The Merri is the river Warrnambool grew up beside, and it is worth a day because it is two
different trips in one small town: a wild brown trout stream an hour from anywhere in the
south-west, and an estuary you can fish from a walking track when the trout water is too warm.
The line between them is a weir that no longer exists. Bromfield Street Weir sat near Wollaston
Bridge, about nine kilometres above the sea. It was taken out in 2024, but Victoria still
classifies the river by that named site, so above the old weir is the freshwater river and its
rules, and below it is the estuary and a different rulebook.
The trout river is the trip to plan around. For thirty-odd kilometres it winds down through the
dairy and grazing country of Grassmere and Woodford as a slow, willow-edged stream: deep pools
between short riffles, banks cut into the volcanic soil, and a brown under every undercut that
has watched the paddock for a week. The fish are wild. The survey record has browns
electrofished from the river in every decade since the 1980s and more in the 2020s than any
decade before, which is not what a put-and-take fishery looks like. Spring is the season,
September to December, while the pools are full and the water is cool. Come then, walk the bank
slowly, and give the first cast to the shade. The road bridges are the ways in, and a gate and a
fence are the answer beyond them.
The estuary is the second trip, and on a summer evening it is the better one. Below the old weir
the river runs through the town and out to Lake Pertobe, and the trout give way to estuary
perch, bream and the fish of the coast. A six weight and a dark streamer along the snags in the
last hour of light, November to April, fished to the tide.
The Woodford gauge reads the upper river, and its readings sit on that stretch page. After rain
the Merri colours and rises. Give it a few dry days, and check the current Victorian guide for
the rules on whichever side of the weir you fish.
Water and habitat
Forty-four kilometres of mainstem running through farm country to the coast. The
freshwater river above the weir is
thirty-four kilometres of slow, deep-pooled stream through Grassmere and Woodford country, with the
Woodford gauge reading flow and height. The
lower river below the weir is the last nine
kilometres through Warrnambool and Dennington into the estuary. Lake Pertobe is the end of the map,
not a third page.
Volcanic-plains country: dark soils, cut banks, willows and reeds, and pools that hold depth through
a dry summer when the riffles between them run thin. There is little shade you did not bring, and the
wind off the Southern Ocean is a fact of life.
Fish and forage
Brown trout above the weir, wild and breeding. The survey record carries
them from gill nets and electrofishing in the 1980s through to boat electrofishing in the 2000s, 2010s
and 2020s, with the 2020s the strongest decade in the record. Rainbows appear only as a 1950s release
and a single 1980s record. Redfin share the pools. Below the weir the cast changes to estuary perch,
strong in the 2020s record, congolli in numbers, eels, smelt and gudgeon: an estuary being honest about
itself. The Victorian Fisheries Authority's guide notes stocking on both stretches over the years, and
estuary perch in some years below the weir; what is there now is what the surveys found.
The trout eat caddis in the riffles at dusk, small mayfly on the slow pools, and
from Christmas the grasshoppers off the paddocks. The estuary perch eat
whatever moves along the snags in the last light.
When to fish it
Spring is the trip above the weir. From September to December the pools are full from winter, the
water is cool, and the browns are feeding after a lean season. Read the Woodford gauge on the upper
stretch page before you drive: after rain the river comes up and colours, and a few dry days bring it
back. Summer runs the riffles thin and warms the pools; fish the first and last hours, keep fish wet,
and let the estuary have the middle of the day. Autumn is quietly good until the trout season closes on
classified waters, and the current Victorian guide says which those are.
Below the weir the estuary fishes to the tide and the warm months, and the perch come on at dusk from
November to April.
How to fish it
Above the weir, slow water and wary fish. A four or five weight, a long leader to keep the fly line off
the glassy pools, and an upstream approach that puts your shadow behind you. A parachute
Adams or a Klinkhammer for the fish that show, a
hopper tight to the grass in summer, and a slim Pheasant Tail
under a small dry as a dry-dropper along the undercut when nothing is
showing. An Elk Hair Caddis in the evening riffles. When the river is
carrying colour, a small Woolly Bugger or a worm pattern.
Below the weir, a six weight and a dark streamer along the snags and the rock walls at dusk for the
perch, with an intermediate line as the water deepens toward the estuary.
Access and safety
South-west Victoria, mixed banks into a regional city. Above the weir the river runs through dairy and
grazing country with road bridges at Grassmere, Woodford and Wollaston as the natural ways in; a gate
and a fence are the answer, and a bridge is not a right to walk the paddock beyond it. Below the weir
the banks are town reserve, walking tracks and estuary edge. The Victorian Fisheries Authority's
angling guide for this basin is the authority listing for access; a pin on it is not a right of entry.
The hazards are a farm river's and an estuary's: soft cut banks, deep pools under the willows, and a
tide and a wind that turn fast below the town.
Regulations
Victorian rules apply on both stretches, and Victoria classifies the river differently above and
below Bromfield Street Weir. The two stretch pages state which side they are on. Take the trout
season and the size and bag limits for the freshwater river, and the estuary rules for the water
below the weir, from the current
Victorian recreational fishing guide.
The dates and numbers move. Do not take them from this page.