It’s pretty much business as usual as far as the trout season is concerned in this part of the world. Despite low water levels in many of the local streams, most continue to produce at least some trout for those fishing bait, lure or fly.

One river that doesn’t generally receive a lot of press is the Bunyip River, but lately I have had some reports that this water has been fishing well. I haven’t fished it myself, but Wally Ronalds of Rokeby had two successful trips there in less than a week, landing brown trout to 750g – certainly better than average for West Gippsland. Wally used a home-tied black cricket fly but reckons a black nymph would do just as well. The best place to access this river is in the upper sections near the main powerlines where you will find a nice mixture of water from slow pool and rocky rapids. I for one intend to go and investigate.

Elsewhere in the region the upper Latrobe River keeps on keeping. The crazy run of rainbows around Noojee seems to have slowed somewhat though, with brown trout now making up an increased proportion of the catch. Nearby, the Toorongo and Loch are both running quite low but are still giving up their usual bounty of small brown trout between 15 and 30cm.

The Tarago River beneath the reservoir is the one river running quite high because it can be regulated from the dam. Strangely I have heard of no reports of angling success here, in spite of the fact that this stretch contains some of the largest trout in the region.

Over to the east, both branches of the Tanjil River are providing reasonable numbers of trout of both the brown and rainbow varieties.

Lastly I rang Donald Wylie from the Korumburra Anglers Club to check on the condition of the reservoirs down that way. He said the main Korumburra Reservoir is down to just 13% and the others aren’t faring much better. Donald also said the Tarwin River is running low as well, and that as a consequence most anglers are concentrating their efforts on the saltwater fishing.