Summer is here, and as good as the saltwater has been lately, anglers shouldn’t forget about the humble trout. As you will read, there is plenty of fun to be had in the fresh as well.

All the talk on the local grape vine has been about flying ants. There has been some very heavy falls of these little insects, and the brown trout have been gorging themselves on them. Imitations in size 14-16 have been great, and it hasn’t been uncommon to get 20 trout in an evening. The really hot nights are the ones when you would expect to have an ant fall, so look out for these evenings and hop out to the local creeks to have a flick or two.

During the day, small dry flies such as Royal Wulffs and Coachmen have been great, and so have small Dun patterns. Young Lochie and I recently had another good day up the Traralgon Creek, again landing heaps of small brown trout and one better fish weighing almost 1kg. A soft plastic called the Berkley Power Nymph seems to making a name for itself in the trout game, and a lot of anglers are using this pattern with great success. It can be used on a light jighead, such as 1/32oz, then cast upstream and allowed to float down, bouncing across the bottom. Trout will take it paused on the bottom as well – it really is deadly. The thing I like about it is that you can cast it to rising fish and they will take it.

The Tanjil River has been fishing really well up high. Plenty of brown trout and quite a lot of rainbows have been caught. Dry flies have been doing well, as have Celta spinners and soft plastics.

The level of Blue Rock Reservoir has risen after the rains we have had, and plenty of small brown trout can be taken around the edges on small dry flies, as well as slowly retrieved nymphs. Soft plastics always work a treat when trout are rising close to the edges, so they are worth a go too. Also don’t go past the humble garden worm, as trout like worms in rising water. That’s about all for now, hope to see you out there. Good luck!

For more information on fishing central Gippsland, contact Will at Allways Angling in Traralgon on 51748544.