Below Dartmouth Dam the Mitta Mitta comes out as a different river, and the first thing to
understand is that the sky is no longer in charge. This is the tailrace, the summer trip, and the
easiest water on the Mitta to reach. It is also the one stretch with a closed season of its own.
The stretch runs fifty-eight kilometres from the Banimboola pondage below the wall down to Peters
Bridge, through the grazing valley of Tallandoon and Eskdale with the Omeo Highway alongside the
whole way. The flow is what the dam lets down: cold, even and strong when a release is on, and a
smaller river in the same wide bed when it is not. That is the trade. You lose the mountain
river's honesty about the weather and gain a trout stream that stays cold through February.
The fish are wild browns, by the hundred in the survey record, with rainbows in smaller numbers,
and no trout has been stocked into the river. What the tailrace gives them is a cold, even flow
through weeks that shut down the valley streams around it.
Fish it as a regulated river. Seams off the main push, inside bends, tail-outs where the release
eases. Heavy nymphs when the water is up, a caddis at dusk from November to April when it drops,
a hopper along the grazing banks in a summer afternoon. Three gauges sit on this stretch,
Tallandoon at the top reading water temperature as well as flow, then Bowlers Lane and Eskdale
Bridge, and their readings sit under Conditions. A release can lift the river while the sky is
clear, so read them before you wade and get out when the push gets louder than you like. The dam
does not care that you are wading.
The rule to know before you plan: during Victoria's trout and salmon closed season this stretch
is closed to all hook-and-line fishing, and the rule reaches to carrying a rod within twenty
metres of the bank. The dates move each year. Check the current Victorian guide, not this page.
Water and habitat
Fifty-eight kilometres from the pondage down to Peters Bridge, running through the grazing valley
of Tallandoon and Eskdale with the highway alongside. The water here has been through the storage,
and it does not fish like the alpine river above Dartmouth. When the dam is releasing, the river is
a tailrace: even, cold, and paced by the wall rather than by the catchment. When it is not, you are
on a smaller river in the same bed, and the bars and seams that were under a metre of push are
suddenly wadeable water.
Three gauges sit on the stretch: Tallandoon near the top, reading flow, height, water temperature
and conductivity, then Bowlers Lane and Eskdale Bridge reading flow and height. Peters Bridge is the
downstream cut.
Fish and forage
Brown trout hold on the regulated flow, and the survey record for the
whole river is dominated by them, electrofished by the hundred through the 2000s and 2010s, with
rainbow trout in smaller numbers. Both are wild; the Victorian
Fisheries Authority records no trout stocked into the river. Redfin are common in the slower water
and twospine blackfish share the pools. Murray cod have been stocked into the river and turn up in
the record, but this cold stretch is trout water first.
The trout eat caddis in the runs, thick on a steady release and hatching at
dusk, and mayfly on the flatter water. Through summer the grasshoppers off
the grazing flats bring the fish tight to the banks when the release eases in the afternoon.
When to fish it
Read the three gauges on this page under Conditions before you leave home, and read Tallandoon's
temperature line as well as its flow. A release from the dam can lift the river while the sky is
clear. If the water is up, coloured, or pushing harder than you want to wade, that is the answer for
the day; the seams and edges still fish from the bank, and the tail-outs fish best in the hours after
a release eases.
The other limit is the closed season. Victoria closes this stretch to all hook-and-line fishing for
the trout and salmon closed season, and the dates move with the year. If you are planning a trip in
the cooler months, check the current Victorian recreational fishing guide before you leave home.
This page will not print a date that goes stale.
Outside those limits the tailrace is a summer river. The cold, even flow keeps it fishing through
weeks that shut down the valley streams around it, and the evening caddis from November to April is
the reliable hour.
How to fish it
Fish it as a regulated river, not as a pocket-water gorge. Look for the seam off the main push, the
inside of the bend, and the tail of a run where the flow eases. A release can put fish on the move; a
shutdown can stack them in the deeper slots.
A five weight is more use than a four here. Heavy nymphs when the release is on, a tungsten
Hare's Ear or Pheasant Tail fished deep through the
seams and the tail-outs, on a dry-dropper under a
Stimulator when the water is low enough to make the dry worth having. When
the release eases and the fish look up, a parachute Adams on the flat water and an
Elk Hair Caddis in the evening runs. A Woolly Bugger
swung through the deeper bends at first light, and a hopper along the grazing banks
in a summer afternoon.
Wading on a tailrace is about the flow in front of you, not yesterday's. If you cannot see the next
footing, or the push is louder than you like, get out.
Access and safety
The Omeo Highway follows the river through Tallandoon and Eskdale, and the bridges and the road
reserve are the natural ways in. Mixed public and private banks; a gate is the answer, and a bridge
is not a right to walk the paddock beyond it. The Victorian Fisheries Authority's northern inland
angling guide for the Mitta Mitta basin lists access along this river; a pin is not a right of entry.
The pondage and the dam at the top are other waters, not a carpark you walk into this reach from
without checking who holds the ground. Peters Bridge is the downstream bound.
The hazard is the release. A river that was wadeable at breakfast can be waist-deep and pushing by
lunch with no cloud in the sky. Read the gauges before you wade and keep an eye on the edge while
you fish.
Regulations
This is the stretch with the closed season. During Victoria's trout and salmon closed season, the
Mitta Mitta from the Dartmouth pondage down to Peters Bridge is closed to all hook-and-line fishing,
and the rule extends to possessing a hook and line within twenty metres of the water. The dates
move each year. Check the current
Victorian recreational fishing guide
before you fish; do not take a season from this page. Outside the closed season the ordinary
Victorian trout rules apply, and their numbers move too.
That rule is this stretch only: pondage to Peters Bridge. It is not the rule
above the lake, and it is not the rule
below Peters Bridge.