I could write a short novel on this trip, seven rivers and multi sessions but I’ll settle for a synopsis.
12/12/2014
First stop, the Buckland - probably the slowest fishing we had, but still worth it.Picked up Philip half way to Bright and the lower Buckland was our first stop. Good fish can come out of this beautiful stream early season and whilst we have probably ticked over ‘early season’ it was still worth a look. Fishing here was not scintillating but it did produce a few lovely rainbows over the course of just over an hour.
Buckland rainbow.Next we headed over to the nearby Ovens River. After the many poor reports last season we were very keen to see for ourselves how this lovely stream was fishing. Well for me the fishing started slowly (I am a notoriously slow to start.) For my friend, the opposite. Hardly moving at all he was able to pick up several fish from a short stretch. You want your fishing mate to do well but not that well! It wasn’t long before Phil had notched up half a dozen and I was staring down the face of a big fat blank.
The Ovens had fish rising in every run.We moved to a another stretch, recently rehabilitated by the local CMA with help from fishing licence funds. Weary, with eyes stinging from watching and willing my fly to be eaten, all of a sudden the tide turned for me. Change of fly, tighter, gentler casts and I could do no wrong. I eventually caught up with Phil upstream just as the sun disappeared behind Mt Buffalo. Simultaneously the sporadic hatches we had seen most of the afternoon intensified. We each stood virtually in one spot while literally dozens of fish rose. It was a challenge deciding which fish to cast to. The Ovens is full of trout, both browns and rainbows.
Ovens evening brown on the Para Adams.13/12/2014
We reluctantly left the Ovens and headed over Hotham to the Victoria River.
The Victoria was high but the trout happily ate dries.Well what can I say, except that this river and location is stunning. Iridescent greens; the ground is lush, saturated, seeping, overflowing with life. The river itself was flowing a bit high and a little discoloured after the recent heavy rain but any disappointment soon evaporated as fish rose at will.
A typically chunky Victoria brown.We fished a few hours for a ridiculous number of healthy fish often caught no further than a rod length away. All on dries. Highlights? Well this whole quick session was one big highlight but of interest a mere puddle of a back water produced two lovely trout, the second of which should have a been a 16 incher Phil had spotted but a pesky junior version got there first. Even the minor downsides were highlights during this session including 4 cormorants flying overhead which we must have spooked. These were the only cormorants we saw all trip. Paradoxically, despite the cormorants this session on the Victoria probably took first prize (just) for the whole trip.
Cobungra River.
We dropped our gear at our friend’s house nearby and spent the late afternoon and evening session on the Cobungra River. We pushed up a few pools and runs catching a decent number of solid fish most of which were rising to small duns and caddis. We fished to dark, casting to rising fish until we could no longer see our flies. Time for Max’s slow cooked oxtail Ragu and a glass or two of red.
The Cobungra browns were all good fish.14/12/2014
Over the hill from the Cobungra to the Bundarra River which was in pristine condition. Cool, crystal clear and flowing a bit high - in my opinion optimum conditions for this gorgeous stream. I won’t go into too much detail but once we worked out what fly was working we caught a lot of fish. We also missed many as trout snapped away at our Elk Hair Caddis. Encouragingly, many of these fish were small, yearlings of 8 to 10 inches but there were enough decent trout thrown in to keep us on our toes. I can only fantasise what the fishing will be like as these fish grow – the banks are teeming with little hoppers.
The Bundarra was at a perfect early summer height.The afternoon session was spent on the upper Mitta Mitta/ Big River a short drive away. The mighty Mitta was flowing fairly hard making dry fly fishing a little challenging. The complexity of the flows on this river when it is at this height can make achieving good drifts difficult. We probably should have deep nymphed but having already experienced so much good dry fly fishing, we continued fishing dries and occasionally a nymph dropper. Both methods produced enough good trout to keep us happy. Again the river and surrounds are in fantastic shape and we felt a bit guilty not to have deep nymphed those dark slots that can produce real beauties on this river.
Mitta brownie.Back to the ranch for an early dinner. The idea was to then head back down to the Cobungra for the evening rise but plummeting temperatures, an already successful day and the seductiveness of our host’s warm house and comfortable lounge chairs saw us end the day sipping good wine and enjoying a recount of the day’s events and other fishy stories and adventures.
15/12/2014
Our last day again found us again winding along the Omeo Highway beside the Mitta, only this time our destination was Snowy Ck over the other side of Mt Wills.
Perfect water on Snowy Ck.We fished three short sessions on the Snowy. Each session produced trout. We never really thought we had cracked the right fly code but a variety of dries worked as well as nymphs. The Snowy like all other streams we fished is in excellent condition and trout numbers seem very good. Alas we had to head back home but we could easily have spent all day here.
Bundarra brown.The NE of Victoria is simply magnificent, mainland Australia’s version of flyfishing Mecca. In cricketing terms, two half days, two full days saw Phil and I retire on 96 not out with only time denying the prestigious ton! Prior to the trip we’d heard some great reports about the streams we fished, but also some not so good reports. Needless to say, we found the former had more in common with what we experienced. It was a bit disconcerting that we didn’t see another angler except for a fishless baitie we encountered with what looked like a snapper rod!
A typical stretch of the magnificent Mitta.More people need to be enjoying this great fishing. Get out there and have fun, the trout are there in good numbers. The only thing that will impede your success is not actually fishing or believing that our fishery is stuffed. I can assure you it isn’t!
