After a tough summer, looking good once again.
Just before Christmas, I enjoyed some great fishing on the Goulburn and tributaries with good mate and local JD. The cicadas were deafening, the hoppers were everywhere, and I assumed this would be the first of many happy summer trips up that way.
Then came the heatwaves and bushfires. The properties of good friends were threatened, JD temporarily evacuated to Melbourne, and the sky at my home 200km away often turned orange with smoke. One of the worst blazes, the so-called Longwood Fire, ended up burning for several weeks, incinerating an area of 140,000 hectares. Running as it did all the way to the very edge of where I fished in December, this was a fire, along with new fires nearby, which seemingly refused to die. Checking in regularly with JD and the Yea Flyfisher’s Mick Hurren, a CFA volunteer, summer fishing up that way was soon the last thing on my mind as homes were destroyed, and livestock by the thousand were lost, along with god knows how much native flora and fauna.
Then finally, last week, signs began to appear of a proper break in the hot, dry conditions, as a freak low pressure system, already saturating northern and central Australia, began to send plumes of moisture south. By early this week, it was raining through much of Victoria, including on all the firegrounds. Mt Buller, to the east of the Longwood Fire, copped 115mm. The Indi River (upper Murray) just out of Corryong, went from a drought flow of 140 ML/d, to 4000 ML/d. Most of north-east Victoria accumulated at least an inch to 3 inches of rain. It felt like the right time for a reacquaintance with the stream trout up Goulburn way. So, picking a break in the storms on Tuesday afternoon, I packed the gear and weaved my way through the thunder, lightning and downpours to JD’s place.
Fast, refereshed and very fishable.
On Wednesday morning, It felt wonderful to plot our plans on the kitchen table and not have to worry about fires or low, warm water. On the contrary, some of the natural stream gauges showed rising water and the possibility of discolouration and difficult wading. After the summer we’d been through however, it was difficult to begrudge such conditions! Besides, the Goulburn tailwater itself had dropped from 4000 ML/d to a more friendly (to me) 3000 ML/d, probably in response to rain in the irrigation areas downstream.
After a leisurely start to let the last of the rain clear and for the day to warm up (who would have thought!) we headed south to check out some of the natural streams. Our first choice was almost perfect: apparently a foot higher than before the rain, but holding only a little colour. Despite the cool breeze perhaps hampering the hoppers and other insects, we felt confident the trout would be freshened up like the water and the bush. So it turned out. By lunchtime, we’d landed a dozen ‘stream-sized’ trout, a fairly even mix of browns and rainbows.
The trout were active and came to a mix of dries and nymphs.
Next stop was the Acheron River, which had looked a good height and fishably clear when we crossed it earlier in the day. We started fishing in high but passable conditions and I soon landed a fat rainbow. However, before long we were surprised to notice the water rising and discolouring by the minute, as the impact of a headwater deluge worked its way downstream.
A bit of trout-juggling on the Acheron! Note the the murky water in the background which more or less arrived just after we did..
A hurried change of venue brought us to the nearby Rubicon, by now also running high. While not as dirty as the Acheron, the ordinary conditions were enough to push us onward to the Goulburn, where we hoped clear water and increasing sunshine might provide some polaroiding.
So it turned out. Although we’d left our move late, there was still enough visibility between the afternoon shadows to reveal the odd nice trout. I fooled two of them, but missed both on the strike.
Evening on the Goulburn - just before the cold wind got up.
Increasing warmth and bug activity promised a good evening. Annoyingly though, a cold southerly blew in hard just at the psychological moment, limiting the rise to a half-hearted handful of rings in a few willow-sheltered pockets, from where I managed a miss, and one solitary brown to hand.
Meanwhile, JD stuck with a sparse bead-head PTN, and managed to hook a cracking wild rainbow which took him into the backing. After a long fight, he slipped the net under the fish of the day – a fitting end to a promising round one.
Fish of the day to JD - a fin-perfect wild rainbow that wouldn't look out of place on the Tongariro.
Day two (yesterday) dawned cool and dry. Although an early investigation revealed that the natural streams had dropped and cleared overnight, thoughts of polaroiding large trout on the edges of the Goulburn drew us back there. The light improved by the hour, and although the fishing wasn’t easy, by lunchtime we’d had half a dozen decent chances.
The whole story of that remarkable morning can wait, but as I headed back down the road to home afterwards, refreshed by one more excellent JD coffee, I felt the season had changed – and for the better. Signs of the fires are everywhere, but the smoke has gone, green grass is shooting here and there, and the streams have had a much-needed reset.
