A few days ago my mate Brooklyn and I were fortunate enough to knock off work early, so we decided to hit the Taggerty River for an afternoon fish. We made the trek up and over the beautiful Black Spur, down to Marysville, and then to Lady Talbot Drive. Here we parked alongside the river and walked upstream to find a likely spot to start.

At first glimpse the river was at a good level and crystal clear – in theory ideal conditions, although knowing the Taggerty, I suspected the fish would be flighty. We set up our rods with old faithful, a size 14 rubber legged Stimulator, and hit the first likely pool.

Brooklyn gave me first crack at the best holding area for a fish. I produced a good cast… nothing. I followed up with what I thought were several more effective casts; still no response. I was about to walk off but I looked at the pool one more time, thinking to myself, ‘No there has to be a fish in there.’ I deliberately sunk my Stimi and swung it across the current before twitching the hell out of it. BANG! Fish on, a beautiful Taggerty rainbow. While it was good to get a trout from the first pool, I told Brooklyn that it looked like the fish were going to be tough to catch.

After another half hour of refusals, slashes but no more hook-ups to the Stimulator, we both added a nymph dropper. We soon had success, but not on the nymph – the dry! I’m sure everyone has their theories on why this sometimes happens when the nymph is added, but whatever the reason, it worked so we stuck with it. We continued fishing for another couple of hours, nailing some beautiful rainbows along with some gorgeous-looking browns. Most rainbows were holding deep in the faster runs, while the browns were mostly near the undercut banks.

The Taggerty certainly is in prime condition with a lot more log jams then last season, no doubt due to the big flows over winter and early spring. The log jams may be a bit of a hassle to get around at times, but they create plenty of habitat for the trout and trout food. We even ended up with a few fish on the nymph, a size 18 brown Pheasant Tail Nymph with a pink hot spot from The Flyfisher.

Overall, I was reminded that the Taggerty is one of the most picturesque rivers I have fished, with a beautiful backdrop, slow deep pools, amazing runs and lovely looking fish. We ended up having a very enjoyable few hours, landing over 20 trout. We’re lucky to have streams like this close enough for an afternoon fish out of Melbourne.