Lately, I’ve been asking customers how they do theirs and there’s quite a variety of options.

Some cook the fish whole, just gutted and gilled, and then bake them. Never tried that.

Some do the same thing, then wrap them in foil. Never tried that.

Both have said they don’t bother scaling the fish as the skin just peels off easily once cooked, which I can understand. And the foil one does sound tempting to me. My only issue is when people start throwing in all sorts of different spices, which just blows the natural flavour of the fish out of the water I reckon.

Others have told me they scale redfin before butterfly filleting them.

That’s when you fillet the fish but leave the gut section joined, giving you that butterfly look.

That could be great, because lots of people like the taste of the skin. And there’s no reason you can’t do that with single fillets too.

I’ve never tried that one either, because I’m too lazy to scale ’em. I fall into the group that fillet and skin their reddies.

I’ll often cook mine plain, with just a dusting of salt and pepper, or occasionally batter them. As we all know, there’s lots of different ways to produce a batter.

A batter can make or break the delicate flesh of a reddie, so I guess the advice there is to keep it as light as possible. Maybe just dust the fillets in flour or cornflour.

Obviously there’s not enough room to add all the cooking options. But I think most of us would agree that reddies are one of the best eating fish you can get.

Rocky Valley Dam – just above Falls Creek is pretty consistent at this time of year. Not a lot of big trout come out, but they are tasty.

Normal trolling techniques, bait and fly, all work well but don’t go up without a jumper.

And a jacket. And a raincoat. Doesn’t matter what the weather man says!

Burrinjuck Dam – has been a little patchy of late. A couple of customers went up last weekend and managed two cod, around the 650mm mark, and three yellas.

All were caught casting and they reckoned it was also a bit slow for everyone they spoke to.

Blowering –  is a bit the same for cod fishos, with not a lot of reward for effort at the minute.

But it’s a different story for those who are chasing the reddies.

There’s a heap being caught. Lots of those are a little bit small, but we’ve had heaps of customers report that the average size is a bit better than Lake Hume. And with a few better fish around as well.

As is the case with Hume, yabbies, worms, blades, ice jigs and vibes are all catching their share of fish.