Summer is here and the rivers have cleared up. The Macalister River has definitely been the place to go catch a trout in Central Gippsland.

The Macalister River has been fishing very well above Glenmaggie and above Paradise Valley on the way to Licola. There have been both species of trout caught, brown trout and rainbow trout, which is great to see.

The brown trout are in good condition and have been caught regularly to 35cm in length, with the odd fish over 40cm. The rainbow trout are in good numbers but are pretty small at around 25cm in length.

The rainbows seem to be holding in the fast water as usual, and are being caught regularly by fly anglers using wet flies such as bead head nymphs and small streamer patterns like Tom Jones’ and Mrs Simpsons. The spin anglers are doing very well on Celtas and Tassie devils.

The browns are in the runs as well but they are holding up more in the deeper waters and are responding very well to Tassie Devils.

Blue Rock Lake has been getting more and more attention lately, especially with the bass stock.

The bass have started this season so far responding more to worms than anything else. There are a few anglers managing to catch bass between 20-25cm off the bank edges around Willow Grove.

The best times have been either just after first light or then in the late afternoon with not too many fish being caught in the middle of the day.

As summer progresses and the water warms a little, it will be worth trolling the drop-offs with 5cm bibbed minnow lures and chucking small stickbaits and surface lures into the snags in the upper regions of the dam. The best times to do this style of sport fishing is in the afternoons, however the bass do become a lot more active in the warm weather and can be caught all day.

Trout have also been caught but they are tough work; Blue Rock is an extremely hard lake to work out. There have been more trout caught in the mornings than any other time but it is also worth fishing the afternoon hatch, especially in summer when the fish are rising.

You don’t have to be flyfishing to catch the trout when they are rising around the edges, you can use tiny 1-2” soft plastics on very small jigheads as well. As long as you are quiet and don’t spook the trout, you can still catch them.

Our local creeks, such as Traralgon Creek and Morwell River, have been very disappointing. There are fish in the Morwell River in the main branch and little branch but the numbers are nothing like they were two years ago. Traralgon Creek is even worse. There have been some trout caught since the opening, which is a great sign, however all the fish are coming from the lower section closer to Traralgon South. There still does not seem to be any fish above Koornalla, which is very strange.

Hopefully the fish move up, and the numbers increase but it’s evident something extremely detrimental has occurred in the Koornalla-Leroy region of Traralgon Creek. Hopefully a full fisheries survey is conducted very soon so we can get an accurate estimate of the numbers of trout in the creek and also their distribution up the river. Anyway keep the reports coming.

For more information, Contact Will at Allways Angling in Traralgon on 51748544. You will get expert advice and get great deals on fishing bait and tackle. Tune in to Rex Hunt and Lee Rayner’s Off the Hook on 1242 to listen to Will’s report on Gippsland.