Lure selection experience - Melton reservoir

[Sebb]

After reading Seniorfisho's post, got tempted to do an afternoon fishing at Melton reservoir on a yak. Hadn't been there for years and when I got there, was pretty much the same. Rubbish everywhere including broken sofa, mattress, burnt car. Oh well. Wish the council would improve the access and organise a clean up.

Few people fishing landbased, was thick overcast cloudy drizzling kind of day. Saw some of them caught a redfin and carp.

Four of us got on the water, each with own 'go to lure', we were casting and trolling around the 3m bank. One of us caught one redfin on a double clutch (didn't see which size and colour he used) and I got one 27cm on sx40 338 colour.

Moved around and trolled the edges, varies from 4m to 8m edges. Stumpjumper and oargee on one rod (hoping for a yellowbelly and or cod, but none caught) and sx40 on the other. Others used RMG, grub bloodworm plastic and double clutch. We all got the fair share of small reddies.

The small ones seemed to be in mid to top water and as usual would hit anything thrown at them. Til I saw something decent in mid of 7-8m water and also the bottom of 4-5m water. I tried everything from rattling vibe, metal vibe, plastic, etc, to get down deep, and nada, nothing.

So I stopped for few mins, looked at my tackle box before randomly taking the next lure to try.
I thought, it's overcast, low light enough above the water, must be even less light 4-5m underwater. For the fish to see the lure, I gotta choose something flashy and something goes down deep to where they were, especially when they weren't that aggressive (otherwise pretty sure they could and would hit a lure anywhere in the water level).
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So I chose rapala jack deep 05 roach pattern. Flashy and could dive deep. Trolled it, hooked and landed a 32cm redfin. Stopped and casted back to the same spot few times, landed couple more. Trolled again and caught some more decent ones, biggest was 35cm, hit hard when was most unexpected and got my heart pumping.
Then I thought, it worked! I cracked the code for the session.
There are many great proven lures such as double clutch, etc. But sometimes it's not about what/which lures to use, more like 'why' to use this/that lure.

Double clutch 75 dives to 1.5m in orange colour maybe great to fish 2-3m water or when they're aggressive in blue sky day willing to swim up to the top. But in today's case, the rapala jack deep roach was the stand out lure.
Hope this story could be helpful to others to decide which lures to use.

[Seniorfisho]

Fantastic write up Seb, well worked out. i told you would at least get something. Shame you didn't get any Cod or Yellas or EP's, maybe the change in weather from the previous few days might have shut them down, How good are the reddies on light gear, it is going to be an outstandind fishery in years to come, the only thing now is for the council to fix the access and tracks and clean the rubbish

[Sebb]

Fantastic write up Seb, well worked out. i told you would at least get something. Shame you didn't get any Cod or Yellas or EP's, maybe the change in weather from the previous few days might have shut them down, How good are the reddies on light gear, it is going to be an outstandind fishery in years to come, the only thing now is for the council to fix the access and tracks and clean the rubbish

You're not wrong there. Was a nice place to fish, and especially kayak further north. Pretty quiet, no boats/jetskis, pretty isolated and yet it's not that far from Melbourne. Thanks for the info of the place.

Yeah we were hoping a yella or two and some EPs. I think you're right, the weather change could be the reason. And yes, I used 1-3kg rod and 6lb line on 2000 reel. Great fun indeed!

Saw boiling water surface too and the whole sounder screen showed solid colour, could be a big school or redfin or we're probably going the same direction as the school. Either small reddies being chased by bigger reddies or EPs, or vice versa.

[Seniorfisho]

Fantastic write up Seb, well worked out. i told you would at least get something. Shame you didn't get any Cod or Yellas or EP's, maybe the change in weather from the previous few days might have shut them down, How good are the reddies on light gear, it is going to be an outstandind fishery in years to come, the only thing now is for the council to fix the access and tracks and clean the rubbish

You're not wrong there. Was a nice place to fish, and especially kayak further north. Pretty quiet, no boats/jetskis, pretty isolated and yet it's not that far from Melbourne. Thanks for the info of the place.

Yeah we were hoping a yella or two and some EPs. I think you're right, the weather change could be the reason. And yes, I used 1-3kg rod and 6lb line on 2000 reel. Great fun indeed!

Saw boiling water surface too and the whole sounder screen showed solid colour, could be a big school or redfin or we're probably going the same direction as the school. Either small reddies being chased by bigger reddies or EPs, or vice versa.

If you get there at first light, those schools can be seen busting up all over the place, especially if it really calm, I have caught a few nice reddies casting to those schools, but a lot of small ones also. I am far from a cod expert, but do they tend to be more active in late march and april? My mate got a massive EP and big reddies trolling deep divers on friday night and again on saturday, also have another mate who has been targeting Cod and getting a few on deep divers also, just waiting for some calm weather to take my little yak out there and I might try a Cod and yella only day, great fun trying to work out how to catch them

[Sebb]

If you get there at first light, those schools can be seen busting up all over the place, especially if it really calm, I have caught a few nice reddies casting to those schools, but a lot of small ones also. I am far from a cod expert, but do they tend to be more active in late march and april? My mate got a massive EP and big reddies trolling deep divers on friday night and again on saturday, also have another mate who has been targeting Cod and getting a few on deep divers also, just waiting for some calm weather to take my little yak out there and I might try a Cod and yella only day, great fun trying to work out how to catch them

I'm no cod expert either but I think generally the smaller ones are active in summer. The bigger ones are the ones come out and aggressive in Autumn months. I remember a shop assistant of Compleat Angler Wangaratta told me that.

Yeah be great to catch some of them there.

Someone in facebook said he contacted Melton council only to be told that it's up to Southern Rural Water. Then Southern Rural Water said it's up to the council.


I sent a message to VFA, see what they'll say about it.
Or maybe we can get Clean Up Australia to organise something.

[Master Baiter]

I find large Cod more active most in November, December but can be caught all through summer Two x 1 metre plus caught yesterday in Eildon.

[happyfriggincamper]

Outside of the rubbish it's a great looking area, lots of structure and spots to fish + very full and different compared to the current satellite shot on Google maps.

Really hope the native stocking (particularly cod/yellas) continues and access is improved.

[Texas]

Many years ago my mate had 5 or 10 acres at Exford
Following his road you come to a back water that is very accessible
Aranth rd sounds familiar
Gra

[Texas]

Btw Sebb, grouse information and report
Cheers Gra

[Sebb]

Btw Sebb, grouse information and report
Cheers Gra

Thanks.

Many years ago my mate had 5 or 10 acres at Exford
Following his road you come to a back water that is very accessible
Aranth rd sounds familiar
Gra

Arandt road?
Saw that on the map. There's definitely few potential access. Just need one or two properly done.