3 Rivers - Victorian High Country - Part 1

SNOWY CREEK

It is without a doubt that the Victorian High Country in Australia holds what may appear to be an endless array of trout filled rivers and lakes in some of the most picturesque regions of this country. For hundreds of kilometers, it is possible to find a multitude of river systems that drain directly off alpine high plains along different positions of the Great Dividing Range. The scale and magnitude of fishing options this provides was a little new to me, and well and truly expanded my horizons. From the top of the vast and often remote high country plains, it's hard not to imagine a perfect, clear running stream in almost every valley, just waiting to be explored and fished.

Last year I thought a lot about the state of the fishing in New South Wales high country trout declared waters in Australia. Unfortunately, I had experienced first hand the sudden and incomprehensible decline in good fish numbers in all of the rivers I normally visit. It got me thinking about other options like New Zealand, or Victoria, and I asked myself one simple question. Why haven't I ever crossed the border to the south of me, into Victoria to fly fish? It's a mix of reasons I guess, lack of time to travel that extra bit further is all I can put it down to, and possibly that in the past there has been less need to find new water. In late Autumn of 2026 I had a window of three to four days of perfect weather and some unusual free time, and I decided to put a solo trip together to travel south and explore a small fraction of what is on offer in the rivers of north-east Victoria.

HIGHWAYS & ANTICIPATION

Day 1 doesn't really count, I spent most of the day in the car driving the five or so hours to my first destination. As usual I left later than I would have liked and by the time I hit Albury to get more fuel, I knew that I was probably not going to see any water with enough daylight to even bother getting my fly gear out of the car. It gave me time to further refine my plans though, and to think about what I might find. I had read so much about the areas and the 3 rivers I had a plan to visit, it was all generally positive and I hope to see a mix of different healthy systems. There is something special about new water, but it also comes with an element of risk. I like to think that in the past I have figured some things out on the rivers I usually fish. You get to know the runs, the timing, the habits of the fish and the flies to use. But Victoria was possibly a whole different game. I was targeting rivers I had only read about online and seen from above on Google Maps, and it is always different when actually there. I kept driving to nearly sunset and as I past Mitta Mitta I could feel things starting to change. The mountains were getting taller, the vegetation moved from farm land to classic high country scrub. I rolled into a quiet Lightening Creek campground with just enough time to find a spot, park the car where I planned to camp, and see a few runs up stream. The water was crystal clear and i couldn't wait to look even further. It was just enough to wet the appetite for the next day. It was early to bed that night, just listening to the river from my makeshift bed set up inside my four wheel drive.

LIGHTNING & FOG

After a quiet night, I rose early to this crisp morning. Not a breath of wind, just the sound of the river as it flows clear, just beyond my car. There is a range of bird life, calls of all different kinds ring out through the thick forest and I just knew that this was going to be a good day. After a quick cup of tea, I got my gear sorted, got my rod and reel set up and set off up the river to the area I had spied the afternoon before. That feeling of walking to the river first thing in the morning is pretty hard to beat, knowing that you have the entire day ahead of you on the water looking for trout in surroundings like this, it's hard to top.

As I walked I noticed the cold start to the day, but the sun had already started hitting the water and I hoped this might mean some early activity. I tied on a larger Mayfly dry with a small Pheasant Tail nymph underneath, as a short dry dropper. The first factor I started noticing was a lack of overall depth in the river. I found some deeper pockets but things were quiet. Casting was also often made trickier by thickly overgrown bush, but I did manage to fish most of the good runs I found. After about two hours I came across two smaller rainbows at the base of a set of rapids, in a prime position. They had a reasonable look at my dry fly and on a number of occasions one would proceed to follow it down the run, but wouldn't commit to feeding but wither way it was great to see some life. I changed my offering to something smaller, the old faithful Royal Wulff, still with the nymph underneath. It worked first cast and I managed to net this beautiful Rainbow that must have been around 10 centimeters long after he slapped the dry. This was my first trout in Victoria but a failed release strategy saw me unable to take a photograph, he was gone.

I didn't see another fish for the next few hours, I did see some classic small stream opportunities but despite what I tried, nothing was seen to be feeding on the surface or on the numerous nymphs I drifted through some of the deeper runs I found. At around lunch time, I decided to stop venturing up stream, and instead walked back to camp to try and head to some of the bigger water I had seen on the day before, on the drive in, further down the river.

WALNUTS AND SOME PROMISE

By around 1pm and after a short drive downstream, I was back on Snowy Creek, but it was bigger with more structure, more depth and more cover. I dropped in at 'The Walnuts' and proceeded to work my way up stream. The river here is classic, with plenty of knee to waist deep runs and a rocky bottom. As the afternoon wore on I managed to slow down a little and spied a better fish than I had seen all day feeding. I removed the nymph for the afternoon session because I had a seen a few fish feeding happily on the surface, managing to somehow drop one soon after hook up. On my second drift over a happily feeding fish, my dry was sipped from the surface, a delicate take. This lovely Brown with a line of rich red spots down its tail took the larger Mayfly imitation I tried earlier in the day, without much hesitation at all and I felt as though I was properly on the board. He swam away with ease, and made my day.

I fished right through until almost dusk, easily wading the edges of the river, picking out what I believed to be the best of the runs on offer, I missed one other fish and that was it, day 1 was done. I returned to camp and decided to stay another night, due to it being late and getting dark.

I sat and ate my dinner and wondered what river 2 might bring, I was only a short drive from the upper Mitta Mitta, or Big River, which I had heard and read great things about.