Redfin captures dominated fishing in local waterways this week, with reports of large numbers of fish taken in Googong, Burley Griffin, Ginninderra and Tuggeranong.
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The fish are showing in big schools along the lake shores, commonly erupting en masse as they chase small baitfish into the shallows.
The fish were taken on soft plastics, spinning blade lures, blades, small minnow patterns and spoons as well as on scrub worms, tiger worms and small yabbies.
One regular landed 56 in a short session in Lake Burley Griffin and others at Googong commonly reported catches of several dozen for a morning or afternoon outing.
Most were small, but some larger fish were taken from Googong and Burley Griffin. Several anglers at Googong reported catching fish around the 1.5kg mark in deep water, on scrub worms, spinnerbaits and deep diving minnows. In Burley Griffin Greg Collins caught fish up to 42cm on soft plastics, fishing near Black Mountain.
Golden perch and Murray cod are a common bycatch when anglers are fishing a school of redfin. They feed avidly on small fish and often take lures intended for redfin. This week an angler fishing in Lake Burley Griffin pulled a 3kg golden perch out of a school of redfin and in Lake Ginninderra another angler did the same thing with a 7kg Murray cod.
Redfin are superb table fish. They are best filleted soon after capture, then skinned to produce a firm, boneless fillet that can be grilled, steamed or barbecued.
Trout stream revival
Storm rain during the past few weeks has rejuvenated some of the regional trout streams.
Fly fishers reported seeing some nice fish in the upper Murrumbidgee, Gungahlin, Moonbah and Yarrangobilly rivers and there were some satisfying captures on White Moth, Iron Blue Dun and Pheasant Tail Nymph.
It was especially pleasing to hear of a few rainbows in the Goodradigbee River, which had been almost devoid of fish for a long time after big floods several years ago.
The river has been stocked at intervals by the Monaro Acclimatisation Society and another 10,000 rainbows were added two weeks ago. The fish should reach catchable size by the end of the season.
Rainbows are returning in satisfying numbers in Eucumbene and Jindabyne as a result of heavy stocking with fingerlings from Gaden Hatchery. The fish are now about 30 centimetres long and very frisky. They have been great fun on fly, especially brown nymph, midge ball and Hairwing Coachman, especially late in the afternoon .
Bait fishers also have caught a few, mostly on Power Bait and scrub worms fished on light line with long, almost-invisible fluorocarbon leaders.
Some good-size browns have been taken by trollers using Tasmanian Devils, small Strike Pro, Halco and Rapala minnows. Slow trolling in deep water has been the most productive.
Fly fishers also have caught some good fish, mostly on brown nymph during the day, midge balls late in the afternoon and larger wets such as Craigs Nightime, Woolly Bugger and Mrs Simpson in the early evening.
Big lakes producing
All the reports from Wyangala and Burrinjuck have been good. A crew who fished Wyangala on a houseboat trip are still crowing over their catch-and-release effort of eight Murray cod and 75 golden perch in a weekend.
At Burrinjuck plenty of cod and perch have been reported. Most have been taken on spinnerbaits, Jackals and Burrinjuck Specials or on shrimps and yabbies. There were 12 cod over the magic one-metre mark taken in one week, with the best measuring 115 centimetres.