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Trout then and now
  |  First Published: December 2012



This season is shaping up to be another cracker

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Although almost all of the trout creeks, rivers and lakes fished well last season, my absolute favourite would have to be the Goobragandra River, thanks not only to its plentiful fish but their size as well.

I strongly recommend that if you have not already fished this magnificent river south-east of Tumut that you do so; you won’t be disappointed.

Last season was amazing and I have heard lots of similar reports from all over the country and this season is shaping up as very good indeed.

Most creeks and rivers have produced perfect spawning conditions at the right time for the past three seasons.

There should be record numbers of trout in every little creek and river that has trout, or used to have trout in it.

Small streams that dried up in the drought are almost guaranteed to have trout again and you may just be surprised at the size of some of them.

SMALL WATER

If my trip down Adelong Creek was anything to go by you can forget about the old ‘fish will only get as big as the water they live in’ theory.

I’ve found that the creeks that were affected the most by the drought certainly had a high fish mortality but the fish that did survive had little competition for food once flows got back to normal, and then above normal.

This meant that the surviving fish flourished, gorged themselves and grew to unbelievable sizes compared with the size of the water that they lived in.

The creek fish that had a high survival rate have since gone on to spawn over and over again, which has meant numbers are extremely high, even at record. But this also means that there is a lot of competition for food so the average size of fish in these creeks and rivers will remain smaller.

But the average size, even in the creeks and rivers that are teeming with trout, is still generally much larger than it was five years ago.

Over the past three years the trout fishing has continued to improve and there are a lot of sceptics out there who think that this can’t continue and that we are at the end of the boom.

I am predicting that this phenomenal trout fishing will certainly continue for at least the first half of the 2012/2013 season and it won’t surprise me if it continues to get better for another few more seasons yet.

Well, here’s hoping, anyway.

The only way that there is a chance of this great trout fishing changing is if the El Niño weather returns as a significant event. This could mean below average rainfall, which means less water and less food, and fish will slowly get smaller and potentially drop off in numbers if things get bad enough.

So even if there is an El Niño, all those springs, creeks, rivers and dams overflowing all over the country will take quite a while for it to have any significant impact on trout fishing.

Below average rainfall may slow things down for a bit eventually but all this will mean is that the fishing will still be excellent.

Regardless of the weather, all things point towards the trout fishing being at least as good as it has been but it could very possibly even improve, at least for the better part of this season.

So get your trout gear out and revel in some of the best trout fishing to be had in a very long time.

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