Club Trip To Big River
Getting There
(Ref Rooftop's Big River, Rubicon, Woods Point Forest Activities Map - In the newsletter)
Make your way to Marysville which is approx 80km from the club rooms and allow yourself an hour and a half to get there if you travel via Yarra Glen, Healsville, and over the Black Spur. The Marysville Country Bakery serves excellent coffee & sticky buns! It opens at 7.00am and is on the right as you drive through town.
From Marysville head out of town over the Stevenson River and turn right towards Lake Mountain resort. At the Lake Mountain resort turn off stay right on Road C513, see Map 1. Continue on C513 passing the Cambarville turn off. Travel approx 1.8km past the Cambarville turn off to the Warburton Woods Point Rd intersection. Stay Left on road C511. Travel approx 800m and you'll come to the Eildon-Warburton Rd turn off on your left, this dirt road is suitable for 2 wheel drive vehicles; take care with the odd pot hole.
Continue along passing Big River Camp at approx 6km, Stockman's Reward Camp at 11.5km (be careful here and stay on Big River Rd heading east). Then arrive at Frenchmans Creek in approx 17km.
Frenchman's is an open bush camp site; it has a pit toilet, but no grass cover on the ground so bring a ground sheet as it can be a bit muddy if there has been recent rain!
River Access
There are numerous river access points at camp sites along the river from Stockman's Reward to the 25 Mile. They are as follows; Miners Flat, Dairy Flat, McClelland, Gang Gang Gully, Bobuck Ridge, Specimen Creek, Frenchman's Creek, Peppermint Ridge, Vennells, Big Bend, Catford, and the 25 Mile. Some of these access points are a short walk off the Big River road; others are a 4x4 drive only option. In some places you can bush bash your way to the river! A rough guide I use is, 'It takes a day to fish a K', a full day to fish a thousand meters (1 kilometre) of water. Looking at the map you'll see it is possible to put in at one camp and haul out at another, but mostly you'll need to back track to get out of the river.
Flys
The usual suspects all work on the Big, make sure you have Royal Wulffes, Stimulators, Humpys, or Adams in sizes 10-14 in your box, as far as nymphs go to trail under them use Copper Johns, Bead Head Flashback Pheasant Tails, plain Bead Head Pheasant Tails or Scruffy Browns again in size 10-14's. Don’t forget some PHD's either, a Parachute Adams from 10-14 work well during the day and down in the 16-18 size range are handy for the evening rise. A small grey emerger works well on evening as the snow flake caddis begin to hatch. A small La-Fontains sparkle pupa won't go astray either; get these in the #16 range though.
