moment and my last trip we landed goldens to easily ten pounds in the old scale and dropped some other big fish that we couldn’t get up on the light tackle we were using. If you want to learn more about Blowering and its secrets, think about a day with me and we can dig for goldens.
Away from the fishing for the moment, my other sideline is web design. I have designed webs for quite a few years and am expanding to do more of this type of work as it fits in very well with my guiding business. If you need a web for your business or home give me a call as I do professional work at very economical rates.
Examples of my recent work are at :
www.waggamarine.com.au
www.mudgutsspinnerbaits.com.au (in progress)
www.riverinasportfishing.com (and associated webs)
www.fishingguides.org.au
www.fishbermi.com.au
www.riverinasportfishing.com/slammer (in progress)
Importantly with my webs, is that I can train you how to manage your own web, or maintain the site for you on a cost per hour rate. You will get a quality web, which is easily maintained for a fraction of what you will pay elsewhere.
Jamin Forbes
