by Rod Shepherd •
I’m rather surprised and a little chuffed at just how well known Lake Elingamite has become with anglers over the past few years. I am often asked (via phone calls, emails and social media) how the lake’s water levels are faring and, more importantly, how the fishing has been.
In an attempt to cut a long story short, Elingamite has suffered from low water levels for quite some time now. An average wet winter will raise the water level at the boat ramp just high enough for kayaks, punts and smallish V-nosed, flat-bottomed bass boats (such as mine) to get out.
I have a bow mounted electric motor which, when run in shallow drive, will get me away from the ramp and out into the channel. I always carry a long pole as this is sometimes needed to help push my boat out over the muddy bottom.
It’s also amazing just how fast the water level can recede when the sun comes out post-winter and the air temperature rises.
In 2016 the lake received just enough water from winter rains that the above-mentioned watercraft could just launch. Good fishing was to be had for the month of September, but from the AFL grand final weekend we received a week of warm temperatures, which exceeded 30°C.
Just prior to that I fished the lake, managing to launch the boat and get out without too much difficulty. Afterwards I hooked up the boat and went out to the lake looking forward to enjoying a session on the water, so imagine my shock when I saw that the water level had dropped over a foot in the old scale and Lake Elingamite was now closed off to my boat and many others as well.
At the time Fisheries arrived at the lake with 4000 brown and rainbow trout yearlings for release but only one boat managed to get out into deeper water and released just 400 browns with extreme difficulty before the whole stocking event was postponed. This was tragic news.
So for a grand total of just one single month of 2016, the lake was open to fishing and a successful stocking of salmonoids was indefinitely put on hold. Prior to that, if the lake was viable for small craft it would only stay that way for three or so months, which is really disappointing, but at least the lake got stocked.
Is it climate change or a cyclic event? No one is a hundred percent sure, but one thing’s for certain; in the last ten years the lake has been slowly receding.
A solid wet winter is what the lake has been crying out for and finally we got it in 2017. After a dry summer and early autumn, the rains began in earnest in early May and by late October were still falling. The depth right at the boat ramp had exceeded half a metre around November and that may not sound like much to many, but that’s the best depth we have had for quite some years.
Victorian Fisheries announced on 10 October that Lake Elingamite will receive – in the very near future – a stocking of 4000 yearling rainbows and 1000 yearling browns, which is fantastic news. However, these fish, despite their very fast growth rate in Elingamite will not be of a decent size until next winter when they should average around 900g, going on past growth rates.
Presently there are still some one and two year old fish remaining in Elingamite waiting to be caught, although they can be hard to entice at times. However, one species yet to be mentioned abounds in the lake and can grow to trophy size – the humble redfin.
Many lakes can suffer from an overpopulation of redfin (they breed like rabbits)m which inevitably causes stunting amongst stocks; nearby Lake Purrumbete is a classic example and so too was Lake Colac prior to the last drought which dried up the lake. This has never occurred at Lake Elingamite, so we get a mix of school fish from 350-700g on average and then bigger fish that can easily top 1.5kg.
My first trip out on the lake in 2016 occurred back in early June and resulted in six school fish caught in rather quick succession (I experienced a double hook-up) to 800g. These fish were all taken trolling minnow lures over one small area of the lake. I remember dropping another two during the session. The next successful trip occurred just a few weeks later when I managed one redfin, again on the troll; this one went 46cm and weighed in at 1.5kg.
Over the last decade I have managed to catch several fish in a season that easily exceed 1kg. In fact, it took me most of the same decade to fully crack the 2kg mark when I boated a 2050g, 52cm fat redfin just three years ago. If I can do it, anybody can. It just takes a bit of patience, perseverance and possibly quite a few trips out over a lengthy period of time, but it could happen on your first trip out. Who knows? It’s a bit of a lottery as to when the really big one shows up and eats your lure or bait.
To me, trolling minnow lures for Elingamite’s redfin is the way to go. If you happen to come across a school of fish in feeding mode, you’ll spot them on the sounder. It’s then time to stop trolling (if you want) and begin some static casting or jigging, depending on the depth that the fish are holding in.
Currently my favourite lures to troll (and cast) with are the ever-reliable Damiki Saemi 50 medium diving minnows. Next on the list is the 85mm Pontoon 21 Cablista minnow which is a shallow to medium diving stickbait (and works surprisingly well considering much of the fishable depth around the lake averages only around 2.5-3m. A deep diver is not really needed here unless, you concentrate your efforts out in the deeper section (5m+) where schooling redfin can often be located using the boat’s sounder.
Both types of lure also catch trout, which is a real bonus when you’re out chasing the reddies.
The more rain we get, the longer the lake will remain open to boaters. If we receive decent autumnal rainfall this year, the lake may well remain open. Here’s hoping!
For those not familiar with Lake Elingamite, bank fishing is totally out of the question due to very weedy and shallow waters that exist right around the lake’s circumference. The underlying muddy bottom is like quicksand, so it’s boats only I’m afraid.
