Fishing the small back-country streams is amazing, it’s one of my favourite forms of this sport. I love wading through gin clear water with nothing but a spin rod in one hand, a small box of lures tucked into a shirt pocket and a backpack. There is a strong sense of adventure heading out to some of these rivers and…
Tag: rainbow trout
Brown and rainbow trout: how hot is too hot?
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…
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…
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…
Don’t forget your streamers
After leaving the trout to breed in peace for the last few months, in a couple of weeks we finally get to harass them again (us Victorians do anyway, Tasmanians started a little while ago and the New South Welshmen will have to wait a month or so longer). In anticipation, I’m sure many of us have been stocking up…
Like shooting fish in a barrel
A couple of weeks ago photos of Brook trout caught in Victoria started popping up all over FB and instagram. Apparently a bunch of brook trout had escaped from a trout farm and people were jumping at the rare opportunity to catch these fish within a couple of hours from Melbourne. This weekend I decided to join the fray. I…
Harrietville weekender- friends, food and fly fishing
Over the Anzac day long weekend twenty or so of us headed up to Harrietville, for a quite weekend of eating, drinking, walking, riding, horse riding and fishing. The Ovens valley, in fact most high country valleys in the area are absolutely stunning at this time of year. All the european trees that dot the river valleys have dressed up…
Fishing on the Tooma huts walk – Jagungal wilderness (Kosciuszko NP)
A month or so ago a good friend of mine started talking about a walk into the wild. ‘How far is it?’, I inquired. ‘Only 45ks…you’ll survive’, was her response. I’ve only done a few overnight walks in the past, and a three night hike with two full days of walking was inevitably going to test the mind and body.…
Ode to a #$% session
In the last few weeks I’ve been hitting up the trout streams within an hour from Melbourne pretty regularly. The great thing about these small streams is they are close enough that I can get out and have a fish without needing a whole free day. The fish aren’t big, but there are loads of them and recently they have…