[Blaen]

Hi Guys,

WOW I have been away from the forums for a week and look at the conversations taking place! There is some great discussions taking place at present, I love this place.

I have been absent because I have been looking into a new job that may well mean moving to Victoria, Healesville in particular. The decission to leave Tassie is a tough one and isn't being made very easily. I think the hardest part for all members of the family will be leaving friends and the community.

The job is a diagonal step upwards for me it's slightly out of my usual field, but heck a change is as good as a holiday, isn't it? Realistically I could do the job relatively easily and they have offered a few new challenges to the roel to suit my skills, just to make it more enticing. I will update this thread when I make a decision, my family and I fly over again next week for 3 days to see if we can find a suitable location to rent, if we decide to go ahead.

But anyway to the serious question:

What's the fishing like in the upper reaches of the Yarra River?

 

[Mushi]

G'day John,
Goodluck with the job if that's what you end up going for. Healesville is always a really nice place to drive through. The Yarra definitely has some good fishable water. Upstream towards Warburton you've got some pretty good trout water, though they seem to be a bit smaller on average than say the Goulburn River trout (quite a few hatchery bred there though). The Warburton stretch might be interesting on the yak, and depending on the level, some riffle / rapid sections may have to be walked.

Downstream of Healesville towards Warrandyte you've got some pretty decent yakable native water, with Murray Cod (akff member Kevin snagged one last season) and a load of Macquarie Perch (grew up near the Eltham section, and there are a stack through there - most are pretty small but the 2kg models are there too).

At Healesville itself, the section seems to be inbetween the best trout and native water of the River. You can still get into redfin, eels, some trout and there's river blackfish around the thick structure.

You've also got the Goulburn not far away at all, our best known trout river, as well as Lake Eildon for trout, reddies, goldens and cod if you're lucky. You can paddle either of these waters, just watch the Goulburn if they are releasing a sh*tload of water down it, as it gets almost unfishable.

Also, if you haven't stumbled across it already this page will be helpful too...
http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/angling/29-Ya ... Waters.htm

Hope that helps you out a bit

 

[Kevin]

Hi John,

Mushi has pretty well covered it in his post. I have fished the Yarra a fair bit. Trout on the dry fly around Warburton are fun during early summer but mostly small. Fly fishing in this area is via wading for me.

And as Mushi mentioned I got a small murray cod last year on a lure. This fishing is done in small sit in kayaks to get to the most remote areas. The cod I put a lot of effort for (at least 20 trips) around the Eltham area. There are bigger cod but there are not commonly caught. The Yarra at Healesville I have never fished because as Mushi mentioned it seems to be inbetween the prime trout and cod/perch areas.

Healesville is a lovely area and I wish you well with your move.

 

[Blaen]

Thanks for the replies Mushi and Kevin, it sounds like there will be plenty of options out there for me.

Hmmm Murray Cod, that would a really nice species to add to the list.

 

[PoddyMullet]

Hiya John, Healesville is a nice bush town with plenty of services. An hour from there would get ya up to Eildon as Mushi said, which is a massive lake when full (50km end to end). Even with low water levels there's plenty of paddling to be done, but the trout scene doesn't really compare to Tassie (not to say there's not some good un's in there though). Redfin are more popular in Vic as a target than in Tas, and more and more yellowbelly seem to be stocked into Eildon with cod about too. To the salt I'm not really sure how long the drive would be, at a guess I'm thinking 45 mins to an hour. A lot of the same suspects lurk in the salt that are the same as southern Tassie, the most noticable differences would be: sea runners and atlantics not being being available (Vic has some sea run rivers but they're a long drive away), bream fishing not being as productive, and pinkie/snapper fishing available in Vic to compensate. The Mango's are always up for someone else to swap out and out bullshit with :wink: