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High water happiness
  |  First Published: November 2014



The Yarra River is in good condition to fish at the moment.

The upper section around Warburton is great for fly-fishing and spin fishing with cold semi clear water and plenty of bugs to keep the fish happy.

A couple of small flash floods have sent the water up and down in the last month stirring up the fish and getting them ready to fire up when the water starts to warm. This period of high dirty water is as good for the river as it is for the fish and anglers alike. With nutrient rich water coming down from upstream, the river pulses with life for a sort period. Finding food is the easy part, sitting out of the currant is as tricky as can be and its what all the fish are looking to do.

Undercut banks and huge snag piles are where you’ll find the fish when the river is running bank to bank and the colour of a ‘white with two’. People want to cast out when they get to the riverbank when they should be casting at their feet! Under your feet is where the fish are and because the waters so dirty they can’t see you and you can’t see them.

Dropping or drifting a big bunch of worms into the undercut is a great way to snare a trout in these conditions. You can even suspend your bait off the bottom using your rod and keep a tight line to the bait at the same time - be careful though, if you get a bite and your not holding your rod you could end up with one rod less!

Don't expect to ‘kill the pig’ and bring home a bag full of monsters. Plenty of people go up and catch the local trout and think they’re pretty small. This is a small freestone stream with relatively poor water quality so the trout are never going to grow big and fat. Sure there are some nice ones in there but you can bet your boots that when they get caught, they don’t go back in to help the system make more nice ones! The average fish is about 200g and a good one is around 700g. Not big by any standard unless your fishing a small freestone stream. Relative to other similar streams that makes them not bad at all! Do the right thing and if you feel the need to take one, then just take one.

They are plenty of fish in the river so it will be a good fun day out if you use the right gear to catch them. Ultra light spin gear with 2kg line or a nice little 7ft #3 fly rod will do you nicely.

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