Episode 356: Googong Dam Redfin Perch With Romen Dicovski

Romen’s Redfin Perch Fishing Tips

• Redfin are prolific in Googong Dam (and most southern Australian freshwater impoundments), you don’t need to go far to find them. They are often close to the bottom and not visible on sonar until a swarm of them follow a lure up from the bottom.
• When there are lots of fish up off the bottom, the bigger fish are often underneath the school, so using fast sinking lures can help to get past the smaller fish and find larger specimens.
• Keeping lures as close as possible to the bottom is the key. You’ll find redfin pretty much anywhere and everywhere, but fishing around weed, submerged grass or other structure such as rocks or timber increases your chances.
• Redfin can be targeted in Googong all year round, but they seem to school up in large numbers especially in Spring and Summer. Meanwhile, the cooler months tend to present smaller schools of better quality fish.

Romen’s Redfin Fishing Tackle

• In terms of rods and reels, standard bream estuary fishing gear is perfect for targeting redfin as they’re not super hard fighters and don’t tax tackle too much. Stepping up to a 10lb braid and 10lb fluorocarbon leader isn’t such a bad idea as a by catch of oversized yellowbelly is always a possibility.

Romen’s Redfin Fishing Lures

• Redfin can be caught on just about any lure style, including spinners and spinnerbaits, soft plastics, hard bodied crankbaits and so on. Choose your favourite smallish lure and fish it close to the bottom or structure and you can’t go wrong with anything that causes a vibration.
• The 40mm Rapala Rippin Rap is one of Romen’s favourite lures for targeting not only redfin, but also golden perch in Googong. He’ll upgrade to a pair of #2 or #3 assist hooks on the tail of the lure and a small single on the belly (or no belly hook at all) – this improves snag resistance and allows the lure to be cast into weed and ripped back through. For redfin he’ll lean towards brighter colours, especially reds and hot oranges. This lure can be fished vertically or can be cast and retrieved with little hops and lifts, allowing the lure to hit bottom after every lift.
• 40mm Blades are Romen’s second choice and are fished in much the same way as the Rippin Rap. The Storm Ultrablade is a great choice and is perfect with working the bottom, although ZX blades and others all work too, redfin are not fussy and colour is not too important when using blades.