normally this time of the year is prime time to be chasing big murray cod(my preferred species) but after most of victoria having its wettest summer on record , resulting in flooded dirty rivers not suitable for targeting cod on lures and me still having a certain itch to scratch i found myself returning to the fish species and locations that started my passion for fishing on a whole.
despite all the rain having an adverse affect on the locations home to and my preferred techniques i use to catch murray cod the same could not be said for the lakes and reservoirs found locally to me in western victoria. some of which had been dry for many years were now full to capacity and the newly inundated saplings and grass seemed to kick start these ecosystems with an explosion of aquatic life including the larger predatory fish targeted by us anglers.



reports of good fish,namely redfin(english perch) an introduced species that thrives in our local water ways, and the odd trout being caught at lake fyans and lake lonsdale were being spread around town so thought i would check it out for myself.
i chose to fish lake fyans as it has a reputation for producing good numbers of very large redfin (up to and occasionally beyond 5lb)! for anyone who is not familiar with redfin or reddys as they are more commonly known, fish of around 1lb or smaller were the norm but encounters with schools of reddys in the 2-3lb class are not uncommon. fish in excess of this in my opinion are crackers and what i strive for each time i target reddys.
beside there sporting qualities on light spin tackle, most people target reddys for the table, they have a firm, slightly sweet white flesh that freezes well and in my experience never tastes muddy as some other fresh water fish species do.

My first trip out to fyans was a spur of the moment one with a late start 11am but considering it was a very overcast day this should not be a problem.
once on the water we started to troll a likely looking section of the lake that contained a stance of large standing dead trees on one side and some newly flooded saplings on the other.

we hadn't trolled far when i hooked up to a small redfin i left the boat in gear as i brought the fish in, in a hope that one of the other boys would hook up(redfin form large schools at times) the plan worked and another fish was hooked but neither of them were of any size so back they went and we continued to troll, not going far before we had another double hook up this time on slightly larger fish. as we brought them boat side we noticed they had company! and of the larger variety! i killed the motor and we began casting. for the next half hour it was a fish a cast with other fish trying to steel the lure from the fishes mouth sometimes resulting in two fish being hooked a once one on each treble.


at days end we had a few nice reddys in the easky and released over 50 more smaller ones. not a bad day for an unplanned trip!


being a slaughterman is no glamour job but one bonus is the fact that i'm knocked of by 3pm and during daylight savings leaves me with plenty of time for fishing before dark.
i walked out of work(over sized fridge with no windows) and saw conditions were perfect for an afternoon fish at fyans. so in no time i was launching the boat on a solo trip.
i headed straight to where we caught fish on the previous trip only a few earlier and began trolling, but after almost an hour without a touch i was time for a tactic change.
i headed up into some shallow water(5ft) and started cast a 35mm metal vibe round some trees with instant success. a keeper about a pound came to the boat followed by another then i hooked a big reddy about 3lb but dropped it boat side as i reached for the net. next cast resulted in another solid hook up. this fish felt big and refused to come to the boat staying deep. a big head shake and he was free! two big fish lost in consecutive casts i was not happy so a changed the little vibe blaming its tiny hooks for lost fish.
on went a 2inch atomic curle tail grub and it was smashed straight away but now found myself hooking small fish every cast! back to the plastic wallet and on the theory big lure big fish on went a plastic more suited to barra than reddys a 3 inch shad with big hook. cast it out and soon found that these small reddys were willing to tackle anything. sick of catching small fish and feeling them hitting the big rubber i started ripping it hard hoping not to hook them when i went for a big rip and on the drop felt a little tick in the line went for another big rip the plastic stopped dead and the tell tail head shakes of a big reddy began. at last i hooked a good fish and managed thanks to the bigger hook to boat a 2.5lb fish. i continued with the gorilla style rip and pause retrieve and ended up with 9 nice redfin in the easky. 5 of which were between 2 and 2.5lb.


a day off work coincided with a favourable weather forecast with little to no wind first thing in the morning and picking up to a northerly of around 10-15k's the conditions would be perfect for targeting both species, trout first light then reddies once there was some ripple on the water from the increased wind.



i trolled a f5 rapala and a green celta in the areas where trout were rising and in no time hooked a little rainbow but it jumped to its freedom no soner had that fish got off and another was on this time staying connected a 2 lb rainbow was in the net. a perfect size trout for the smoker so into the easky it went. after a good start i struggled to boat another trout for the morning so i went back to my honey hole that produced good redfin for me on previous trips. but after a hundred casts and only a few smaller reddys i had to make a move. i trolled around aimlessly in search of fish only hooking a few smaller models. by now the wind was blowing pretty hard and there was a substantial sized chop on the lake i started heading back to the ramp when i noticed trout feeding in close to the shore so i put a cd5 rapala on and started casting at them. a small tap turned into a screaming run and a large brown jumped managing to shake the rapala free in the process.
i continued to cast and next hookup was different no fast run or jump just some big head shakes and heavy resistance after a short fight a nice reddy bout 2lb came boat side and hot on his tail were another 3 biggg!! redfin. i netted this fish,picked up my other rod which was rigged with a big shad ready for bigger fish. and cast it back to where i hooked up previously and bang on again to another good fish this time in the 3lb class. another cast back into the same area and the same result again. this went on for a good 20 minutes landing 8 good fish.but it all came to an abrupt end when some dick that had been watching me catch these fish decided he wanted in on the action and trolled straight through where i casting and in 4 foot of water you can guess what happened!! not only did he not hook a fish but managed to scare them off from where i was catching them!!
yes i was p...ed and yelled a few choice words in his direction!!
i took a stab in the dark moving about 50 mtrs and cast all around after bout half hour i hook up again.much to my delight i found the school again and managed to end the day with 14 reddys to 3lb destined for the table yum!!
after a slow start it turned out another great day at fyans.

some of what they had been eating.

Nice work mate, you better put some of them fillets in the frezer for when I go home in June.

Hopefully they are still hungry then & I'll be able to get amoungst them.

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Hi JR77,

Some really nice sots there.

And some good fish too.

Have a good day,
Pecheur

Well done nice fish and photo's
Love the ol reddies
Should be going off down there with all the new ground flooded

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