I spent the weekend guiding at Millbrook Lakes. Over the years I’ve noticed that there’s a reasonable correlation between what’s happening bug-wise at Millbrook, and what’s happening on the Victorian central highland lakes – or at least the more elevated ones like Newlyn, Hepburn, Wendouree, Wombat, Upper Coliban, etc.

So it’s notable that this weekend had a real sense of the changing of the seasons. A week ago, midges were the preeminent insect trout-wise. Midge were still important on the weekend, but they’re no longer the main game. Caddis hatches are on the rise, and stick caddis are more noticeable kicking through the water than they have been for months. While I always like stick caddis as a lake fly at any time of year, they’re coming to the fore now. Until a few days ago, a midge pattern and a stick caddis in the same team would see the former taken three to one – now the ratio has almost reversed. In fact on Saturday and Sunday, a well presented single stick caddis was seldom refused.

Another big step towards spring was the return of trout leaping for dragons and damsels. For the first time since autumn, the trout were seeing enough of these insects to target them. Yesterday, I pulled the cobwebs off a nice skinny dragonfly dry and guest Mark had three big trout eat it. And yes, the mayfly are really beginning to appear too. A trout was caught on a Shaving Brush and we saw not just duns, but a few spinners too. After last year’s poor mayfly fishing across most of the south-eastern Australia, I’m reluctant to get too excited with predictions, but it’s a start.