The trout season is over for another year in most Victorian streams and rivers. In East Gippsland, most of our fishing is done in rivers that are subject to a winter closure so consequently we are now hanging up our rods and reels for another season.

We experienced quite a good trout season this year with the rivers in great shape during spring and summer. The grasshoppers were abundant and resulted in some very good fishing. Generally, the fish were in good condition with many above average fish caught. The best fishing came from the Upper Mitta Mitta River (Big River) and its tributaries, particularly the Cobungra and Bundarra Rivers. The lower Gibbo River also fished well and a good number of small fish were caught in the Livingstone Creek.

The Delegate River is one of our best rivers but did not really fire this year. There were days of good fishing but overall, the results were disappointing in terms of both fish numbers and fish size.

We moved into April full of expectations for a great autumn season but were a little disappointed. The Mitta system continued to produce fairly good fishing but not the top fishing that we had anticipated.

What this area really needed was some decent rain. During early autumn we had some reasonable falls just to get our hopes up but by the middle of April it was virtually all over, with hardly another drop falling since. This resulted in some really low flows in our rivers and offered the Dartmouth trout little incentive to run up the system to spawn.

Let's hope that we get some good winter and spring rain. In the mean time it’s off to Bemm River for me to catch some estuary perch on the fly. I’m offline now for a few issues until the trout season opens in September and I’ve got more news to report from East Gippsland rivers.