Again we have had no rain for a few months now and our local small creeks are starting to look very dismal indeed, yet a few keen anglers have managed to find a few fish poking their heads out of an evening.

Our thought go out to everyone whom has been affected by the bushfires. These fires have been in the heart of a lot of our prime freshwater fishing areas, such as the Macalister and Thomson river catchments, so obviously no fishing has been done in the past month in these areas.

The Aberfeldy River and the Thomson River were the most fire-affected rivers and the fires had reached as far east as the Twenty Acre Creek section of the upper Macalister River according to fisheries. It’s unsure about what short term effects the fires will have on these rivers, but it will be solely due to what rain events if any we receive over the next couple of months. If we get a massive downpour before any regrowth occurs, we will get ash and sediment washed into the rivers and this that causes reduced water quality, leading to fish kills.

This is exactly what happened during the last major bushfires in the area and we can only hope this doesn’t happen again, especially after all the effort that has gone in the bringing these rivers back to life with management and stocking programs.

Close to home, streams like Traralgon Creek and Morwell River have copped a little bit of angling pressure however they are struggling to produce good fish with such low water levels. Jamie Kemp managed to catch a nice little trout at Koornalla during the low water levels on an evening, but the fish are still very few and far between and many anglers that are experts of fishing this area have barely caught any fish out of these local streams over the past few months.

I myself have walked long stretches of the creek over the past month and have barely spooked a trout whilst walking and many anglers are saying the same thing.

Morwell River has been a little kinder to anglers due to a between flow, but I think it wasn’t hit as hard during the floods as Traralgon Creek was either. It’s produced some small brown trout to 30cm; however anglers are working hard for their fish.

Most anglers have moved to the Tanjil River over the past month, due to a better flow. It seems to have a much healthier population of rainbows and browns than our local streams do right now. Anglers are using either dry flies or small soft plastics and spinners and are doing very well on small tout to 25cm, with the odd fish over 30cm.

For more information, contact Will at Allways Angling in Traralgon on 51748544. You will get expert advice and great deals on fishing bait and tackle., Turn in to Rex Hunt and Lee Rayner’s “Off the Hook” on 1242 to hear Will’s Report on what’s going on in Gippsland!

Jamie Kemp shows off this fantastic specimen of a Traralgon creek brown trout, especially considering the current water levels.