Philip Weigall

The stream fishing at this time of year has a certain poignancy and if I look back through my late autumn writings, they’re full of last casts, thoughtful reflections on the season and au revoirs.  It can all seem a bit mawkish, but I can’t help it. The river fishing is winding down, and in a month or so it will close altogether. I’m just back from a trip to the upper Murray area which fits the pattern, although the company of brother Mark, master chef Max Caruso and Christopher Bassano from Tasmania blunted too much sentimentality. I haven’t laughed so much for a while, or eaten so well!

Mitta Mitta near Eskdale

In typical late autumn fashion, fog and cold slowed both fish and fishers at the beginning of each day, but by mid morning the sun was bright and the air warm enough for shirtsleeves. We started on a favourite tailwater, the Mitta Mitta, which is in great shape after a season of cold water releases from the brimming Lake Dartmouth. The flows were temporarily up a little on previous weeks at 2500 mg/day. Still, we found some Kosciusko duns and even when the trout weren’t rising, the odd one would come up for a Kossie Dun pattern or a parachute Orange Spinner, the best a fat 3 pounder to Mark. Next stop was the mighty Swampy Plains tailwater. Not for the first time, we dubbed it the Supermodel – absolutely beautiful one day, and a complete brat the next! The ever-changing flows of this strange river make it almost impossible to nail down but when it briefly relented, the trout took dries well and we caught some good ones.

The Supermodel behaving!

Meanwhile, the Indi was as reliable as autumn colour on the trees. Typically, the trout were smaller on average than those on the Swampy, and the browns were perhaps a little leaner. But they rose in the pool tails and bubble lines every day from when the sun hit the water until dark. These autumn sippers are an annual highlight for me. Neither easy nor impossibly hard, the sippers require a perfect drift, sometimes a fly change or two, and usually smaller patterns. The Ant, F-Fly and parachute spinner mostly did the trick, although Christopher had to go down to a size 20 paradun to undo one fussy patch of fish.

Sippers on the Indi

The last day came around too soon as always. The sun and warmth was replaced by a low grey sky and light rain which took some of the sting out of leaving – at least there were no sippers to farewell. Instead, a quick fish on the Nariel finished the trip. Rain and 9 C are not my favourite combination on this lovely little stream, so it wasn’t surprising that the three trout I landed took a bit of work to catch. Still, I saw another dozen or so in the crystal clear water. Some I spooked while others were in lies that were beyond me thanks to willow branches, fallen trees or undercuts. Walk slowly and look carefully on a stream like the Nariel, and you’ll soon get some appreciation of all the trout you simply can’t catch.

Autumn rainbow

About now I normally throw in some melancholy line of farewell to the streams, but there’s still one trip to go this year to the Ovens River and surrounds, when I’m honoured to be helping open a rejuvenated stretch of river http://www.necma.vic.gov.au/WhatsOn/. The good-byes to season 2012/13 will have to wait until then!

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In the latest issue of Flyfisher (13) I wrote about this area and taking my own advice, I headed up there with brother Mark in the last days of 2012. Conditions were pretty good; nights around the low teens, clear, sunny days peaking at about 30 C. At this time of year high water temperatures are the norm, but as Fishing Sense readers would know, anything around 20 – 23 C is fine once the trout have acclimatised, and we even caught several nice trout in 24 C water. Flows were good (the Indi at Biggara averaged about 800 mg/day) and water clarity was excellent.

Indi on evening.

Deep nymphing caught some nice fish, but I struggle to keep going with this method for long when the dry is a chance. Not that I’m a dry fly snob, but I did manage to use up about 3 hours one morning covering less than 50 metres of river (something of a low speed record for me) casting to about a dozen very picky sippers. I fooled four and landed two, both of which left me so pleased I caught myself chuckling quietly like a lunatic.

Sipper on the Orange Spinner.

We had some fair evening rises, especially on the Indi, but the highlight was definitely sippers and polaroiding fish on the shallow edges. An Orange Spinner did the trick if presented gently and right on track. I kept an eye out for willow grub feeders (I found a grub on my cap).  However the distractions of trout behaving in a more conventional manner proved too much and I’m ashamed to say I can’t offer a comprehensive willow grub report for the upper Murray area, except to say I did notice quite a few stripped willows from the road below the Indi Bridge.

No Name Creek – I’ll be back.

The trip ended in what is becoming the traditional way, fishing a small stream on the way home. I’d rarely fished this little stream before, and never the section we chose. It wasn’t prolific fishing, but it was a nice change from the bigger rivers and the trout (all browns) were good fish up to 2 pounds; and they took a small Stimulator with lazy assurance. Maybe that had something to do with the millions of mini hoppers in the surrounding paddocks. It’s going to be a good hopper summer in the north-east and the southern Snowys.

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