Following on from this post, inspired by discussion on the flystream forums, here I would like to talk about temperature tolerances of both brown and rainbow trout. While this is a seemingly simple question, like anything once you start looking at it in detail it gets a little more complicated. Firstly, there trout have an optimum or preferred temperature range…
Month: September 2014
Courting controversy: Trout stockings in rivers and streams is a bad idea
Stocking trout into streams is seen by many recreational anglers as somewhat of a panacea to the the poor trout fishing we had in Victoria last season. As I touched on in this post, last trout season was seen by many as a disaster. One of the things that the DEPI will once again will be trialling, as part of…
Trout streams near Canberra – a rough guide
Writing a post like this is difficult, as it’s sure to attract criticism. This criticism can be two-fold: firstly, anyone who fishes for trout wants to be the only one on the stream or river, and favourite spots are a tightly held secret. Added to this, Canberra has the largest population in the Murray-Darling Basin, and some of our streams…
Fly fishing as therapy.
I didn’t have the greatest of weeks last week. I’m trying to finish a PhD and I’ve got this one little bit of lab work that needs to be done before that can happen. Last week I was up in Canberra getting ready to knock of the last of the lab work and break the back of the PhD so…
If this trout season is anything like the last…
The 2014/15 trout season is upon us. Over the “off-season” there has been a lot of media about last trout season, most of it about how poor it was (here, here, here, here, here, here and a very different take here) . How the fishing was horrendous, how trout are doomed and in desperate need of rescuing. Cormorants, willow removal, climate change…
There is something fishy about bananas
If there is one food item that is despised by anglers all over Australia, it is bananas. Ask anyone about on-board catering for a day of fishing and the response is generally fairly relaxed, sandwiches, chips, chocolate – no worries, but definitely no bananas! Historically, there are several reasons why bananas have been associated with bad luck on boats. Firstly,…
Simple flies: palmered hackle flies
Sometimes you don’t need much to make a deadly fly. Simple patterns catch fish. Some of the simplest flies (at least in theory) are palmered hackle flies. Whether they are fished dry or wet, on a dead drift or stripped, palmered hackle flies work. These flies have been around since the inception of fly fishing. Charles Cotton and Izaac Walton…
Some tips for the trout opening
So the Victorian trout season is about to open. Like the beginning of most seasons, its likely that a least a few of the rivers are going to be running pretty high (or at least I hope they are, as it will bode well for the rest of the season). So what are the best ways to tempt trout from…