Yellow belly being caught at Burrinjuck

Water level current: 84.8 per cent. 

Current inflow: 3944 ML per day.  

Water visibility:  up to one metre.   

Weather: Mostly sunny for the weekend, with temperatures between one and 19 degrees Celsius with a light breeze on Saturday and up to 13 km/h winds on Sunday afternoon.

New moon: September 24.                                      

Full moon: October 8.                                        

Water temperature: 14-18.5 degrees Celsius.  

Murray cod: Closed season. The DPI have released the details on rule changes which will come into force on November 3 2014. The main change concerning Murray cod is the reduction in the size of the fish you will be allowed to keep. The minimum size remains at 60 cm. The maximum size you will be allowed to keep is now 80 cm. Maximum two per day and four in possession. Trophy size cod can still be targeted but must be released immediately. This will affect some fishing competitions. More info at the DPI Web site.

Yellow belly: Some better news this week. We had a few cracking yellows, up to 57 cm, caught by bait fisherman from the bank in the park. Bait being used has been mainly worms with the big one being taken on a yabbie. Finally some joy for the lure fishermen further up river as I predicted last week. 

The water down stream of Good Hope Resort and above Shaw’s was giving up good numbers of yellows for those in the know. Trolling crank baits and small hard bodies did the trick. Look for the higher water temperatures without going right up into shallow bays where the carp tend to congregate. I gave this area a go on Monday and found warmer water around 16.5 degrees which rose to 18.5 in the afternoon. I located schools of fish out in 18 plus metres of water hanging over the tops of submerged trees holding at between three to six metres deep. The fish are still not overly active. I managed to entice one nice 45 cm fish out of a tree with a cast spinner bait bumping through the limbs. Another was taken on a trolled number two purple stump jumper again from the top of the trees and a third hit was on a cast mask vibe. I worked the same area for several hours to get those three hits. Trusting what I was seeing on my structure scan sounder kept me interested.

Redfin: Remain very quiet. No reports this week at all.

Carp: Another rule change will be a strictly regulated pilot program to allow bow fishing for carp. Not sure if Burrinjuck is to be included in the pilot program. This would certainly be a great initiative that could spawn into bow fishing only competitions. 

Trout: No reports. Another rule change affecting trout fishermen is the halving of daily bag limits to five fish and 10 in possession.