With some fairly torrid weather hitting Melbourne and the surrounds the best form of fishing to be enjoying is definitely the stream trout fishing. As we are getting towards the pointy end of the season the extra rain and cold conditions will give the fish a good bump as they prepare to spawn. The entire high country of Vic and into southern NSW will also experience a solid increase in trout activity with the deluge dropping some serious water into the rivers. Fishing flashy ‘aggressive’ lures with dark contrasting silhouettes is the best way to get the attention of the otherwise distracted fish. Expect to start seeing some sizeable fish as they instinctually move up river.

Jarrod from Compleat Angler head office has just come back from some time up in the southern NSW high country in search of solid trout. While hard work fishing often freezing temperatures and pumping river currents the fish can be worth it. Targeting large brown trout with lure and fly as they continue their up-river push is ideal at this time of year. Jarrod experienced some excellent fishing, with solid browns pushing 3kg coming to the grass. Fishing hardbodied lures larger than normal with plenty of aggressive ‘come here’ colour has been a great way to trigger a bite. Spinning spawn style fly patterns on spin gear is also effective but can be tricky to master – but worthwhile when persisted with.

Customer Reece has been fishing with a mate up around the Eildon region recently. The guys have been fly fishing some of the smaller rivers and are finding the trout fairly active with the colder weather conditions and water temperatures. Aggressive brown trout have been the mainstay with fish around 300g par for the course, but some much larger fish seen. A lone Atlantic salmon also made it’s way to the net after giving a great account for itself in the fast runs.