The Swampy Plain river is a tailrace river, same as the Goulburn. Its guarantee of cold, clear water comes courtesy of the massive Snowy Mountains Hydro scheme, built in the decade following WW2.

The Swampy is 5.5 hours drive time from our place or 6.5 from Melbourne, putting it well out of reach of the day tripper. For us it is a short one hour flight. We use a light plane to jump over a few mountain ranges and land us right beside the river where our rafts are waiting.

The river itself is about 20 km in length, starting below the Khancoban Pondage and ending when it merges with the Indi River to become Australia’s most famous waterway, the Murray River. This short 20km stretch provides fly fishing that is as good as it gets.

The Swampy has a gravel bottom that is home to a massive number of large mayfly nymphs and caddis. The fish in the Swampy are used to seeing big mayflies (#8-10) and as such nymphs of size 10 and 12 and dries of 8 and 10 work well.

An almost endless number of runs, riffles and glides make the 20km seem like 50! The opportunity to get out and fish the water with dry fly or dry/nymph combos is constant. Tungsten beadhead nymphs and huge attractor patterns are dynamite, as are big rubber legged grasshoppers in mid-summer.

Evening rises can be mind blowing with large fish showing up from nowhere. Runs that were quiet only minutes before, suddenly house solid, rising fish. If you luck one of the better rises, it will be something that you will never forget.

There are both rainbows and browns in the Swampy with the average weight being between 1.5 – 2lb. Fish to 4lb are relatively common, with double figure fish showing up from time to time

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION