Fly fishing around Melbourne

Mountain ash forest, tree ferns and steep, wet hills, broken by cleared farm valleys where the rivers slow down. The Victorian Fisheries Authority’s basin guide for the Yarra describes a river that starts in steep, high-rainfall forest above Upper Yarra Reservoir and is heavily regulated below it by the city’s water storages. On the West Gippsland side the same guide draws a clear line between streams that run through forest, which it rates in excellent condition with clear water and good summer flow, and streams that run through farmland, which it does not.

That line is worth remembering on every river on this page. By the guide’s account the forest water is the better habitat, and it is the cleaner wading. The farm reaches are slower and often coloured.

East, the Yarra. The upper Yarra is a tailwater below Upper Yarra Reservoir, and around Warburton, Millgrove and Yarra Junction it carries a good head of wild brown trout over freestone, gravel and bedrock. The VFA’s guide puts the best brown trout water between Warburton and Launching Place. Walking and bike trails follow the river, so access is easy. The Yarra also holds Australian grayling and one of Victoria’s most significant populations of Macquarie perch, both fish worth knowing about.

North, the Marysville streams. Three rivers come off the ranges and down to the Goulburn, and the VFA’s stream classification counts all of them as trout fisheries. The Steavenson is the pick. It is a clear stream with wild brown and rainbow trout holding in every kind of water, with road access from Marysville down to Buxton. There it meets the Acheron, a different animal altogether, usually somewhat discoloured and full of snags over an awkward bed, with brown and rainbow trout and public entry at reserves around Taggerty and Buxton. The Rubicon is a freestone river of wild browns with some rainbows, and brook trout have established after escapes from a trout farm on the upper river. Fish its upper pocket water; the lower river through farmland is much harder to reach.

South-east, Noojee and the Latrobe. Two small rivers join the La Trobe close to Noojee. The Loch is tight and fern-lined, with wild brown trout from the confluence to the headwaters and Loch Valley Road beside it. The Toorongo is said to hold one of the state’s largest populations of brown and rainbow trout, open and easy to cast below the Toorongo Falls campsite and steep and bouldery above it, up toward Amphitheatre Falls. Further east, the Tanjil West Branch is the bigger and faster of the Tanjil’s two branches, more open to cast and holding the bigger trout, and at the ford on Simpsons Road you can reportedly spot fish from the road.

Blue Rock Lake, beside Willow Grove, is the one stillwater here. It holds wild and stocked brown and rainbow trout, the VFA’s basin guide lists it among the waters regularly stocked with trout, and Australian bass have been released into it as well. It is one of the stops on the VFA’s Australian Bass Trail.

For a first trip, drive to Marysville and fish the Steavenson downstream toward Buxton, nymphing if the water is up and switching to a dry once it drops. If that goes well, the Rubicon is the next river to learn. If you want small water and a short rod, take the Loch. From late January, put a hopper along the edges of the lower Toorongo. On a hot summer evening, forget the rivers and go to Blue Rock for bass on the surface.

For bigger mountain rivers around Mansfield, see the High Country. The lakes around Ballarat and Daylesford are on the Central Highlands page.

Early spring on the rivers is high, cold water, and it is nymph fishing on the Steavenson, the Rubicon and the Toorongo. As the flows drop and warm through spring the trout look up, and the Steavenson’s mayfly and caddis hatches become the main event. From late January the paddocks along the lower Toorongo dry out and push grasshoppers onto the water. The Acheron needs moderate levels after warm, settled weather before a dry is worth tying on; until then a nymph or a dark streamer does the work.

Blue Rock runs on a different calendar. Its trout fishing is said to be consistent from autumn through spring along the shorelines, with midge feeders on calm days. In summer the bass take topwater flies at either end of the day and go deeper through the middle of it.

The Yarra has no best month of its own. Pick the day by the river: when it is moderate and clear, go. After rain it runs high and dirty, and so do the rest.

Seasons, closed waters, limits and licence requirements change; check the current Victorian recreational fishing guide before you fish.

A road beside a river is not permission to cross the paddock between them. Use the reserves, bridges and road access the water pages describe, read every gate and sign, and on the farm reaches of the Acheron and the Rubicon expect access to take more work than the forest water does.