Mar 20, 2026

Trellys Fishing Report 20th March 2026

The rain keeps falling. There hasn't been heavy rain, but it has been enough to turn the countryside green and add a little bit of water to some struggling trout streams.

The little bit of extra water and the cooling conditions have helped to fire the trout back up, provided you can find them.

Two years of below average rainfall, and then extreme heat has taken its toll on the distribution of trout. Hopefully a wet year is just around the corner, and the trout can flourish again.

In nature, everything is seasonal. In my area (Wangaratta) even carp are getting hard to come by. Just 2 or 3 years ago they were everywhere.

Just like the carp, trout numbers will increase and their distribution will spread out as soon as conditions are favourable. In other words,… next time we get decent flooding!

For now, if you can find trout in the streams, they are biting!

Goulburn River

Water levels have been fluctuating quite a lot on the Goulburn River recently as a flush of environmental water has been sent down.

Prior to the flush people were concerned about the dark colour of the water, but no fish kills have been reported. In fact, Goulburn Murray water done some testing and the water was fine, just a bit dark as a result of bushfire runoff upstream.

Michael Lane fished the Goulburn River from his kayak recently, landing a nice Yellowbelly on a Predator lure, along with a few Murray cod that were caught on a Jackall Pompadour.

Here is a link to Michael Lane's Goulburn River fishing video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsqpt8ialZw

Ovens River

Fishing in the Ovens River remains quite slow at the moment. I fished it with my friend Sonny just a couple of days ago.

We decided to fish in a lagoon on the river bank and catch a few carp before heading to the river near the end of the day for a Murray cod lure fishing session.

Between us, over 3 hours and 3 different lagoons we caught just 1 carp. These stinking things are getting harder to catch than Murray cod in this area at the moment!

In the evening, we caught just 1 Murray cod between us. Sonny caught it on a Jackall Pompadour.

I am hoping to get back out again in the coming days to do a bit of bait fishing.

Murray River Albury

Despite my fishless trip to the Murray River in Albury in last week's report, a few reports are still coming in of Murray cod being caught in that area.

There have been Murray cod and Yellowbelly caught in both Albury, and just downstream at Howling.

Bait and lures have both been working well, with boats providing a great advantage, making it easier to get to the deeper water.

Luke “Mezza” Merriman caught a nice Murray cod in the Murray River at Albury using Bega cheese cubes as bait.

Lake Moodemere

Lake Moodemere near Rutherglen is one of my favourite winter fishing destinations. It is quite shallow and in the summer months the water just gets so warm that even the carp fishing slows down.

My friend Ryan fished there last week and caught a couple of carp, and a small Yellowbelly on worms.

Ryan was very surprised with his Yellowbelly, and I was just as surprised when he told me.

Lake Hume

Lake Hume has risen a few percent recently but is now slowly going back down. It’s currently sitting just under 27% of capacity.

This rise was caused by water being released from Lake Dartmouth upstream, along with decent rainfall in the catchment and a reduced demand for irrigation water downstream thanks to recent rain.

The redfin have been biting very well for both lure and bait fisherman in Lake Hume. Most fish have been small, but there have been a few nicer sized redfin caught under the Bethanga Bridge.

I have also seen a few photos of Yellowbelly caught in Lake Hume this week.