It has been a great opening to the trout season in East Gippsland.

The season started off with good river flows and the usual water temperatures of around 2C. Since then the rivers have continued to flow well with good follow up rain and a little late snow melt. As the days have got longer and the air temperatures increased, so too has the water temperatures.

Terrestrials, including beetles, are just starting to appear and there are a few mayflies to be seen together with reasonable numbers of midges.

The upper Mitta Mitta River is fishing well. The brown trout are in excellent condition for this time of the year and they will continue to put on weight as conditions improve. It is amazing how quickly the trout grow given favourable conditions. The evening hatches have not yet commenced but I expect that the caddis and mayflies will start to put in an appearance over the next month.

The lower Gibbo River has been inundated by Lake Dartmouth as the lake continues to rise. It looks likely that Dartmouth will go close to reaching capacity this year, which will provide anglers with some good fishing opportunities as it spills onto the grassy flat upstream of the Morass Creek. This area is one of the few flat grassy areas on Dartmouth’s shoreline and it has not seen water for many years. This should provide great fishing if the lake reaches this area.

Further upstream, the Gibbo River is fishing well as usual. Most of the trout are small rainbows but there are a few bigger browns to be caught as well. The top end of this system sees the Buemba River flow into the Gibbo. The Buemba is a great little small stream that meanders through the high plains before spilling into the Gibbo in some of Victories remotest country. Like the Gibbo, most of the fish are small rainbows and great fun on light gear.

Cobungra River is also fishing well particularly in the remote upper reaches. The area that I am talking about is upstream of its junction with the Victoria River. It takes a little effort to get into this part of the river but the rewards are there for competent angler. It is not uncommon for fish of 1.2kg or more to be taken here early in the season. Only the fish know why they are there but speculation is that they are browns that have moved into the system from Lake Dartmouth to spawn and have found this area to their liking and stayed.

The Bundara River and nearby Middle Creek are both fishing well. Most of the trout are up to 500g and again they are in good condition. Livingston Creek is producing a heap of small browns in the Cassilis area. Morass Creek has produced a good number of browns between 500g-1kg to the bait fishers. Morass Creek runs dirty all year and is best suited to bait fishing.

The Timbarra River, near Buchan, is also yielding its fair share of browns. Most of these trout are just under 500g and the river is in great shape. The Timbarra River is a wonderful little early season river. Once we get the hotter weather around Christmas, the water will heat up and the fishing will go off.

Over the next month the fishing should continue to improve and we can expect a gear trout fishing season.