Forty kilometres of mainstem from Peters Bridge down to where the river enters Lake Hume. The alpine river is behind you and so is the dam; the bed is still the Mitta but the job has changed. The river here is slower, broader in the holds, and more of a native-fish lie than the water above the lake, with deep outside bends, fallen timber and the shade of red gums along the bank. You will still find moving water in the riffles between the pools. It is not a tailrace.

Snowy Creek comes in as a tributary, another water, not a fourth page. Pigs Point is on this stretch. The drowned stem inside Hume is the end of the map, not more of this reach.

Mixed water, and this is where the natives come in. Murray cod have been stocked into the Mitta Mitta in most years from 2006 to 2019, about two hundred and twenty-five thousand fish as a whole-river total, and wild cod are in the river’s survey record from the 1970s. Golden perch are in the mix with them. Brown trout are still in the picture on the cooler water, and redfin are everywhere. Trout cod were stocked in the mid 1990s, are a threatened native, and are not a target you assume from a stocking year. That is how the lower river is fished and what was put in, not a headcount.

The cod eat whatever comes past the snag. The perch want something smaller and slower. The trout take caddis in the riffles and grasshoppers off the grazing flats in summer, and so, given the chance, will a golden perch.

No gauge is bound to this stretch. Read the water yourself. The Eskdale Bridge gauge at the bottom of the tailrace is the last number before Peters Bridge and tells you what the dam is sending down; after rain the lower river carries colour for longer than the confined alpine water, and Snowy Creek adds its own. If it is up or dirty when you get there, that is the answer for the day.

Warm water from December to May is when the cod and golden perch move, and first light, last light and warm overcast days are worth more than a bright noon. In the heat, fish early and keep natives wet; a Murray cod in warm, low water is not a fish to play for long or to hold up for a photograph. The trout are a spring and autumn proposition down here, and a cool morning one in summer.

Fish it as a lower river, not as the alpine stretch. Snags, the deeper outside bend, the tail of a pool, the shade. For Murray cod, cover the structure slowly: a bigger fly, fewer casts, more looking, and the fly landed against the timber rather than near it. Expect the eat on the pause. Strip-strike, never lift the rod, and turn the fish’s head away from the snag in the first two seconds. The Murray cod page carries the full rundown on rods, lines and flies. Golden perch want a smaller fly fished deeper with real pauses, and a fish that follows without eating is turned by stopping the fly dead.

For the trout, a Woolly Bugger swung through the deeper bends at first light, a Hare’s Ear deep through the riffle heads, and a hopper or a parachute Adams when they show along the grassed banks. A six weight covers the natives and will not embarrass you on a trout; a nine weight is the honest tool if cod are the point of the day.

Wading is easier in the open holds than in the alpine bedrock, and easier to get wrong if you treat a snag-line like a gravel bar. If you cannot see the next footing, do not take it.

Peters Bridge is the top of this stretch and Pigs Point is a named way onto the water on the way down. Lake Hume is the bottom, and the storage is another water. Confirm who holds the bank before you camp or walk it; a name on a map is not a right of entry, and the bank is not always the easy walk it looks from the road. Private and public banks are mixed. A gate is the answer.

The hazards are a lowland river’s: soft banks, deep holes against the snags, and heat. Keep the fish wet and yourself in the shade.

Victorian rules apply. The trout and salmon rule that governs the tailrace above Peters Bridge does not reach this stretch; the ordinary Victorian freshwater rules do, and Murray cod carry their own season, size and bag under them, and trout cod are a threatened native to be released. Check the current Victorian recreational fishing guide before you fish. The dates and numbers move. Do not take them from this page.