Trout season 2022/23 will go down as the one that kept on giving. Having just returned from the streams of the mid Goulburn (including the big river itself), it’s once again a challenge to write a report without it sounding like breathless hype.
Evening on the Goulburn.
So to start with at least, I’ll try to stick to facts. Yesterday and the day before, the Goulburn was flowing at 2500 ML/d, pretty clear and pretty cold. It’s been this height, give or take a foot or so, every time I’ve fished it since the floods began to subside in late spring. Most unlike a typical summer Goulburn. The trout have evidently thrived, first on the back of the winter/spring floods, and then this stable flow regime, leading to the quality fishing which so many anglers have enjoyed.
Despite all the attention, it’s still going. JD and I fished it Thursday afternoon and evening, and while we had to work hard for a trout initially, once the sun dipped, the river came alive – especially in the vicinity of the faster sections. A Kossie dun hatch seemed to be the catalyst, and a size 10 Kossie dun pattern was chosen by several nice trout over the little red spinner out the back.
Getting grubby on the Rubicon.
Over on the Rubicon, the action was steady without being spectacular. The highlight was willow grubs. Despite a lack of wind and heat, we found enough grubs falling on the water to create the giveaway rises in strange places. It would be fun to be on the Rubi on a warm, windy day.
The grubs aren’t thick everywhere, but the trout know what they are.
The ‘smaller’ streams like the Murrundindi were the real surprise for me though. Whether it’s been rain back in the hills, or the supercharged water table following our record wet spring (or a combination) I can’t recall these streams flowing so hard at the start of autumn.
There’s a lot of water and a lot of trout in the ‘smaller’ streams.
There’s even a bit of colour in the water. It’s almost incongruous to have all that cold water rushing through what is now a comparatively dry landscape, but don’t the trout love it! On a couple of streams, they were present in surprising (even occasionally outlandish) numbers, sometimes eating a dry like a Royal Wulff or Stimulator, but taking a Perdigon, Caddis Grub or Hot Dot PTN off the back at least as often.
A strong and slightly discoloured flow, but the trout are happy.
I can see a rapidly approaching conflict with the autumn return of lake fishing, and stream fishing which shows no signs of fading. I’m going to need more free days…
