Manic Monday - Victoria, We're Back

It seemed a bit surreal being able to get out of the house and hit some local Melbourne streams with my mate Cam this weekend.

I had been itching to get out all week since the relaxing of COVID lockdown, and the emotional roller coaster of bush fires, COVID-19 and not being able to fish most of the season, was put at ease as soon as Cam pulled into my driveway.

We took two cars just to be safe, social distanced at the bakery, coffee good! Half an hours drive and we were at one of our favourite stretches of small stream.

All rigged up we set off across the paddock, minus one degree, crunching frost under foot, breathing in the fog, this is what I needed!

Then first cast I put it straight into a tree, made tangled mess and had to fully re-rig. There was some swearing, I’m not going to lie, but I just kept telling myself "I’m in my happy place, I’m in my happy place” and I was.

It turned out to be an awesome day on the water with great weather, good river flow and we saw a lot more fish out in the open than we would this time of year. I don't know if this is a result of the less fishing pressure because of the lockdown, or the conditions were just right.

Early in the day while the fog was set in, most fish fell for either a double nymph rig or long dropper of the back of a dry fly. Fly selection sub surface didn't seem to make much of a difference as long as you put the fly at the right depth and got good drift.

Dry fly selection changed as the sun came out with Cam getting a few rejections early with quite a big #manicflycollection Swisher's PMX, so I scaled down to a size 14 Swisher's PMX with much success, and by the end of the day we were taking as many on the dry as nymph.

There’s still a few weeks left of the Victorian season to get your fishing therapy on, so get out while the weather is good, and there are plenty of fish around. Stay safe every one!