With the weather turning ever so slowly the river remains in good enough condition to fish the entire length. The upper section has been fishing at its best for months and I have a feeling that it will remain this way until the trout season closes.

It was a medium to good season for grasshoppers and crickets this year and, considering there are still some about and the trout have been eating them for the last few months, I don’t think you’ll find a better bait for the fish. This late in the season the fish will take them whichever way you want to give them to them – on the bottom with a running sinker, floating down the runs unweighted or, my favourite, fished upstream with a small split shot sinker 15cm up the line from a single hook with 2 hoppers feed onto it! This is a walking and casting method and to be successful, you’ll need to cover quite a bit of ground on foot.

Other than that, spinning has been picking up its fair share of fish, as has flyfishing. Doons Reserve Caravan Park has reported that customers have seen some fantastic fishing of late with kids getting into the action catching trout on worms right in the park.

The middle Yarra has been low for months now and only every now and then rising up with a little dump of rain. This has been great for the fishing as it also brings food, nutrients and oxygenated water down the river to the fish.

The usual Carp-a-thon has been proving itself to be quite the event with all sorts getting down for both a feed and catch and kill session. Some of the big hauls have been made by people that are revisiting the good old course angling style of fishing and employing good quantities of berley directly into the spot with the use of a feed cage. Best carp baits have been corn, maggots, worms and Gulp dough.

The native fish side of things has been a little hit and miss for most of the keen anglers with some reporting catching nothing for several trips. This is likely to do with the water quality and river levels. So well done to the people that build golf courses for sucking the river dry every chance you get to keep all the ‘old boys’ fairways nice and lush. Thanks!

Get out there and catch some fish from the river just down the road before the water really starts falling from the sky and it all turns pear-shaped.