Following on from the fantastic Goulburn winter flows news, we’ve just been advised of some real improvements to Victoria’s trout regulations that will come into effect from trout opening (2 September 2017).
For the streams:
Introduction of a 25 cm minimum size for trout and reduced bag limit from 5 to 3 trout for the following waters:
Nariel Creek
(upstream of Colac Colac Bridge),
Mitta Mitta River
(upstream of Lake Dartmouth),
Ovens River
(upstream of Porepunkah Bridge),
Rubicon River
(Existing regulations that no more than
2 trout may exceed 35 cm will continue
to apply in these waters.)
It’s pretty cool that one of Victoria’s most heavily-fished trout rivers, the Rubicon, is one of four wild trout streams that now have a 3 trout bag limit.
For the lakes:
At Lake Toolondo, a new 45cm minimum size for brown trout and 30cm minimum size for rainbow trout, with a reduced bag limit from 5 to 3 trout per day.
At Hepburn Lagoon, a new 45cm minimum size for trout, with a reduced bag limit from 5 to 3 trout per day.
Fertile Hepburn Lagoon has always been able to grow big trout. Now, a 45cm minimum size and 3 trout bag limit means many more stocked yearlings will get a chance to do just that.
The Right Direction
It’s 20 years since I was first directly involved in the rec fishing regulations process. One thing I’ve learnt is that for every angler wanting C&R or fly only; there’s another who wants to fill the freezer by whatever means allowed. Fisheries agencies and governments have the unenviable task of trying to balance these competing extremes and come up with something that’s acceptable to most.
In that context, there will be some readers who would have liked tighter limits on more waters. But realistically, these changes are a great outcome. Four really important wild trout streams that receive a lot of angling pressure, have had the allowed angler take significantly reduced. And at least as exciting, we finally have two ‘put-and-grow’ stocked fisheries in Hepburn and Toolondo. Our own Penstock Lagoons in the making perhaps?
What I love about today’s announcement as much as substance, is the trend. What these regs. tell me (as per the Goulburn flows decision above) is that top level support for trout fishing in Victoria is heading in one direction: up.
