Early this season, there was a lot of concern – sometimes bordering on panic – about apparently low numbers of trout in north-east Victoria’s wild trout streams in the wake of the cormorant plague.

While I hate cormorants as much as the next angler, I wrote at the time that I’ve always found September too early to be making big calls about the season ahead. Trout opening in Victoria has never been about launching straight into stream fishing at its best – not for me anyway! Rather, it’s merely a time when we’re allowed to fish for stream trout again. Yes, we may or may not be lucky enough to strike the odd good session. But if the fishing is tough, that’s no harbinger of a terrible season to come.

Now that it’s late November, water temperatures are rising, and there have been patches of warm ‘buggy’ weather. So perhaps we are starting to get a more realistic sense of what’s going on with our stream trout populations, compared to during September snowmelt!

Looking at my own recent fishing, and the experiences of several fishing mates I know and trust, this is our current assessment.

1. There are plenty of streams where it turns out the present trout population – in numbers, trout size and condition – seems to be about what we would describe as typical by long-term standards.
2. There are some streams where numbers are down, but size and condition are up. (That’s a logical correlation: for the trout which are present, there’s more food and less competition for prime habitat.)
3. There are certainly a few streams where the trout population is unusually low… for now at least.

Meanwhile, actual fishing conditions are a pleasure, with decent mayfly and caddis hatches, lots of terrestrials around, and good flows. And although we’re no longer seeing large numbers of cormorants, there’s still a loose pattern of the trout being easier to find in or under cover; and in the faster, shallow water (read hard-to-hunt areas); rather than in the slower, deeper water – although these trends are not as pronounced as they were.

So, despite what we might still hear from some anglers (and even the odd guide!) there’s still plenty of really good fishing on these streams, and right now. We all agree the best approach (as usual) is to actually go fishing, fish positively, and continue to factor in cormorant avoidance behaviour from the trout. As always, there may be times and patches when the fishing is slow. However, if you keep going and perhaps try something different, better action won’t be far away.

*All pics taken in the last week.