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Summer brings better fishing
  |  First Published: December 2009



Overall fishing in our area is still not brilliant but it has improved a lot recently.

We continue to receive plenty of rain in the high country, and all of our rivers are in great shape. The down side is that, over the past month, we have also received two weeks of heatwave conditions which has warmed the rivers up more than normal for this time of the year.

Irecently fished the lower section of the Gibbo River. The water temperature in this section was 21C. Later in the day I moved upstream and the water was a couple of degrees cooler.

Once the temperature reaches 20C the trout tend to look for cooler spots or cease to feed during the hotter part of the day.

Upstream, the river flows under a canopy of trees and the water temperature is more to the trout's liking. That said, the fishing was quite good. During our afternoon on the river we caught and released about 15 fish. The largest was a nice little brown of about 500g. As is typical in this river, the vast majority of the fish are small rainbows. That's fine by me as they are free risers and it is a delightful little river to fish.

The Mitta Mitta River above Dartmouth Dam is also running at about 20C. There are presently massive caddis hatches in the river during evening and there are a few mayflies mixed in with them. This leads to a good evening rise.

Very few decent fish are being taken here at the moment. I have seen a few small immature hoppers about recently but not yet in big numbers.

Due to the excellent spring and early summer rains, there is a massive amount of grass and vegetation along the banks of the Mitta. Hopefully the hoppers will appear in bigger numbers in the new year.

It is a similar story in the Bundara River. The river is running well, but again around 20C. Lots of grass but only small browns being caught. Nearby the Cobungra River is in a similar state but with fewer fish than the Bundara. The Cobungra River is a renowned grasshopper river so hopefully it will fire up over the next few months. Watch this spot!

The Morass Creek is famous for its large trout. It has gone from having no water in it 6 months ago to running high at present. It is discoloured as usual but looks in good shape. Fishing has been poor but the sighting of snakes along its banks has been above normal.

The Timbarra River has fished well over spring with good numbers of small browns being taken. Following the hot weather the fishing has gone off with most captures being during evening and early morning when the water temperatures have been lowest.

The Indi River (top end of the Murray River) out the back of Benambra is fishing well. Imgomar Matthes recently fished it and caught 25 browns in a session. The river is in great shape but similar to other rivers in our region, the fish are a little on the small size.

This end of the Indi River is accessible at 2 points; "The Poplars" which is accessed by the Limestone track or the Vidal Track (sometimes called the King Parrot Plain Track) near Davies Plain. These are both lovely areas but require a 4WD to access them and the tracks can be treacherous following rain. Even if the fishing is so so, this trip is a great wilderness experience. To reach the river, it is about a two hour trip from Benambra.

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