Continual drought and heavy water requirements for irrigation and electricity generation continue to dog Lake Dartmouth. The question I keep asking myself is: Ò How long can the slice of heaven that is Lake Dartmouth continue to bounce back?Ó This majestic lake with its near pristine surroundings is surely VictoriaÕs most consistent producer of Brown & Rainbow trout. Over the last few years the trout have been ravaged by low water, bushfires, a surge in the Carp numbers but still they keep bouncing back. Water quality at this time does not appear to suffer. However if the lake is continually drained to the low water levels that we saw last June, I believe it will be affected. However enough of the politics, lets talk about the trip.

Thirteen members along with two junior members as well as one senior non competitor and two junior non competitors, fished Lake Dartmouth, the pondage and the Mitta Mitta river. With a good rivalry being developed between the bait soakers, and the trollers it was going to be an interesting long weekend. The last few years have seen the trollers develop and refine their techniques immensely. Plane boards, Downriggers, Hi Tech Sounders and GPS units have helped immensely. The more traditional style of angling with baits has also seen a bit of a revolution, with better rods and lines available, not to mention the coarse angling style floats.

Saturday proved to be a beautiful day, good conditions for fishing all round. The Dart arm, the Mitta arm and the Eight Mile area were all popular. The guys trolling had mixed success on the traditional Tassie style lures that work well here as well as trolling mudeyes and worms behind fenders or cowbells. The best attractors were the copper and the brass colors. Depths fished ranged from 4 metres through to twenty metres. Meanwhile the anglers working the baits had success using mudeyes and the local Gudgeon. Scrub worms fished on the bottom also took their fair share of fish.

Saturday nights weigh in saw most anglers weigh in fish. The better bags of the day were as follows:

Ken Minnitt had four fish four 3.430 kg his best a Brown trout that weighed 1.315kg. Dale Bethridge a junior had five fish for 3.125 kg and his brother Andrew had five fish for a bag weight of 3.320 kg.

Sunday was also a good day weather wise with most of us using plenty of sunscreen. Light winds prevailed for most of the day making for a great day to be outdoors. As with the previous day, anglers were spread out all over the lake and river. It was left to Daniel Jennings to see if the pondage had any fish on offer. Daniel true to form surprised us all back at the weigh in with a nice bag of fish. Weigh in on Sunday night saw consistent bags come in again, with most anglers bringing fish to scale. On Sunday night we weighed in forty four fish ( two less that the previous night).

Best bags of the night were as follows:

Ken Minnitt five fish for 3.160 kg, Daniel Jennings three fish for 3.960 kg. Daniels best fish was a Rainbow trout that tipped the scales at 1.660 kg cleaned. It was to be the largest fish of the competition. Daniel commented that when this fish was hooked it really turned on the afterburners and was a delight to capture.

On the Monday we woke to a windy day that looked like it was going to turn sour at any time. Again the club members headed all over the lake and the surrounding district trying to capture that ever elusive fish. Out on the lake we were subjected to strong winds that came and went. Unfortunately we were caught out in a heavy squall that swept thru the Eight mile and the Dart arm. The trout were more cooperative for the lake trollers as most took good bags. Trolling mudeyes and worms behind Brass ford fenders was the order of the day. Twenty four of the thirty six fish bought to scale were from the Trolling brigade.

The junior brigade of the club led by Julian Costa had a great day out. Julian had a bag of five brown trout for 3.110 kg. Dale Betheridge was right with him with a bag of five brown trout that weighed in at 3.100 kg. Andrew Betheridge weighed in five brown trout for a bag of 2.135 kg whilst Anthony Coter bought four fish to scale for a total weight of 2.095 kg. Great effort lads, its good to see these enthusiastic young fishos at work. Other good bags for the day were John Costa with five fish for 2.800 kg, and Peter Patterson with five fish for 2.490 kg.

Over the course of the weekend the club managed 121 Brown Trout and 5 Rainbow trout for a total cleaned weight of 69.310 kgs. Average cleaned weight of fish was 0.550 kg. Winner of our competition was Ken Minnitt. Second was Peter Patterson, equal third were Julian Costa and John Costa.

A wonderful weekend had by all.