Trelly's Weekly Fishing Report - October 17, 2025
by Trellys 17 Oct 09:27 UTC
October 17, 2025
Trelly's Weekly Fishing Report - October 17, 2025 © Trelly's
It's the middle of October and the Yellowbelly are going bonkers everywhere... except the places that I am fishing.
I am currently in the middle of a Yellowbelly drought. So far this spring I have only caught 3 Yellowbelly, and I caught them all in the one afternoon in the same spot.
My social media newsfeeds are lit up with Yellowbelly photos from Lake Hume, Lake Eildon, the Campaspe River, the Murray River, Crusoe Reservoir, the Loddon River and many other places. Yet every time I go out and drown some worms to try and catch a Yellowbelly all I catch are carp and out of season Murray cod.
Thinking that the water might be a bit cold in my area, last week I travelled to some warmer areas in search of a Yellowbelly. I fished the Murray River at Barmah where I caught 2 small trout cod and a couple of carp and I fished 2 different spots along the Broken Creek where I caught nothing but carp.
My wife and I went out on a road trip to the Hay Plains last week. It was 30 degrees. I fished two different parts of the Billabong Creek where I caught Murray cod and carp. But still no Yellowbelly.
I think I am under some kind of a Yellowbelly curse. I am certainly not under a carp curse, I am catching no shortage of those things.
I have been doing really well when yabbying. I have been catching quite a few yabbies in dams around Wangaratta. Last week I put 3 Yabby nets into Broken Creek using a carp that I had just caught as bait, and didn't catch a single yabby.
I suspect that maybe the flowing water may be a bit cooler for the yabbies than the still water of the dams that I have been yabbying in. Either that or they are just not in the Broken Creek at the moment, although I did catch one on a fishing rod there last month.
I have been really enjoying my time in the hills trout fishing recently. Water levels are still quite healthy and the water is still very cold. Up in the hills and valleys they are still experiencing some quite severe frosts which is keeping the water nice and cold.
Icy cold water with warm sunny days bringing out the insects is a recipe for trout fishing success.
We desperately need some rain though otherwise water levels will drop and start to warm up quickly in coming weeks.
Lake Eildon
I sound like a broken record here as each week the report is the same, but there have been some lovely Yellowbelly and Murray cod caught at Lake Eildon again this week. This week I have seen a few photos of redfin being caught in the Bonnie Doon area as well. Some of them have been an OK size, but not massive.
Lake Hume
As with last week there have been quite a lot of Yellowbelly caught in Lake Hume. One thing that has excited me this week is that I have seen 2 separate photos of small redfin caught there as well.
Lake Hume has traditionally been an amazing redfin fishery but in recent years they have all but disappeared. It's good to know that there are still a few in there, I would love to see great redfin fishing in Lake Hume again.
Ovens River
I have been catching a few carp, small Murray cod and small trout cod in the Ovens River around Wangaratta lately just using worms for bait. So far this spring the Yellowbelly have been conspicuous by their absence.
Campaspe River
No doubt many of you will have seen the capture in the Campaspe River by Jed Rouse this week. Jed caught a 10.5lb brown trout in the Campaspe River just downstream of Lake Eppalock. WOW Talk about "one out of the box".
The photos and videos went quite viral on Facebook, and it's not hard to see why. Well done Jed on your fish of a lifetime mate.