Trout Fishing in Australia. 
Sydney, Australia. Jan. 22.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Trout were introduced into New 
South Wales b}' the Department of Fisheries 
about sixteen years ago, and to-day the rivers 
in Monaro and New England districts are 
heavily stocked—principally with rainbow trout 
(Salmo iridcus) with a fair sprinkling of Eng¬ 
lish brown trout {Salmo fario), but the first 
named have taken almost complete possession 
of our streams, while the brown trout are grad¬ 
ually becoming less. 
The rainbow in these waters is a truly mag¬ 
nificent sporting fish, rising freely to the arti¬ 
ficial fly. and when hooked his fight for liberty 
is something to be remembered. He always 
charged, but we hope to have one fixed by the 
government in the near future. 
The Department of Fisheries has established 
hatcheries on some of the big rivers, where the 
ova is hatched out and turned into the small 
feeders running into the main stream. 
The best river in New South Wales is the 
Snowy, which is stocked for over 100 miles of 
its course. Here the best trout fishing in the 
Southern Flemisphere is obtainable, being far 
ahead of the best New Zealand rivers. The 
Thredbo River runs into the Snowy, and is also 
heavily stocked in its upper reaches. 
In a catch made by me a couple of weeks ago 
in the Snowy River, the heaviest fish weighed 
eight pounds, and measured 26j^ inches in 
length, the next largest six pounds, and the 
I read in the columns of Forest and Stream 
last year, a short paragraph referring to rain¬ 
bow trout in Australian waters wherein it was 
mentioned that the fish migrated to the sea and 
never returned. This is a mistake, as we find 
the rainbow trout ascend the rivers; i. e., those 
suited to them, and remain there, breeding and 
growing to great size. We have instances 
where these trout have gone thirty to forty 
miles up stream, and stocking the water for that 
distance. C. H. Gorrick. 
One of the Sydney papers contained these 
notes regarding Mr. Gorrick’s fishing. The 
paper was of Jan. 20 date, and has just reached 
us: 
“The following interesting particulars re- 
On the Upper Waters of the Thredbo River. 
Dry Fly-fishing on the Murrumbigee River. 
TROUT FISHING SCENES IN NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA. 
Photographed by C. II. Uorrick. 
leaps out of the water the moment he feels the 
prick of the fly hook, making frantic rushes, and 
a series of leaps that makes the angler veritably 
shake with delirious excitement, while the reel 
simply screeches in response to the trout’s game 
attempt to regain his liberty. 
The flies that are found most successful on 
nearly all the snow-fed rivers are the coachman, 
dashwood, red-palmer, coch-a-bondhu, March- 
brown, Hofland’s fancy, and other patterns 
representing the local ephemeridse and aquatic 
insects. Owing to the crystal-like clearness of 
the water only the finest leaders can be used, 
say iX to 4X in thickness, while the flies are 
small, viz.. No. fnew number) eyed hooks 
[No. 10 of the old scale]. 
The rivers, as the accompanying photographs 
show, are rapid running, hence only the wet 
fly is used with success, but a few dry-fly purists 
follow their bent on the still pools, but not 
with the same success as their wet-fly brethren. 
The season opens on Nov. i and closes April 
30. All the fishing is free and no license fee is 
others ranging down to three pounds. The bag 
of myself and my two friends for two days 
averaged twenty fish per rod, the smallest 
killed being two pounds. 
As a matter of fact, most of the trout caught 
under three pounds were carefully returned to 
the water, as they would have been wasted had 
they been killed, but all those that were creeled 
were distributed and eaten. There is no limit 
regarding numbers that an angler can catch, 
but it is very rare to find a sportsman killing 
more than can be used for food. All trout 
under ten inches in length must be immediately 
returned to their native element, otherwise a 
heavy fine is the penalty, and rod and line only 
can be used in their capture. 
We have a very live casting club in Sydney 
with a constantly growing membership; al¬ 
though it has only been in existence barely a 
year, the roll shows nearly 200 members. This 
season some very interesting and useful compe¬ 
titions will take place, but more particulars of 
this anon. 
specting recent catches of large trout come 
from James Spencer, a well-known fly-fisher, 
resident at Waste Point, on the Upper Snowy 
River: 
“A party of three — Messrs. C. H. Gorrick, T. 
Parnell and Dr. Russell Nolan—fished the upper 
waters of the Snowy River under my guidance, 
and caught forty magnificent trout, ranging 
from one pound to eight pounds in weight. 
Twenty of the fish weighed from three to eight 
pounds; the remainder from one pound to 2)4 
pounds, but the majority were over two pounds. 
Mr. Gorrick has so far caught the heaviest fish 
taken in the Snowy this season. His fish 
weighed—one 8 pounds, three 5 pounds each, 
and five 4 pounds. There were besides a num¬ 
ber of two- and three-pounders. All were 
caught on artificial flies of his own design. Mr. 
Gorrick lost four fish which appeared much 
heavier than' the eight-pounders; two at least 
that would have gone ten pounds each were lost 
just before I could get the net under them, 
owing to the cast breaking in both instances by 
