From: 05/15/2015
To: 05/16/2015
Type of Water: Freshwater
Species: Rainbow trout
My First Australian Trout
Currently, I am studying in Melbourne, Australia, a country that except for Tasmania, an island and state in the south of the country, is not well known for freshwater fishing. Notwithstanding, I have some Australian instructors and guides that have told me the tremendous potential of Australia as a prime saltwater destination.
Like any other student, my budget is very limited and living in an expensive country as Australia makes saltwater fishing very unlikely. For this reason, I had to search some rivers near Melbourne to catch my first Australian trout. The great architect of these trips has been my friend Bintoro Tedjosiswoyo, a two-handed casting instructor (THCI) of the International Fly Fishing Federation (IFFF) an View more...
My First Australian Trout
Currently, I am studying in Melbourne, Australia, a country that except for Tasmania, an island and state in the south of the country, is not well known for freshwater fishing. Notwithstanding, I have some Australian instructors and guides that have told me the tremendous potential of Australia as a prime saltwater destination.
Like any other student, my budget is very limited and living in an expensive country as Australia makes saltwater fishing very unlikely. For this reason, I had to search some rivers near Melbourne to catch my first Australian trout. The great architect of these trips has been my friend Bintoro Tedjosiswoyo, a two-handed casting instructor (THCI) of the International Fly Fishing Federation (IFFF) and who has been kind enough to adopt me as his fishing partner during my stay.
Just weeks before the closure of the fishing season we went fishing to the Ovens River, a beautiful stream that flows from the high mountains northwest of Melbourne. The first section of the river flows from a higher gradient with some interesting pocket water structures. Other sections of the river are less inclined and have beautiful riffles, runs, and small pools. We planned a great fishing weekend with my wife and Bintoro after so many months of organization.
After four hours of travel, we arrived at Bright, a mountain village most busy in the winter months with the opening of the ski centers. We kept traveling into the Alps (as the call this mountain range) and reached our destination a half hour later. As soon as we arrived, we started fishing for the afternoon. We had some strikes, I lost some of them, but I also caught my first little Australian trout an hour later. The size did not matter; I kept the happiness of catching a trout in a different country and a different river. I have added a new story to my repertory. I lost a good size rainbow, and I closed my first day with joy. The cold of the autumn days made the activity last until 5 pm when we decided to celebrate in the cabin.
The next day we fished the hours of higher temperature and activity of trout, and we could even most of the day fishing with dry flies. While we did not capture any large trout, I was impressed by the quality of the water and the number of aquatic insects considering the amount of public accesses. I kept the impression that Australians care a lot about their rivers and respect the common use of it among fisherman and other activities. The result, small but well fed and healthy trouts.
Universality of fly-fishing keeps impressing me. 11 thousand kilometers separate the rivers I usually fish in central Chile and the Ovens River, and despite this, the techniques and flies I use in Chile were very successful in the Ovens River. I confess myself as a simple fisherman in fly selection; my box consists of a few patterns in many sizes and weights. And although there are sometimes when high selectivity of the trout requires highly specific patterns, most of the time a good cast and presentation of the fly are infinitely more important that the fly in a successful fishing day.
