In last months report I made mention of how we’d had a cold, but as not yet really wet winter. We can safely say we have now had a very wet start to spring.

August saw significant rain events that put plenty of colour and run into our rivers. The trout really came on and some excellent fish were taken. The lower Merri in particular produced some excellent fish in the 2-3kg range, with reports of even bigger fish hooked and lost.

Then the heavens really opened with the most significant rainfall event for over a decade hitting the South West. All the local rivers burst their banks in places and huge plumes of brown water poured out into the ocean. There are still vast amounts of brown water continue to gush towards the sea. Coming back from Bullen Merri yesterday every drain, creek and river I passed over was still flowing due to the follow up rains we have had.

As you would assume angling reports have been pretty thin on the ground the last couple of weeks. Early in the month, before the rains came some good silver trevally were being taken in and around the Moyne River with fish to over a kilo responding to baits and soft plastic lures. It seems that these fish are also just starting to come on the bite again as some high tides begin to push against the flood waters. Boat and surf anglers have also taken some good gummy shark in the past couple of days, attracted in by the flow from the rivers.

Even though all this water it has put a bit of a dampener on fishing options in the short term the long-term benefits will be well worth it. All the rivers have had a fantastic flush out. There are already some big new snags sitting in the middle of the Hopkins and Merri rivers that should prove to be good fish holding structure.

With the wide deep mouths present in all local estuaries, anglers will be hoping some schools of mulloway find their way up into the Hopkins and the Moyne during October. Brown trout, after fattening up in the flooded waters, will return to their runs as the water drops and should provide some excellent angling.

For the offshore angler, gummy sharks will still be a viable target and the snapper should begin to show themselves by late October. The last couple of seasons have seen some good fish to 6kg taken off Warrnambool in 20-40m at this time of year.