Trelly's Weekly Fishing Report - April 17, 2026
by Trellys 17 Apr 23:03 UTC
17 April 2026
Yellowbelly © Trellys
We've gone from scorching hot weather to beautiful weather and now it's starting to get cold. It was 3 degrees here in Wangaratta this morning.
With the colder weather comes colder water and unpredictable fishing. Autumn can be very hit and miss as Brenton Clarke found out recently. He fished for hours without a touch and then caught 3 Yellowbelly in 10 minutes.
More on Brenton's fishing trip further in the report...
Loddon River
There have been some great fishing reports coming from the Loddon River in recent weeks. The area around Serpentine seems to be fishing well.
I have seen reports of Yellowbelly and Murray cod both being caught in the Loddon this week, with a couple of great Yellowbelly fishing videos surfacing on YouTube from Michael Lane and Brenton Clarke.
Michael Lane had great success fishing from his kayak with a Predator lure:
After a very slow start Brenton Clarke hit a bit of a purple patch trolling in the Loddon River:
There have also been reports of no fish, and "not even any bites" coming from the same area by bait fisherman. It appears that those fishing with lures are finding the best fishing in the Loddon River at the moment.
Lake Mulwala
There have been a few small Murray cod caught amongst the timber at Lake Mulwala this week. A friend of mine trolled 4 cod, all undersized on a green Predator lure early this week. He said the fishing was slow but ticking over.
I have not heard any reports of big fish being caught down there, but that's not to say there hasn't been any.
Lake Hume
Lake Hume continues to fish well for redfin with some reasonable sized fish being caught in 20 feet of water near the Ebdon part of the lake this week. Those fish were caught using small yabbies as bait in open water away from the timber.
The fish weren't huge, with the biggest ones maxing out at around 30cm, still very nice fish.
Ovens River
My home ground, the Ovens River has been a bit hit and miss lately. In saying that, I have managed to catch something most times I have been out. I have certainly seen it fishing much slower.
I fished in Wangaratta with a couple of young fellas last night. We caught 2 Murray cod between the three of us. The best one was a lovely 57cm Murray cod that took Blue Dog Paddler surface lures in front of a big log.
And Freddy caught this lovely Murray cod on a Spinwright spinnerbait.
A few days ago I went bait fishing on a sandbar in Wangaratta. I fished for 4 hours from 4:30pm to 8:30pm. Two hours in the light and 2 in the dark. For my troubles I caught one small undersized Yellowbelly on a Jan Juc Worm. BUT... At least it wasn't a fishless trip, and apart from being a bit cold it was super relaxing.
Trout Streams
Last week I mentioned that now is a great time to fish the trout stream in North East Victoria. Well, I backed that up with a trip up into the hills one afternoon last week.
We had received a fair bit of rain the night before and the streams were experiencing a fresh flush.
I waded up a tiny tributary of the Ovens River where I enjoyed the best trout fishing that I have had for the last few years. It was so good.
I caught 8 or 9 brown trout, all on a Strike Tiger Micro Minnow in "Black Caviar" colour.
The fish were not big, simply because the stream was tiny. The biggest trout were probably 33 to 34cm long at a guess but given the size of the creek that I was fishing I consider these to be good fish.
Now is the perfect time to go trout fishing, if you can find a stream with trout in it.
Trout numbers have been down dramatically over the last couple of seasons so finding a good spot has been more difficult than usual.
Hopefully this great wet start to autumn in North East Victoria will provide the region's dwindling trout numbers with a few more spawning opportunities this year.