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Trout season nearly done
  |  First Published: May 2010



Another trout fishing season almost comes to an end with some good late season fishing.

All the rivers around Omeo are flowing well, slightly above average for this time of the year. I recently fished the Mitta Mitta River just above Lake Dartmouth. It had once again just received some good steady rain, which resulted in it rising and then dropping to a level where we could cross it with some care.

It was running at about 11C, which is a pretty groovy temperature for fishing. We observed and caught good numbers of pre-spawning fish that were moving upstream from Lake Dartmouth.

Most of the fish were in the order of 400g-1kg and a mixture of browns and rainbows. As you would expect at this time of the year they are mostly lying deep in the water column. We caught them using bead headed nymphs fished deep under an indicator.

This area is now experiencing frosts on a regular basis but we are still getting some good days with air temperatures in the mid teens. This means that there is no hurry to get out of bed.

I find that the best fishing starts after lunch and continues until the cold night air can be felt at around 4pm. We observed some hatches of insects over the water for a short period of time late in the afternoon. Although this did not result in any surface activity by the trout I am sure that the sub aquatic insects would be moving in the river and getting the trouts attention resulting in some good fishing.

Further upstream on the Mitta around the Himmomungee area there are also some pre spawning trout to be caught, but most of the fish being caught are small resident browns. We observed that in the headwater area, about the Bundara River junction, schools of good trout that we estimated between 500g and over 1kg moving upstream in groups of 6-8 fish.

These fish were not interested in any offerings that we presented them but I am sure that they could be caught on another day. As well as these fish there are reasonably numbers of small to medium resident browns being taken. I noticed that the water temperature was a little cooler, at about 9C, than further downstream.

The Bundara River is similar to the Mitta. It is also flowing well but it is mainly small browns that are being caught. The Cobungra River is almost identical to the Bundara.

Whilst in the area we also fished Wombat Creek. This is a small stream that flows into the Mitta River just upstream of the lake.

We found it to be chockers with fish. They ranged in size from absolute sardines up to a quiet respectable 500g. The action was fast and furious as we caught and released about 30 of the little terriers in a short period of time.

This was a great afternoons fishing. I do not believe that you have to always catch big fish to enjoy fishing. Whilst some of these fish were quite respectable others were just babies but we thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon especially in this great environment.

The Livingston Creek is fairly quiet at the moment although a few fish are being taken in the Cassilis area. The Timbarra River is fishing OK to small browns and Middle Creek is producing a few small browns also.

Well-known Tasmanian author Greg French with a trout typical of what can be caught in Wombat Creek.

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