Bunyip River

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Truedogz
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Bunyip River

Post by Truedogz » Wed Mar 07, 2018 6:34 pm

A few nights ago I spent an evening fishing in the Bunyip River at Bunyip State Park. Twenty five years ago there were some nice holes in the stream with good numbers of blackfish including some mighty fish better than a kilo. In 2009 the area was razed by a massive bushfire and so the purpose of my trip was to see how things have changed.

It was quite disappointing as the river has become heavily silted and the deep holes I knew are gone. There is evidence of the fire in the form of lots of tree trunks on the ground as well as dense undergrowth with a potential for a future cataclysm. Will we ever learn? Its obvious that no meaningful fuel reduction burning is happening in the area I visited.

I walked several km of stream and the single best fishing spot I found was under this log. Where in the past there were holes 2 m deep I found nothing even a metre deep:
nice spot.jpg
I caught no blackfish despite doing all my usual tricks. I am certain that some would be present but they are clearly not present in the numbers found in the past. I did catch a number of these guys, tupong, which can migrate upstream from estuaries to colonise habitat.
tupong.jpg
I also spotted several grayling but no trout.

Sad to see the Bunyip in this state. A few months back I fished a remote stream that once had a fantastic blackfish population which has also been decimated by fire.

There might be some better habitat elsewhere in the Bunyip and when I get a chance I'll check out some other areas.

Best Wishes

Truedogz

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Re: Bunyip River

Post by smile0784 » Wed Mar 07, 2018 6:47 pm

Thats sad to hear.
Why isnt there more being done

Lightningx
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Re: Bunyip River

Post by Lightningx » Wed Mar 07, 2018 7:57 pm

Sad to hear indeed...

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meppstas
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Re: Bunyip River

Post by meppstas » Wed Mar 07, 2018 8:39 pm

Not good at all when you go to a river that you knew was once a good river only to find so much devastation along it, a real shame that's for sure..

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Paulanderson
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Re: Bunyip River

Post by Paulanderson » Thu Mar 08, 2018 12:12 am

That's all bad news Will aprt from the other natives. When I was in my teens living in that area there were plenty of quite deep holes just upstream from the Princess Highway bridge and also quite a bit of structure as well. Providing you could get past the eels there were plenty of good Blackfish to be had. Same old story for sure.

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Re: Bunyip River

Post by Pistol » Mon Mar 12, 2018 8:14 pm

Mate, I live nearby at Warragul although I've never fished the Bunyip. I remember my Grandfather used to chase blackfish there and they were massive! Love your outfit! I reckon both my Dad and Grandfather had those Mitchell's, how I wish I had have got one. Is that a split cane rod?

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Truedogz
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Re: Bunyip River

Post by Truedogz » Tue Mar 13, 2018 7:56 pm

Pistol wrote:I reckon both my Dad and Grandfather had those Mitchell's, how I wish I had have got one. Is that a split cane rod?
The Mitchell 300 is one of the all time great spinning reels and still stacks up well against the latest ( a few mods like better drag washers make them fantastic to use). Yes, its a cane rod in the pic. For light line fishing for trout, reddies, maccas, blackfish I either use a crouch reel with a Jarvis Walker Stanley split cane rod and/or the Mitchell 300 with an Allcocks lightcaster cane rod - the one in the pic. These were the most popular trout spinning rods back in the 1950s to early 60s and I grew up with them. For ultralight spinning I use an Apollo 'the Ross' tubular steel rod which was top shelf stuff back then. As light as graphite with a fairly fast action.

Mitchell 300s can be picked up easily fairly cheap locally and are usually easy to restore. Near new ones come up regularly for sale overseas for under $100.

I might be a sentimental old fool but I love the feel of the old tackle and I catch my fair share of fish.

Best Wishes

Truedogz

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