Goulburn Valley Fly Fishing Centre

24/10/2026

They say, “Dark day, dark fly.”

But as with most things in fly fishing, rules are made to be broken.

Sometimes the fish has other ideas.

A small bright fly, a solid rainbow and another reminder that fortunately, trout don’t always read the same books we do.

23/10/2026

The latest Goulburn Valley fishing report is now up.

The river has been challenging at times this week, but the past couple of days have improved, with more fish settling into predictable lies and a few more dry-fly opportunities starting to appear. I’ve also covered the latest flows, water clarity, insect activity, the smaller streams and what I think anglers should be watching as we move towards summer.

https://gvflyfishing.com/blog/

Have a great weekend, and don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need an updated report, some advice on where to fish, or you’d like to arrange a day on the water.

Cheers,
Anthony

Goulburn Valley Fishing Report October 23, 2026 Friday 23 October 2026 A typical Goulburn brown about to be released. Note the water colour. It’s clear but not as clear as usual. Welcome to the Goulburn River fishing report for the week ending Friday 23/10. It has been another very busy week on th...

19/10/2026

Peekaboo. I see you.

One of the quieter little games on the river at the moment. A good brown tucked hard against the edge, sipping tiny terrestrials while we try to see it before it sees us.

Sometimes the photograph is less than perfect because you’re shooting through grass, branches and whatever else is between you and the fish.

But sometimes you still get the shot.

15/10/2026

The Goulburn is still coming up.

This morning’s updated release advice has the river increasing from around 4,500 to 5,500 ML/day.

For anyone fishing from a drift boat, that is welcome news. At these levels, the river opens up considerably. Every section from the Pondage down to Molesworth comes back into consideration, we can choose the length of the drift to suit the day, and far more of the river becomes accessible than we can effectively cover from the bank.

The clean Eildon water should also continue working its way downstream over the next few days, improving clarity through the lower sections - provided we don’t receive significant rain or another abrupt change in releases.

For anyone hoping to wade the Goulburn, however, it is a very different picture.

At 5,500 ML/day, the river will be a tall order from the bank. Higher flows can be excellent during summer, when hoppers, beetles and other terrestrials give trout a reason to move onto the flooded edges. We aren’t there yet. It is still mid-spring, there aren’t significant numbers of terrestrials falling in, and a sharp increase in flow can interrupt the hatches of aquatic insects and spread the feeding fish across a much larger river.

There may still be isolated opportunities, but access, presentation and simply finding the fish will all be considerably more difficult.

The smaller streams are the obvious alternative. The dry conditions and warming weather have them fishing well ahead of schedule, and we have already been finding a few trout willing to take dry flies. With no meaningful rain currently forecast, they would be my recommendation for anyone heading up to fish on foot.

In simple terms:

The Goulburn from a drift boat - yes.
The Goulburn from the bank - a very difficult proposition.
The smaller streams - the best wading option.

This weekend is fully booked and next week is already quite busy, although at this stage we may have one guide available on Thursday and Friday. Send me a message and I’ll confirm what is still open if you’re after a nice day floating the river.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

13/10/2026

The rain never came. The river is rising anyway.

Last week the forecast was remarkably consistent. We were expecting around an inch of rain on Monday, another half inch on Tuesday and perhaps the same again on Wednesday.

With clients flying across from Perth, we had to make the call early enough for them to change flights and accommodation. Given the forecast, cancelling three days of fishing was the only responsible decision.

Naturally, most of the rain failed to arrive.

Instead of the Goulburn dropping, releases from Lake Eildon are now climbing rapidly, from 1,900 ML/day towards a forecast 5,300 ML/day by Friday.

That much new water will unsettle the river before it helps it. The trout will need time to move and establish themselves in the newly covered edges, side channels, backwaters and bankside structure. Once the rise pushes through and stabilises, however, considerably more of the Goulburn will come back into play.

The fishing has been patchy. Some stretches have produced reasonable opportunities, while others have looked almost perfect yet shown remarkably little fish activity. The insects are moving in the right direction, though. We are seeing spinner falls, increasing numbers of caddis, beetles and the first flying ants.

The most useful lesson from the past week came from one good rising trout.

We spent close to an hour on it, including around forty minutes simply watching the fish, tracking its movements and waiting for it to settle into a position where the cast could be made properly. Eventually everything aligned, the fly arrived in the right place and the trout ate.

It was probably the largest fish the client had hooked in Australia.

Opportunities like that are still far enough apart that there is no sense wasting them. When you find a worthwhile riser at present, slow down, watch it properly and stay with it.

The latest fishing report covers the rising river, what the higher flows may mean over the coming week, the developing hatches, the smaller streams and the outlook for the weekend.

Read the full Goulburn River Fishing Report here:

https://gvflyfishing.com/blog

Anyone heading to the district is also welcome to call, text or send a WhatsApp message for the latest conditions.

Cheers,
Ant

04/10/2026

The Many Madisons

I first fished the Madison in 2010 and thought I had a reasonable idea of what to expect. Sixteen years later, I’m less sure there is any single river that fits the name.

There are mornings spent following individual trout across the flat surface of Hebgen Lake, trying to place a tiny dry fly ahead of the next rise. An hour later, you can be on fast, broken water, throwing something much larger towards a boulder and trying to keep up with the current. Elsewhere, the river runs beneath a mountainside that collapsed into the canyon one night in 1959.

My latest Between Casts essay follows those different versions of the Madison, from the famous fifty-mile riffle and salmonfly hatches to bear country, Earthquake Lake and the rough water below the Slide.

Along the way there are guides, small Montana towns, a foolishly long float with David Pickering and one fly line that would have survived had I exercised a little more patience.

It’s a longer read, accompanied by photographs from our time there. For those who have fished the Madison with us, I hope it brings back a few memories. For everyone else, perhaps it offers a window into a place I’ve been returning to year on year.

Read The Many Madisons here:

https://gvflyfishing.com/2026/10/03/the-many-madisons/

Cheers,
Ant

02/10/2026

The early rush towards summer has hit the brakes for a few days.
After an unusually warm September, we’ve now had cooler weather and roughly an inch and a half of rain across the past day or so.

Releases from Lake Eildon have also dropped sharply from around 1,000 ML/day on Wednesday to 400 ML/day yesterday, and the same forecast through the weekend.

That changes the river quite dramatically.

The extra insect activity we were seeing last week haven’t disappeared, but the sense that everything was racing ahead of schedule has been interrupted for the moment. The river is lower, the weather is cooler and the fishing will need to be approached a little differently until things settle again. The good news is we've seen a few more mayflies over the past couple of days.

Encouragingly we have roughly 4,000 ML/day flowing into Eildon and only 400 ML/day being released, so the lake is gaining water at present. A short reprieve, but a welcome one.

Spring has reminded us that it is still spring.

We’ll keep watching the river over the next few days and see what this cooler spell leaves behind when the warmth returns. With flows this low, we won’t be taking the drift boats out this weekend. We have guide jobs Sunday and Monday so we'll have more to report early next week.

Tight lines!
GVFFC

25/09/2026

With the Grand Final long weekend underway, a few observations from two full days drifting the Goulburn.

The water is clear, and streamer fishing has been keeping us thoroughly occupied. You can watch the fly working through the water, then suddenly there’s a trout behind it. Sometimes it follows all the way back without committing. Sometimes there’s a flash, a change of direction and a hit. You see much more of the encounter than you might expect from fishing below the surface.

On Thursday, we landed five fish and had around twenty hits or follows. The trout are still spread out, and we’re covering plenty of water to find them. It isn’t easy fishing everywhere, but the search itself has been absorbing.

The gradual increase in releases is helping, too. Thursday’s extra water gave the runs more depth and made getting the boat across the gravel bars noticeably easier. The release forecast we’ve been working from has Eildon reaching 1,300 ML/day today and 1,500 by Sunday.

There are rising fish as well, although the dry-fly opportunities remain scattered. For now, we’re searching with streamers and stopping when a rising trout gives us a reason to change. The extraordinary numbers of dragonflies and grannoms feel well ahead of the calendar, but plenty of insects doesn’t yet mean trout rising everywhere.

And it hasn’t all been about the trout. Around twenty platypus sightings on Thursday, some within a couple of rod lengths of the boat, provided plenty of reasons to stop watching the fly for a moment.

Enjoy the long weekend, whether you’re watching the football, heading for the river or managing a little of both.

Read the full report here: https://gvflyfishing.com/blog/

21/09/2026

Only 21 September, and already we’re heading into our third warm spell.

The Goulburn is clear, with flows expected to approach 1,000 ML a day this week. It’s the sort of weather and water that makes you want to spend a little longer in the boat.

From the oars, the attention keeps shifting between the bank ahead, the current beside you and the places where a trout might show itself. You’re positioning the boat for the next cast, but keeping an eye out for that first rise that might change the afternoon’s plans.

We’re not putting the streamers away just yet. But the dry-fly boxes are staying close to hand.