Through much of south-eastern Australia, the first part of December was more like an extension of spring than summer – continuing rain, water temperatures in the teens and no truly hot days. The conditions were such that I stuck to the lakes at first and enjoyed some cracking early summer days on lakes like Newlyn. Uncharacteristically for central Victoria, there were still duns about – perhaps a piece of the dun puzzle I noted in Part One? Conversely, on the other side of Bass Strait in the highlands, our Tasmanian friends were still waiting for the first ‘proper’ dun hatches in the second week of December. They had no shortage of water though – Arthurs Lake reached record highs while many rivers remained all but unfishable.

I had my first decent crack at the mainland’s mountain rivers in mid-December, when I joined FlyStream designer Andrew Marsic for a few days in the Buffalo River area. Friends who had fished the north-east streams just a couple of weeks earlier reported a season that was running a good month behind,   with unseasonably cold weather and water. While they had caught good fish, they warned us that the usual feeding lies and tactics weren’t always producing. Whether this was due to changed fish behaviour driven by the recent cormorant plague, the unseasonal conditions or both they weren’t sure. In the case of Andrew and me, it looked like the timing for our Buffalo trip was perfect with sun and mild temperatures forecast, as well as comfortable flows. And we did indeed enjoy a great time on the Buffalo, Catherine and Dandongadale rivers. However, it was nymphing the deeper and more protected lies that produced the best results – only at twilight were the trout really willing to come up and eat dries. This pattern continued on with Christmas/ New Year fishing on the Indi River: apparently ideal dry fly conditions, yet deep nymphing by far the most effective technique.

Meanwhile in the Snowy Mountains, Steve Dunn and friends were reporting their own unusual early summer. On Lake Eucumbene, the rainbows were hard to find so it was browns providing the fishing. And some of the best of this was driven by evening emergences of a strange aquatic moth (no, not a caddis.) Were the moths in turn a product of the proliferation of weed? Some long-time Eucumbene anglers described the lush carpet in many bays as the most extensive and longest lasting weed growth they’d seen.

Finally, in mid-January, serious heat arrived, affecting all of south-eastern Australia from Tasmania to the Snowys. The burst of hot weather coincided with my first big trip of 2014 to the Snowys. The reports coming out of the area ahead of my visit weren’t promising. However the fundamentals looked pretty good to me, and so the results proved. Steve and I had some tough sessions, but also some outstanding ones including a red letter days on the Murrumbidgee and some small alpine streams, and on Tumut Ponds Reservoir (in all cases mostly on dry flies for a change!) There were some exciting evenings on Eucumbene too with those strange moths – and the weed – persisting.