2019 Victorian Trout Season – It’s here!

Well, after what seems like a painfully long 13 weeks over winter, we have finally made it through the cabin fever, and are now a couple of days into the 2019 Victorian Trout Season that so many of you have been eagerly anticipating. I don’t know if it is due to government bodies promoting on social media, people’s tolerance for boredom reaching an all-time low or the fact that there is just nothing good to watch on TV these days, but it seems like this year there has been even more public displays of longing for the 7th of September than in recent years. Perhaps we all need to just get a pair of thermals and go stand in a lake or two over winter. That said, we made it, and many of you are already on the board with reports coming in from all over the state.

Now, I am not going to name names, post maps, or GPS co-ordinates, so let’s put in the disclosure statement right now. All rivers, streams and creeks named in this post are 87.3% made up and 12.7% exist in my mind. That said, the waters actually exist, just the names I shall use here are protected. Except for the Goulburn, which seems is beyond protection for the start of the 2019 Victorian Trout Season. We might leave that for later in the season.

I chose to avoid the crowds this year on 2019 Victorian Trout Season opening day, and slept in. Until 5am. By the time I got to the stretch of water I intended to fish, I saw no cars at the first bridge, and even less cars at the second bridge. Rounding a bend in the track, I slowed down as a doe ran across in from of me, followed by a gorgeous buck that stopped for a brief reflection on the vehicle coming his way before darting of after his girl into  he bush. It’s always a good sign when you see deer about on the track I find. It is a good indication that not much traffic has been through before you. Meaning, unspoiled waters.

With heavy rain and ridiculous winds the night before, I had almost called it off for this location due to safety, but the wind had died down by sunrise, so it was all looking pretty good. The water was up, as is too be expected at this time of year, but there was still some decent clarity to it, so it all looked like a promising day ahead. Challenging, but promising nonetheless.

By the time I got to the water, the air temperature was 8 degrees, when you weren’t soaking wet, and the sun didn’t manage to get a look through the clouds until after midday. So, needless to say there wasn’t a lot of bug activity on the go. A bit of midge about but hardly enough to have fish rising in water that was running rather hard. It was obvious that the soft edged, eddies, and larger pools were going to be were the fish would be found. And it didn’t take long. My first approach tot he water had a down tree branch that was creating some still water in it’s wake. Drifting a tungsten Copper John along the current seem at this point too all of three passes before I was connected to a little rainbow who launched into the air. This lasted all of about three seconds before he popped off and zipped off to sulk in a corner somewhere. A good sign for the day’s fishing indeed.

It wasn’t all that simple though. With plenty of tree branched down and very high water for a creek that is usually not much more that a lazy stream, it was hard going making my way from pool to pool. A lot of time was spent crawling about on the bank, using the deer and wombat tracks to get through the heavy vegetation when it just wasn’t possible to traverse the streambed. But, I did get plenty of opportunities to spot fish along the calmer edges and sandy banks along drop-offs and bends, so it was rewarding fishing even when the fish weren’t being caught.

Browns were the winner for the day, with only a couple of rainbows coming to the net. Either way, it was very enjoyable fishing in very close quarters. This was the kind of stuff that made you look at you 6″6′ rod and wish you’d brought your 6″ instead. Especially when clambering through the bush. And I love that sort of stuff. The rig for the day was one of my Hardy glass rods that has seen plenty of this sort of water before. A little 3 weight that still has enough backbone to launch a double nymph rig without going completely sideways.

Being that I was dealing with such high, and fast water for the small creek that the Mugumby usually is, getting the flies down fast was the key to finding fish. The rubber legged Copper John was certainly the winner of the day, more often the smaller point fly that was trailing the heavier fly was the one that got the take-up. In the shallower, slower sections, I just dropped back to a single nymph fished naked, watching for the flash of the fish’s flank to denote the strike.

After packing up on the Mugumby, I went for a bit of a drive to have a look at some other streams and see how they were looking. On one well known road that runs along a section of Bellyup Creek, I counted no less than 9 cars conspicuously parked at certain access points. Still, even with this much pressure, there’s plenty of water along that stretch to space everyone out. Bellyup was looking good too, a little high, but still fairly clear. The same went for Pyss Creek and Secret Creek too. These all looked promising with plenty of water in them and very few anglers about. I’ll be back to have a play in each of these in the next week or so. But first, it’s off to the west to poke around in another system for a few days!

Let us know your tales of the 2019 Victorian Trout Season opening weekend. Share your thoughts, but don’t give away your secrets.