Albany/Wodonga

ALBURY/WODONGA Connor Heir

Will 2023 bring back our normal river conditions? I can confidently say that every angler in the region has a New Year’s wish for our local rivers and creeks to return back to regular clear flows.

It’s been quite some time now since we’ve seen this, and while La Niña is supposed to clear this summer, it still does take some time for our local rivers and creeks to settle down with regard to flow, height and clarity. I touched in my last article that after a wet season the fishing tends to be better, so while this wait definitely does On hot days, it’s a good idea to keep any netted fish in the water while you get organised with pliers, gloves and camera equipment.

Small water cod are very cool fish to target, especially because of the spots you pull fish from!

seem like forever, what’s to come should be worth the wait. Remembering back to 2016, we saw a wet season and into the summer of 2017 once the waterways returned back to their regular conditions, the fishing was really good especially in the smaller creeks around the region. So as mentioned, the wait is worth waiting for!

A topic that is unfortunate, but must be addressed, is that some areas downstream on the Murray River in the Echuca area and below have suffered some fish kills. This isn’t a subject I’m fully up to date on, with regard to exact locations and numbers of fish, but I have been hearing reports of many native fishing and other aquatic life going belly-up due to high water levels causing poor water quality in certain areas. I’m sure that other writers in this magazine will cover this in more detail. However, a positive for our region is that we have seen Rhys Wilson and his son Isaac with a cracking 69cm golden perch from Lake Hume.

from the negatives and back to some things to look forward to.

Lake Hume is still fishing well for redfin, as it has been for the past few years, and good numbers of golden perch are still being caught by anglers Hume, it’s definitely worth the effort as there are some absolute donkeys in there that are trophy worthy!

As for cod fishing at the moment, with the rivers and creeks not quite up to scratch as I write this, Lake Mulwala is the place

A common catch size over the warmer months. Small fish are a good sign for the future of the fishery.

very little numbers of fish kills locally. I did hear of a few at Lake Mulwala, but nothing like what has been reported further downstream. This is such an unfortunate situation, and as passionate anglers we can all understand the devastation of any unprecedented fish kills.

Now let’s move away who are out there searching for them. The spring run on the yellas was fantastic. In fact, it was one of the best seasons I’ve ever seen personally. It’s great to see fish from that lake always being in such good condition – the girth on the yellas in there is crazy. If you have never chased golden perch in Lake that grabs my attention to want to go fish. During the warmer months, targeting numbers of fish in that lake should be no issue. If you persist, the rewards will come like always.

Finally, continue to be patient, because once the conditions return to normal we should be on for some epic fishing!