Larval mudeyes hatch into damsel flies and dragon flies, and are a favourite food for trout. At night the mudeyes emerge from the water then crawl up the nearest object to shed their skin and hatch.

Trout are attracted to areas where mudeyes congregate, so if you see lots of insects husks on the shoreline it could be a good place to fish.

Bait anglers can use live mudeyes with a waggler float or bubble float, day or night. Mudeyes can be purchased from tackle stores, netted from farm dams or shaken free from submerged logs.

Fly fishers can use a variety of patterns to simulate the live mudeye. Suitable patterns include Craigs Nighttime, Taihape Tickler and Mrs Simpson, and various fur, fibre and synthetic models.

The best technique is to retrieve the fly slowly, right to the rod tip, before repeating the cast. Fish are likely to be on the bite at any time, but especially on dark nights with little or no moonlight.

Good spots lately include Hatchery Bay in Lake Jindabyne and Yens Bay and Wangrabelle Bay in Lake Eucumbene. The only disappointment has been Lake Tantangara.

Power Bait, traditionally the artificial bait of choice for rainbows, has accounted for some nice browns in Jindabyne and Eucumbene recently.

Intermittent rain storms have helped maintain reasonable flows in regional trout streams. Some nice browns were caught in the top of the Moonbah, the Yarrangobilly and the upper reaches of the Murrumbidgee River.

Good browns and rainbows came from the Tumut River. The most useful patterns were small Hare and Copper nymphs, small dark beetles, stone fly and Klinkhammer.

Water is still being released from Burrinjuck Reservoir for downstream irrigation, and fishing has suffered accordingly.

The dam level is now about 45 per cent of capacity. Murray cod have gone off the bite to some extent, although some smaller fish have been caught on spinnerbaits and hard-bodied lures.

Golden perch are still on the bite and good catches have been made on shrimp, yabbies and scrub worms and on lures.

Best catches have been around rocky shorelines and adjacent to flooded trees. Surprisingly good catches have been made after dark. The best catches have been made from the lower reaches of the Yass Arm and in the Main Basin, with occasional good hauls from Bloomfields and Good Hope.

Bass activity is at its peak in the Clyde River and other coastal streams, particularly where the fish are feeding at the surface on fallen cicadas, beetles and other prey. The fish respond to a variety of surface lures and flies and provide exciting fun on light tackle.

The best fishing is in the early morning and late afternoon, but there is a chance of a fish at any time during the day. Fly fishing provides good fun but bait fishers can also join in with live cicadas, Christmas beetles, grasshoppers, black crickets and mole crickets.

Stream fishing has been especially rewarding, but anglers have also reported some exciting fishing at Brogo Reservoir, which is now 100 per cent full.

Beach fishing has been productive as the water clears after heavy rainstorms at the coast. Anglers found salmon on many beaches, with particularly good fishing at Brou and Tuross, where nice bream were mixed with salmon to around 2.5 kilograms.

Pilchards and prawns were the best bait and some salmon were taken on 40-gram Surecatch Knight lures.

Some estuaries with large feeder streams became highly turbid following heavy rain at the coast, but others remained fishable and productive. Sussex Inlet was one of the most useful, with anglers reporting good hauls of bream, flathead and mulloway to eight kilograms caught on prawns from the lake.

Bryan Pratt is a Canberra ecologist.