Fishing Victoria Forum

Went to morabool couple days ago on my fly gear, took a mate for his first time lake fly fishing.

No trout. Couldn't get past these little guys. Pretty frustrating. They were everywhere!
They took pretty much everything I put in the water.
https://youtu.be/Qq4GOLBIhWE

What were you throwing/stripping?

happyfriggincamper wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:25 pm

What were you throwing/stripping?

Streamers and nymphs, various sizes, various colours.
Mayfly/dun hatches everywhere but not a single trout rose to them. My guess is because those baby reddies were eating them aggressively.

Never fished there but always got the impression moorabool was a solid trout lake and it gets good mentions in books. Perhaps moreso in winter - cold might tone down the mirco reddies and bring out the trout

happyfriggincamper wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 04, 2021 9:06 pm

Never fished there but always got the impression moorabool was a solid trout lake and it gets good mentions in books. Perhaps moreso in winter - cold might tone down the mirco reddies and bring out the trout

Yeah I think so too. Winter be good to look for smelting trout. Use big wet fly kind of fishing. Or spoon/tassie devil with spin gear.

Was overcast day and I fished the sunset, was hoping dun hatches and some dry fly action. Despite the hatches did happen, the trout didn't rise.

When they're like that, try fishing the smallest buzzer or weightless nymph you have. Barely move it with a figure-8 retrieve.

Emerger patterns work well too - something like a Klinkhammer #14-20 (just make sure you don't put floatant on the body, only on the sticky-uppy part)

In winter, use smaller smelt imitations for Moorabool and other western lakes... like a #14 Tom Jones or BMS usually works well.