The heat was the main feature of the mid to late summer period in 2014. A couple of exceptional heatwaves affected much of south-eastern Australia and pushed water temperatures well above the comfort level for trout. Not surprisingly, the worst affected waters tended to be the lower reaches of some of the big name freestone trout streams. Historically, these lower sections have suffered in hot dry summers and 2014 was no exception. Fortunately, flows in summer 2014 remained pretty good – offsetting the heat effect somewhat and ensuring that anglers could still enjoy good fishing in the upper reaches of most streams in north-east Victoria and the Snowys. Fisheries Victoria surveys of the Goulburn, Jamieson, Howqua, Delatite and King rivers at the end of summer confirmed this pattern – only a few trout surveyed in the lower reaches, but healthy numbers found in the upper reaches.

The tailwaters like the Mitta below Dartmouth and Goulburn below Eildon, enjoyed high cold flows all summer and were if anything in better shape than normal trout-wise. Another bonus this summer was that despite some potentially severe fire days, we managed to avoid large scale bushfires in the major stream catchments. (The Northern Grampians fires did impact the surrounds of Lake Wartook, but fires rarely have a negative effect on large lakes.)

 

In mid-February I headed down to Tasmania with brother Mark. Tasmania too had endured its share of recent heat and dry weather, but the enormous amount of rain over spring and early summer meant that most lakes held plenty of water, and some remained exceptionally high. Our particular trip suffered a bit from a case of ‘should’ve been here last week.’ We missed out on the blue skies necessary for shark fishing Great Lake (which had apparently been very good!) and our friend Lindsay explained that our quiet-ish day at Bronte Lagoon came on the back of weeks of brilliant fishing.  We fished a fair dun hatch at Little Pine and a massive hatch at Woods Lake. But while we caught a few nice trout on nymphs, success on the dry was limited; not surprising given the relative lack of rising fish. Interestingly, we heard from regulars that big mayfly hatches with a muted rise were common in the highlands this summer. But it’s a rare Tassie trip that doesn’t produce a highlight reel and we did have some great dry fly fishing from the shore at Dee Lagoon, polaroiding Lake Augusta and on the Macquarie River.

Back on the mainland, the start of March saw the end of the heat. Thankfully there was no lingering ‘Indian Summer’ and parts of the north-east and the Snowy Mountains even enjoyed some decent early autumn rain. A trip in the first few days of March to the lower Mitta Valley actually felt like an autumn trip with green valleys, good natural stream flows and nippy nights. It was no surprise to catch some good trout on the Mitta itself – after all it had flowed cold and strong from dam releases all summer. More reassuring was the reappearance of plenty of fish in the middle reaches  of Snowy Creek, a pattern that was repeated across other streams like the King River. One theory that developed was that the trout had ‘holed up’ in the tributaries and upper reaches during the worst of the heat, then quickly dispersed downstream with the rain and cooler weather. On further mid-autumn trips, I even caught trout in the Rose River, which had all but dried up over summer. As I write, it remains a mystery whether the mountain river trout migrated up cooler creeks and headwaters to survive the harsh summer, or hunkered down in deep pools or cold spring-water refuges, or both. Hopefully future scientific research can shed some light on this, but in the meantime, summer 2014 has left us with a remarkable example of the capacity of our Australian trout to cope with adversity.