Below Peters Bridge the Mitta Mitta stops being a trout river first and becomes a Murray river in
miniature. This is the native trip: slower water, snags, and Murray cod in the best lies, with
the browns still holding on in the cooler bends.
The stretch is the last forty kilometres of the river, from Peters Bridge down to where the top
of Lake Hume pulls it flat. The bed is still gravel in the riffles, but the pools are deep and
snag-lined, red gums line the bank, and Snowy Creek comes in from the south partway down. Pigs
Point sits on the bank along here, and who holds that ground is a question to settle before you
camp or walk it.
The fish change to match the water. Murray cod, stocked into the river in most years since 2006
and wild in it for far longer, take the snags. Golden perch work the edges of the deeper bends.
The brown trout that owned the tailrace hold on in the cooler outside bends and below the Snowy
Creek junction.
That mix sets the trip. From December to May it is warm-water fishing: a six weight, a box of
big black flies worked slowly against the snags, and the first and last hours mattering more than
any pattern. Through the warmer months the trout still take a streamer at first light in the
deep bends and a hopper dropped tight to the grass. The trout and salmon rules that shape the
tailrace above do not follow the river down here; the cod's own season does, so check the
current Victorian guide before you tie one on, and keep a cod in the water while you unhook it.
There is no gauge on this stretch. Eskdale Bridge, at the bottom of the tailrace above, is the
last number before Peters Bridge and tells you what is coming down. The read after that is
yours, standing on the bank.
Water and habitat
Forty kilometres of mainstem from Peters Bridge down to where the river enters Lake Hume. The
alpine river is behind you and so is the dam; the bed is still the Mitta but the job has changed.
The river here is slower, broader in the holds, and more of a native-fish lie than the water above
the lake, with deep outside bends, fallen timber and the shade of red gums along the bank. You will
still find moving water in the riffles between the pools. It is not a tailrace.
Snowy Creek comes in as a tributary, another water, not a fourth page. Pigs Point is on this
stretch. The drowned stem inside Hume is the end of the map, not more of this reach.
Fish and forage
Mixed water, and this is where the natives come in. Murray cod have been
stocked into the Mitta Mitta in most years from 2006 to 2019, about two hundred and twenty-five
thousand fish as a whole-river total, and wild cod are in the river's survey record from the 1970s.
Golden perch are in the mix with them. Brown trout are still in the
picture on the cooler water, and redfin are everywhere. Trout cod were stocked in the mid 1990s, are a threatened native, and are
not a target you assume from a stocking year. That is how the lower river is
fished and what was put in, not a headcount.
The cod eat whatever comes past the snag. The perch want something smaller and slower. The trout
take caddis in the riffles and grasshoppers off the
grazing flats in summer, and so, given the chance, will a golden perch.
When to fish it
No gauge is bound to this stretch. Read the water yourself. The Eskdale Bridge gauge at the bottom of
the tailrace is the last number before Peters Bridge and tells you what the dam is sending down;
after rain the lower river carries colour for longer than the confined alpine water, and Snowy Creek
adds its own. If it is up or dirty when you get there, that is the answer for the day.
Warm water from December to May is when the cod and golden perch move, and first light, last light
and warm overcast days are worth more than a bright noon. In the heat, fish early and keep natives
wet; a Murray cod in warm, low water is not a fish to play for long or to hold up for a photograph.
The trout are a spring and autumn proposition down here, and a cool morning one in summer.
How to fish it
Fish it as a lower river, not as the alpine stretch. Snags, the deeper outside bend, the tail of a
pool, the shade. For Murray cod, cover the structure slowly: a bigger fly, fewer casts, more looking,
and the fly landed against the timber rather than near it. Expect the eat on the pause. Strip-strike,
never lift the rod, and turn the fish's head away from the snag in the first two seconds. The
Murray cod page carries the full rundown on rods, lines and flies.
Golden perch want a smaller fly fished deeper with real pauses, and a fish that follows without
eating is turned by stopping the fly dead.
For the trout, a Woolly Bugger swung through the deeper bends at first light,
a Hare's Ear deep through the riffle heads, and a hopper or a
parachute Adams when they show along the grassed banks. A six weight covers the
natives and will not embarrass you on a trout; a nine weight is the honest tool if cod are the point
of the day.
Wading is easier in the open holds than in the alpine bedrock, and easier to get wrong if you treat a
snag-line like a gravel bar. If you cannot see the next footing, do not take it.
Access and safety
Peters Bridge is the top of this stretch and Pigs Point is a named way onto the water on the way
down. Lake Hume is the bottom, and the storage is another water. Confirm who holds the bank before
you camp or walk it; a name on a map is not a right of entry, and the bank is not always the easy
walk it looks from the road. Private and public banks are mixed. A gate is the answer.
The hazards are a lowland river's: soft banks, deep holes against the snags, and heat. Keep the fish
wet and yourself in the shade.
Regulations
Victorian rules apply. The trout and salmon rule that governs the tailrace above Peters Bridge does
not reach this stretch; the ordinary Victorian freshwater rules do, and Murray cod carry their own
season, size and bag under them, and trout cod are a threatened native to be released. Check the current
Victorian recreational fishing guide
before you fish. The dates and numbers move. Do not take them from this page.