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Better than superb
  |  First Published: March 2012



Summer fishing has been great in East Gippsland. In fact the fishing has just gotten better as the season has progressed.

Our biggest river, the Mitta Mitta River, has been superb. The summer water temperatures have been quite good with the river running under 20C most of the time. There are very few hoppers around but plenty of beetles and lots of caddis, a few mayflies and some midges appearing for the evening rise.

The section upstream of the Bundarra River has been heavily fished over the summer months but continues to produce. It is pleasing to see so many anglers practicing catch and release these days. The fish in this section are mostly up to 1kg and in very good condition. Downstream of the Bundarra River junction the river flows through some very inaccessible country but it is possible for the adventurous angler to get into the river in several places.

One angler recently caught a rainbow trout of almost 1.5kg just above the Mitta Mitta junction with the Cobungra River. This is a very good-sized fish for the Mitta and it is unusual to catch a rainbow of this dimension so far upstream of the dam.

Fishing has also been good on the Mitta in the Hinnomunjie area. Most of the trout in this section are a little smaller than further upstream and there are quite reasonable numbers of rainbows showing up together with the usual run of browns.

Unfortunately there are also a lot of carp being seen and caught in this area.

Regular Lakes Entrance angler Mick Rosenboom has been fishing this section of the river recently and reporting good catches of both browns and rainbows. Mick has found that they are taking most types of flies but he has had a lot of success with a very small emerger patterns.

This month I have had some great reports from the Gibbo River and its tributary, the Buemba River. What is unusual is the high percentage of browns being caught in this system. Normally at this time of the year this river system is full of smallish rainbows however some really good browns are showing up as well as the rainbows. Bill James got a beautiful brown of almost 1.5kg in the Buemba on a Parachute Adams fly recently. Bill said that he encountered lots of anglers but the fishing was still great.

Livingston Creek is fishing well to small browns. There are a lot of fish being taken out of the upper Cassilis area but also good catches in the lower section around Hinnomunjie Station. I spoke to one female angler who caught 8 browns of between 25-30cm at the pool above the bridge in the Omeo Valley. She was reading a good novel and fishing worms.

The Bundarra River is flowing well also and giving up good numbers of small to medium browns. Nearby, it is a similar story in the Cobungra River however further upstream, near the old hydro station, there has been some really good fish caught. This is another remote area that requires a little physical effort to get to but it can be worth the trouble as there have been many trophy fish caught here over the years.

The Timbarra River near Buchan also continues to fish well. This is a great little river and a delight to fish. It runs through farmland before entering forest and eventually becoming almost impenetrable. The farmland section has been fishing really well. Normally at this time of the year the river becomes quite warm and the trout go doggo. Not this year. They are up and firing!

Jim Convey has been fishing here a lot this season and picking up some good fish. Most of the browns are under 500g but the odd one is up to 700g. These are good fish for this river. Evening fishing has been good as well.

Over March the fishing should continue to be good. All the rivers have good flows and the water temperatures will start to drop a little as we move into autumn. Expect to see rising fish and good hatches.

Adrian Bond and Marj Murray with a lovely Mitta Mitta River brown that was caught recently.

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