This has been going on for some years but was stepped up a notch when other massive trout were collected from other hatcheries this year.

These are both male and female fish that have been stripped of their eggs and milt, and are at an age where they are no longer of any value to the hatcheries.

This year, they were released into the reg dam and a couple of sites along the Goulburn River.

In previous years it has been a great success, but this year it was simply amazing.

With more than tons of trout released – and a chance of catching a trout over 15lb a distinct possibility – people came from everywhere.

Accommodation houses and caravan parks have had record bookings over the past month or so, and many are booked again for next year.

Pubs, cafés and all other stores in the area have all benefitted, as promises have already been made for the same thing to happen again.

I’m sure there’s a lot of people in that area that have worked very hard to make all this happen, but surely other areas could also benefit?

Seven ton is a lot of fish, so maybe it could be split?

Imagine the benefits to communities if you released those fish in a place like Lake Binamboola at Dartmouth, Lake Samble at Beechworth or the Mount Beauty Pondage, to name just a couple. Why not share the love and give other areas a crack?

Don’t forget October 21. That’s next Sunday, and it’s when the Lavington Anglers Club will be running the best “carp-a-thon” ever.

It’s a day for the whole family with jumping castle, sausage sizzle and heaps of prizes. There’ll also be plenty of experienced people on hand to give you info on all sorts of fishing. It’ll be a great day, so take the family and have a ball.

Dartmouth – has been producing a few yabbies. A mate was up there last weekend with a couple of other blokes hunting and fishing, and even though they didn’t have any yabby pots, they ended up with a few by putting a trout head in a landing net. Don’t know that they got heaps, but it’s a good sign. The fishermen among them got a couple on fenders with either worms or gudgeons behind, while the hunters ended up seeing a couple and bagging a samba doe. 

Bob Dower picked up his bag limit of five last Monday morning using fenders again, but spoke to another fisho that had been on the water for three days and had caught nothing. Bob spoke to him for a while to try to work out what this bloke was doing wrong, but sometimes it’s just the luck of the draw.

Don’t forget the Trout Trollers comp is also on at Dart next weekend (October 19-21). Plenty of prizes, so check it out on Mrs Google.

Khancoban – has been patchy, but the fishing club up there is also running an info day on Sunday to coincide with the Gone Fishing day being run across the country. The streams up that way have been OK without being brilliant, as have most streams. There’s certainly been a bit more insect activity about this week, so you’d expect things to liven up.

Lake Hume – should be pretty busy this weekend with the Leigh Martin Marine Mercury Classic in full swing.

This week’s reports have been OK from Hume but haven’t set the world on fire.

Everyone is working hard for what they’re catching, and there’s a bit of everything coming in. I’d expect a lot of fish will be trolled up on divers that get to the two to six metre mark and, realistically, that’s the best style of lure to use at the moment. Because there’s nothing out there that won’t have a crack at a 25-75mm fish imitation. Shallow diving minnows would also be worth a crack, but you’ll certainly cut your options down by using winged lures.

Blowering – has been going off over the past couple of weeks, with plenty of cod being caught from both bank on bait, and lure fishos from the boat and bank.

It’s easily the best bite of the year, so if you’ve been promising yourself a trip up, now’s the time.

Snowy Lakes – are all going well at the moment too.

Bait and lure fishos are doing well in any of the big three lakes up there. So, again, get up there while it lasts.