Brumbys Creek looks like a meadow stream and behaves like a power station, because it is both. The water that comes down it is Great Lake's, taken through a tunnel under the Great Western Tiers to the underground Poatina power station and released into the creek, and in the early 1960s three low weirs were built across it to buffer the surges. The result is a chain of weedy, clear weir pools through open farmland below Cressy, lined with willows and native scrub, full of insect life, and subject to level changes that can put the creek up by a metre while the sky is blue. Inland Fisheries Service manages it as a wild trout fishery; the fish are mostly browns with the occasional rainbow, and IFS lists tench, redfin and short-finned eel with them. Weir 1 is the fly water, an open shoreline onto weedy margins where fish fossick in the early season and rise to hatching insects as the weather warms; Weir 2 is faster water for fly and lure; Weir 3 is the bait and lure anglers' pool. The mayfly hatches are strong from spring, the spinner feeders come out on warm still days, and the damselfly leapers of summer are the creek's frustrating speciality. The No. 3 Weir gauge reads water temperature as well as flow, which tells you more than the calendar does. Read Hydro Tasmania's release forecast before you drive, fish Weir 1 in little wind, and stay away from the base of the weirs when the turbines are running hard.
Water and habitat
Forty-four kilometres of mainstem, most of the fall of the river on this page in the tailrace off the Tiers and the rest a gentle run across the farmland to the Macquarie junction below Cressy. Two gauges: Palmers, and the No. 3 Weir station reading flow, height, water temperature and conductivity. Because the flow is Poatina's, the record on this page does not look like a rain-fed river's: the medians sit high through summer and autumn and drop in late winter and spring, the opposite of every other river in the cohort, and the wadeable band on the chart is wide and moves with the turbines. The temperature line runs from six degrees in midwinter to eighteen in midsummer.
The bank survey from space reads the corridor as nearly half under crops, a third open woodland and a sixth dense timber, which is Cressy farmland with willows and scrub along a clear, weedy stream. IFS describes it as flowing through open farmland, running clear with plenty of weed and insect life. The three weirs are the fishery: Weir 1 with its open shore and weedy margins, Weir 2 faster, Weir 3 more open at its lower end.
Fish and forage
Brown trout mostly, with the occasional rainbow trout; IFS manages the creek as a wild trout fishery, and its stocking record on this page shows small numbers of adult rainbows released in recent years and a handful of browns in 2010. Tench, redfin perch and short-finned eel share the water, and IFS asks that pest fish caught be killed and disposed of.
The weed grows the food: strong mayfly hatches from spring, spinner falls on warm still days through summer, and damselflies over the weed in the warm months that the trout leap for. Fossicking fish in the margins early in the season are taking whatever the weed holds.
When to fish it
Read the Conditions card on this page, and read Hydro Tasmania's predicted flows before you drive, because the level here is the turbines' decision and can change while you are on the water. Early in the season fish fossick in the weedy margins of Weir 1. From spring the mayfly hatches are strong and the dry fly comes into play; summer brings the spinner feeders on warm still days and the damsel leapers; the fishing is best, IFS's own words and every local's, in little wind, when more fish rise and sight fishing is easier. The water above weir 1 closes at the start of May; from below weir 1 to the Macquarie the season runs to the end of May.
How to fish it
Weir 1 for the fly. Walk the open shore and look into the weedy margins before you cast; a small Pheasant Tail fished slow along the edge for the fossicking fish early, a parachute Adams or a small Klinkhammer for the mayfly and the spinner feeders, a slim damsel pattern or a small olive Woolly Bugger twitched under the leaping fish in summer. Thick weed limits the lure anglers and helps you. Weir 2 is faster water where a dry-dropper through the runs works. In high flows, the turbulent water below each weir is where the fish stack.
Boats under electric motor or oars may fish weirs 1 and 3; the rules are on the sign and in the Code. A five weight and a floating line cover the creek; an intermediate helps when the release is on.
Access and safety
IFS has negotiated angler access here across private and public land, and marks it with signs: where signs stand you may walk to the water without asking, and elsewhere you may need the landowner's permission first, as the descriptions on the IFS access map say. Main vehicle access is at Cressy Road at Lees Bridge and at Fisheries Lane. Hydro Tasmania manages the creek with IFS, the department and Anglers Alliance Tasmania.
The hazard is the release. The level can rise a long way in a short time when Poatina generates, and the water at the base of the weirs is turbulent and strong. Boating is prohibited on Weir 2, and fishing from a boat within a hundred metres of a shore angler is prohibited unless the boat is moored.
Regulations
Inland Fisheries Service states the rules for Brumbys Creek in two parts, split at weir 1. Above it, artificials only, lures and flies, with a minimum size, a small daily bag and a season from the first Saturday in August to the start of May. From below weir 1 to the Macquarie, all methods, the same size and bag, and a season to the end of May; IFS lists the lower creek among the extended-season waters with the lower Macquarie, the Meander and the South Esk. Fish may be taken from a boat on weirs 1 and 3 only under manual or electric power, and boating is not permitted on weir 2. An inland angling licence is required.
Take the numbers and the dates from the current Tasmanian Inland Fishing Code and the IFS A to Z page for the creek before you fish. They move, and this page does not carry them.