Finally, trout season has arrived and the question on everybody’s minds for the past few months has been how will our small creeks fish?

With decent amounts of steady rain, our creeks look amazing and they’ve fished as well as they’ve looked.

Our small Strzelecki streams have been amazing. The colour was just off clear in September, with a solid flow that had good runs and rapids as you would expect to have in spring.

They were all perfect for fly fishing and spinning with small spinners and small hardbodied lures. Most anglers I spoke to had caught plenty of small brown trout ranging anywhere from 15-30cm with lures and fly working equally well.

The fly guys would be happy to know that trout were already rising to emerging insects and many fly anglers managed to catch up to half a dozen trout on dry fly in one session. Dry flies including standard mayfly patterns worked well, but the popular Stimulator fly or Royal Wulff worked a treat as well.

I did a lot better using bead head nymphs on a hare’s ear colour fished about 60cm under a strike indicator. It will be interesting to see how the creeks continue to fish as the weather warms up, and I guess they will be dependent on how much rain we receive in the area to see what type of flows the creek can maintain. With any luck, this is a sign that our small Gippsland streams are back to what they used to be like.

• For more information, contact Will at Allways Angling in Traralgon on 5174 8544. You will get expert advice and great deals on fishing bait and tackle. Tune into Rex Hunt and Lee Rayner’s Off the Hook on 1242 to hear Will’s report on what’s going on in Gippsland!