So, for those of us in Victoria, and Tasmania and perhaps another state or territory too, we just had a long weekend the one past. Only a little over a week from Easter arriving and another long weekend being upon us, so there was a little extra time for fishing this week. Getting out on Monday I thought it was going to be a little tough going with every man and his dog up from the the city for the extended weekend, but fortunately most of the weekend blow-ins were heading back early trying to beat the traffic. Evidently, they were creating traffic by all leaving early to beat it. It was great to see as I was headed the other direction!

With the river running high, up at around 7000 megalitres a day, it meant that the fish were pushed up around the edges and into the backwaters. It’s something we’ve been waiting all summer for, with the river running much lower than it usually does through this time of the year. It wasn’t long before I got onto a nice brown that was holding in a still patch of water behind a fallen tree. This guy gave me a good fight, but I eventually go him to the net, which was a little too small. I’ve been using the smaller of my two Out of the Riffle Woodworks nets the most part of this summer, as it is a lighter haul with all the weight I have on my vest. But, I got him in there eventually and with a quick removal of the hook, he was back to the water and shot off with plenty of grunt and fight still left.

The following day I caught up with the lads from Hooked Up Magazine, for our first get together on the river in some months. I was running a little late, and by the time I got there, Kosta had already landed a nice brown on what had been his first cast of the day. That seemed promising, as too did the fact the I hooked fish on not only my first, but my second cast as well! Sadly, both were little tackers that flicked off before the hookset held. Oh well, you win some and you lose some. As I found to be the case later as we got into stalking mode in the backwaters with the high water offering plenty of places for the fish to hide amongst the trees. We found some nice fish and spooked a fair few too. I got a good position on one decent brown only to hook the tree branch right above it and inevitably pull the branch down in trying to dislodge the fly. That at least counted for something, good tippet strength. When you are tackling the backwater beasts under the trees, you need to have faith in the strength of you tippet and trust your knots. It’s comforting to know you can pull a tree branch down with your rig when you are going to need a strong setup.

About an hour later, having worked some pools downstream we returned to the scene to find the fish was back on it’s beat, none too perturbed by the tree branch I had pulled down earlier. But, as I was moving for a better position, it caught wind of my presence and turned to casually glide under a fallen log. In doing so, it muscled out another fish from it’s lie, an even bigger fish that then came out into the current and took up position where the other had been holding. You couldn’t ask for a better result. So, whilst sitting in a hollow in the bank alongside the fish, I finally managed to get my one shot, my only cast at this guy. It was perfect. Landing about five feet in front of him, the nymph only about 10 inches below the indicator, he slowly turned and advanced on it. It was all I could do to control myself and when the indicator dipped, I set the hook with precision and speed. Well, so I thought. The slightest resistance turned into slack as I pulled it right out of his mouth and finally pissed this fish off enough for him to call it a day. Gone.

That was enough for me though. After that, I didn’t need to catch another fish. The fun and excitement of finding, engaging and fooling a weary backwater brown is worth so much in itself. The actual catch is secondary at this point. And for that, i will return, to try and outwit this fish again, hopefully to come out the victor.