Trout love water and thanks to La Niña and now a negative IOD (another predictor of above average rainfall for southeastern Australia), water is something we have in abundance. On the back of two La Niña years, a third is a strong possibility as BOM moves to La Niña Alert. The streams have been running strong all through winter and now, a little over a week out from the opening of the the stream season, many are running a banker or even over their banks. All that water and the consequent input of food and nutrients is not only fantastic for trout, but is also summer-proofing our streams. It’s a win-win for trout and for us trout fishers.
Acheron River over the banks.La Niña and a wet winter is great for our riverine trout (and full lakes!).
The Steavenson near Buxton.For those contemplating fishing the opening weekend, I did a quick run around a few of my local steams. All were in high flow mode after recent rain, and with snow on the local hills, the water was cold. While these higher flows will decrease somewhat if rain and snow back off over the coming week, the ground is saturated, and the base flows will remain strong.
Rubicon at 'Tumbling Waters'.Another factor to consider is that all storages in north-east Victoria are spilling, or very close to: including giant lakes Dartmouth (98.7%) and Eildon (93%).
Thanks to Lake Eildon holding back the big flows upstream of 17,000 ML/d (for now!) the Goulburn at Thornton is presently at a nice level (approx. 1200 ML/d) and quite clear...
... however, by the time the Goulburn reaches The Breakaway, it's already much bigger and a bit milkier, due to the effect of hard-flowing tributaries like the Rubicon.Last season’s stream trout fishing was very good and with the wet winter and strong stream flows, I’m looking forward to another great one - even if gentle flows may be a little elusive at first. Bring it on!
Snobs Creek offers a snapshot of what you might expect on the smaller mountain streams.
