Trelly's Weekly Fishing Report - October 24, 2025

Yellowbelly © Trellys

My fishing reports this week have been dominated by Yellowbelly. Just about every waterway that has Yellowbelly in it is fishing well now that the warm weather has finally arrived.

At the bottom of this report I will give some tips on bait, lures and locations to help you catch a Yellowbelly at the moment because there's never been a better time.

Lake Hume

Lake Hume continues to produce some amazing Yellowbelly fishing. Anglers "grubbing the trees" have been doing well. This is a technique that requires lowering a soft plastic grub, usually a 3" or 4" curl tail grub down beside a standing dead tree trunk and bouncing it around as you retrieve it back up.

This is a great way to catch Yellowbelly if you are in a boat without a live scope.

For those with a live scope fish finder, the "shake and bake" technique seems to be very popular. Anglers search around with their live scopes looking for the fish, and then cast a lipless crankbait lure right in front of the fish.

They then lift it up slowly, frantically tapping the back of the fishing rod to make the lure rattle.

Both of these techniques have been working well in both Lake Hume and Lake Eildon recently.

Ovens River

Finally some Yellowbelly have been turning up in the Ovens River system. I have been catching a few using worms as bait, and I have been sent a few photos from others this week as well.

Quite a few cod have been caught and released as a by-catch while targeting Yellowbelly.

There have also been quite a few carp caught in the ovens River system lately as well as the fully protected Trout cod and Macquarie perch which is a great sign.

Campaspe River and Loddon Rivers

Both of these rivers have been fishing well for Yellowbelly this week. As with the ovens River a few Murray cod have also been caught as a by-catch.

Goulburn River

The Goulburn River has been fishing well. Water levels have subsided and people are catching fish. I have seen photos of some lovely trout caught upstream around the Alexandra and Thornton areas, while the lower reaches are producing some lovely Yellowbelly.

Shepparton fishing identity Mick Marshall caught a nice Yellowbelly in the Goulburn River at Mooroopna on a gold stump jumper this week. Mick said he caught it under the log he was standing on.

Yellowbelly Tips

For anybody hoping to catch a Yellowbelly at the moment, here are a few tips:

Try using medium sized lures. The small Old Mate lure is one of my absolute favourites and can be found here.

If you buy one, make sure you buy the 10ft model. I have caught oodles of Yellowbelly on these lures in Lake Nillahcootie, just trolling behind my kayak. They are also an excellent redfin lure as well.

Small lipless Crankbait lures such as the Jackall TN60 and TN70 are also very good Yellowbelly lures.

If you are wanting to fish for Yellowbelly with bait, the humble worm is hard to go past. If you can get a hold of them, freshwater shrimp are a dynamite Yellowbelly bait.

As far as locations go, lakes Eildon, Hume, Nillahcootie, Eppalock and Cairn Curran are all worth fishing at the moment.

As for rivers, the Loddon, Campaspe, Broken and Goulburn Rivers are all good spots to target Yellowbelly, especially in their lower reaches.

The Ovens River is OK too, although it seems to be a bit slower than the above-mentioned rivers at the moment, possibly due to the water being a little bit cooler.

A full list of all waterways stocked with Yellowbelly can be found on the Victorian Fisheries Authority website at vfa.vic.gov.au.

One final tip that I have is that regardless whether you are bait fishing in a river or trolling lures in a lake, the low light periods of sunrise and sunset are always worth fishing.