Victorian Winter Lake Fly Fishing

Yes it's that time again closed season on Victorian rivers.

 So lets fish lakes and I intend to over the July/August period.  As of mid- June one under the belt, Hepburn Lagoon.   Bugger!  it's not a lake but it looks like a one and after all  beggars can't be choosers.   Cold  yes!  Windy yes!   What do you expect sunshine?  Well a bit, we got it, an hour.   Dry fly fishing it is not, streamer patterns and assorted wet flies are the go.    Lots of casting is required, you can consider it practice if you like.   Using slow, fast and slow/fast  stripping retrieving techniques with each time waiting for the pull of the fly line between your cold fingers.

I'm not big on swearing so the word bugger is used intentionally as many wet flies have the word in their titles, Woolly Bugger comes to mind, which brings me to the fly that was successful on the Hepburn Lagoon day.   The Shreck Bugger was the successful fly and the other fly a Tom Jones - a classic wet fly.    

There are many types of insects that live in lakes so using a variety of wet flies through the day can prove productive.   Moving to various locations along the shore will also help to add up to a successful day.     The corridores between the weed beds are highways for the fish to move in search of food so attention to these areas is important.   The weed beds are cover for the fish to ambush their prey as are the shadow sides these are not to be missed.    There are some lakes with very little weed bed presence potentially making them harder to fish.    On these types of lakes keep moving.

More on lake fish in our next blog.