Talking Trout

We’ve all heard stories about the Victorian trout fishery going from bad to worse in recent times. Drought, bushfires, cormorants, climate change and fishing pressure (including ‘poachers’ from interstate, like me) have variously been blamed for the perceived decline. But is it true? What really is the current status of trout populations in Victoria? Does anybody know? Does anybody care?

Well, talking to Travis Dowling, or listening to him speak, counters any notion that these people just go to work for the money. The man in charge of Victorian Fisheries wasted no time in assuring me that Victoria still has some of the best trout fishing in Australia.

“If we think about a lake like Toolondo, in the western districts of Victoria, we’ve had on average 3 to 4 kilo brown trout come out of there consistently since the rain started again. Yes, it’s got its challenges going forward with dry conditions but it’s still one of the best trout fisheries in Australia.”

Lake Wendouree in Ballarat is also on his bragging list. “The Oceania Fly Fishing Championships were held there two weekends ago — 174 rainbows were taken from Wendouree, and some browns as well. It is a beautiful clearwater fishery.

“And, some of our upland waters, like the upper Goulburn, Kiewa, Howqua, Delatite and the Jamieson, are some of the most pristine and beautiful trout fisheries in Victoria. In terms of value for money, the experience in wild trout, the habitat and the scenery, you won’t find anywhere better in Australia… Victoria has everything going in its direction.”

These are the sorts of places I fish and photograph, so I didn’t need convincing.

TALK WILD TROUT 2015

All this bravado and statesmanship was backed up by the public forum held at Mansfield in November 2015, which set out to answer any doubts about Victoria’s trout status, peddling facts not speculation. The impressive line-up of guest speakers included key researchers from Fisheries Victoria, the Arthur Rylah Institute and the University of Melbourne — even a guest from Trout Unlimited in the States had been co-opted.

On the agenda was a detailed explanation of the master plan — the Wild Trout Fisheries Management Program — involving nine research projects over three years, initiated in response to ‘widespread reports of poor fishing from many normally productive wild trout streams in the summer of 2013-14.

I won’t bore readers with detailed graphs and statistics as all the relevant documents are available on line, but when editor Rob Sloane (another fish doctor) received a copy of the Conference Proceedings he cast an eye over the findings and helped me piece together the summary that follows.

HEALTH CARDS

A key benchmark of the WTF management plan (an unfortunate acronym) involves annual monitoring of trout populations in 12 priority rivers across Victoria. Sites have been chosen to allow baseline comparisons with various surveys undertaken over the past decade.

The most potentially useful tool for anglers is the resultant ‘Health Card’ system, which provides a guide to the status of each river in terms of trout recruitment, size-class structure and, most importantly, the estimated number of catchable (>20 cm) trout per hundred metres.

Based on the initial (Jan, 2015) survey and relevant past comparisons, the health of the Aire, Kiewa, Toorongo and Mitta Mitta system rivers was rated best overall, with the Howqua also scoring well. The poorer performers included the Dargo, Jamieson and Nariel for varying reasons, and the Ovens was listed as ‘Recovering’ with some mature browns present and recent evidence of rainbow trout recruitment.

When I asked him to nominate awards based on initial survey results, fisheries manager Taylor Hunt suggested the following:

Largest trout — Mitta Mitta River at 2.1 kg. Greatest number of catchable trout — Toorongo River at 9 per 100 metres. Best river — Toorongo River with 37 trout per 100 metres and the best trout population overall.

The underlying danger in all this relates to directing angling effort to specific rivers and even sections within rivers. This in itself might bias survey results in the future, and may well upset as many anglers as it pleases.

CLIMATE & TEMPERATURE

If the elephant in the room was climate change, then all the speakers chose to ignore it, though rising summer water temperatures were certainly in the firing line with specific studies aimed to address trout movement in response to fluctuating stream temperatures. Initial suggestions were that trout favour the headwaters (or perhaps move down into lakes) to escape elevated summer temperatures, but the real story looks to be far more complex.

In the Delatite River a sophisticated experiment using a series of acoustic receiver stations, with transmitters implanted in brown trout, should deliver some interesting findings in the near future.

Another research priority has been to review the literature and investigate how changes to streamside vegetation, including willow removal, might be affecting water temperature, trout food and trout habitat. To date the evidence suggests that on a whole-of-river scale, ‘the impact from willow removal on trout pales in significance against broader catchment issues like climate, drought, bushfire and topography.’

On the positive side, revegetation to maximise stream shading is firmly on the agenda. It’s not rocket science fellas — it’s all about habitat!

When interviewed after his presentation, Dr John Morrongiello (a fish biologist from Melbourne Uni and keen fly fisherman) did concede that climate change is a major driver which can’t be denied. “I think we purposefully as a group here today decided that we wouldn’t invoke the climate change story, because there’s enough of an acute story going on at the moment: we’ve got bushfires, we’ve got drought, we’ve got some record warm years.”

He added that a major focus of his research is to understand how our fish and fisheries are responding to climate change, and what we can do in terms of future management to ameliorate some of these impacts.

FISHERIES MANAGEMENT

Another major research thrust involves evaluation of trout stocking in Victoria. Brown trout stocking is known to be ineffective (and potentially detrimental) where natural recruitment is already occurring.

Stocking trials with fin-clipped yearling browns in the upper Goulburn and Howqua are already underway. Improved means of marking hatchery fish are also under investigation at Snobs Creek hatchery.

Importantly, this all points to tracking the success rate and cost effectiveness of future stocking programs rather than just throwing hatchery fish at the problem.

Fishing pressure is also earmarked for more detailed future study with initial findings in the Upper Goulburn basin rivers suggesting little evidence of overfishing of wild trout stocks and good compliance with bag limits etc. Further evidence about exploitation rates should come from a ‘tag reward program’ instigated in the Howqua River where 100 trout captured during fish population surveys were tagged with high reward ($100) dart tags.

GETTING INVOLVED

What did impress me was the inclusive nature of the conference — even groups often perceived as anti-trout were in attendance. I particularly liked Lawrence Mosser’s (local aboriginal elder) ‘welcome to country’. The main point he made was that we all have country we’re connected to — and as we all know, fly fishers really do have a deep relationship with our waterways, large and small.

But are we as anglers contributing enough? The work done by Trout Unlimited in the US makes Australian fly fishers look catatonic when it comes to habitat restoration and community involvement. As keynote speaker Dr Dan Dauwalter (TU Idaho) conceded, “It sounds like angler involvement on restoration projects is needed and it sounds like at least some of the clubs are interested in getting involved. There are hurdles, but we’ve seen it work best when we have a staff person coupled with a club, to help direct their energy.”

So how does the average angler have a say and get involved in the future management of trout in Victoria? “The easiest thing is to pick up the phone or come and see us,” says Taylor Hunt. “All of the managers at Fisheries Victoria are fishermen as well, and we love having a chat to fishers about whatever issues are concerning them. So give us a call, or you can contact us on Facebook as well; come to our recreational fishing forums; you can write to us, you can email us. We love to talk to fishers about how we can improve the great fishing we have in Victoria.”

Talking Wild Trout Conference

presentations are available online

at vic.gov.au/fisheries