This final month of the season has seen the continued poor fishing in our region although there are a few bright spots.

Our largest river, the Mitta Mitta River is flowing a treat. There has been recent rain in the headwaters and it looks great however the fishing remains poor. I would expect that there would be spawning fish moving up from Lake Dartmouth into the river but I have not been able to find anybody who has caught any. There has been the odd small brown taken by those persistent few who are still fishing but overall it is poor.

It is a similar story in in the Bundara River; a few small browns. Nearby, the Cobungra River is a little better with a few browns being landed in the Innisfail area. Livingston Creek has been poor all year and remains so.

It is however better news in the Gibbo River. Last weekend we fished the Buemba River which is a tributary of the Gibbo. We caught a couple of browns of 500g and 1.2kg. Nice fish and caught on a dry fly. We also saw numerous other browns that were in the process of spawning. Some of these fish would weigh up to 2.5kg. This is a pretty little river that runs through grasslands that were grazed by the mountain cattlemen until they were evicted. It can be reached by conventional vehicle at that point.

Access to the lower section of the river is restricted to walking with the Alpine Walking Track making it easy, following the river for some distance downstream.

The Pinch River has been fishing quite well. Most of the fish have been smallish but the odd decent fish is turning up. The Pinch is a remote river that again can be reached by conventional vehicle. A dirt track follows the river a couple of kilometres upstream from the main road but then it is ‘shanks pony’ after that.

The walk is not hard as brumby tracks follow the river for quite a long way. The river runs between big mountains and under a canopy of trees and is a delightful series of runs and pools. Wading is essential. Fishing is normally good in the spring and autumn but summer temperatures usually put the fish down.

Around Dargo there are numerous wilderness rivers that require a 4WD vehicle. The Dargo River is one of the best of them and is fishing OK at the moment. Most of the fish are small but there is always the chance of catching a good one here.

The season is over now so we can look forward to some fly tying over the next few months.

There were a few nice browns to be caught as the season closed but overall the fishing was poor.