Hooray for trout opening! Finally we all managed to hit the creeks and lakes for a well-deserved trout fish and it was interesting to hear all the different reports from around the area.

I’ve been talking about the Traralgon Creek a lot this year and this is mainly due to the issues it’s had with trout stocks and habitat destruction. We have all been waiting for the winter period to finish and trout opening to come to see whether or not the creek had replenished its stocks by itself or whether we still thought that it needed human intervention.

Most reports I have had so far from anglers has been negative.

There were a couple of trout caught up very high up the western branch by keen angler Rohan Burge, but that was about it. A lot of anglers saw either baby 3” long trout or smelt but no great numbers of trout like we are used to on trout opening. Alternatively, the lower section of the creek, that is dirty and doesn’t get fished much, had a handful of trout caught out of it, which is a positive note.

However, it’s still too early to tell. Trout opening can be difficult as the water levels are usually up and you can have discoloured water making fishing tough, so hopefully next month a few more trout will show up.

Locally, the Morwell River fished quite well, but it looked like it had copped a fair hammering; some anglers had obviously gotten up nice and early to have a fish. There were decent numbers of trout in the runs and it wasn’t too hard to catch a few trout up to 25cm in length. All methods proved well as there was a bit of colour and the river looked very nice.

Some of the fly anglers did well using bead nymphs and again most of the sizes were around the 25cm mark with the odd fish pushing 30cm in length.

The Macalister fished very well and the bait anglers using worms seemed to out fish most others due to the height of the river. I think the Macalister will really be worth hitting properly over the next few months, especially with lures and fly. Most of the fish caught were brown trout to 35cm. This is fantastic as these are naturally recruited trout, which proves the river is healthy and doing well despite all the issues this catchment has had over the past few years with fires and floods. The mid sections around Cheynes Bridge to Licola seemed to get the most pressure over trout opening and hence I had more reports from these areas.

Finally, Ash Cook caught an amazing bass recently. It was caught local and measured almost 50cm in length. He caught it on worms and released it. Well done mate, this has to be the catch of the year!

For more information, contact Will at Allways Angling in Traralgon on 51748544. You will get expert advice and some great deals on fishing bait and tackle. Don’t forget to tune in to Will’s Gippsland report on Rex Hunt and Lee Rayners’ Off the Hook on 1242.

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Ash Cook caught this thumping big bass locally on worms, it nearly measured 50cm. It’s hard to believe a stocked bass grew this large, which is very interesting.