He’d soon landed a six-pound brown trout, and another smaller catch quickly followed.

But only hours later, he was frantically searching for his fishing mate, Devin Carracher.

They had split up to fish their favourite spots along the King River they know so well.

“We hoped to be back at the car at 4.30 at the latest,” he said.

“He didn’t show and I went looking for him.”

Mr Douglas was apologetic about fearing the worst, but he knew his friend did not stand a chance if he had suffered an epileptic fit and fallen into the icy-cold river.

“I’ve already pulled him out once when he’s had a fit. He ended up with a black eye, broken nose and split lip.”

As police and SES four-wheel-drives pulled over on the Upper King River Road, Mr Douglas leaned on his car, waiting for news.

He dragged heavily on a cigarette as he glanced at the searchers gathering under the towering gums across the road.

Almost embarrassed at saying he feared the worst, Mr Douglas — who travelled from his mother’s farm at Rutherglen for the trip — explained it away as “keeping my emotions inside pretty much”.

“He’s my mate — I’ve only got four mates,” he said.

“I class him as my brother. I’ve known him for 15 years.”

Mr Douglas had to drive 16 kilometres to find the mobile phone reception to phone his mother. She, in turn, called the police.

“I came back up here. I drove this road 10 or 15 times, then I went up to the lake and walked the spillway. I had no sleep,” he said.

Mr Douglas left the scene about 1.30pm with detectives from Wangaratta to make a statement about what happened on Tuesday.

An hour later, he returned with the officers, who thoroughly inspected his car.

The three men then made their way to the river’s edge and Mr Douglas walked them through his movements until the time he last saw Mr Carracher.

Mr Douglas said he and his mate had only fished upstream of where they started where the tall trees with thickets of blackberry bushes “scare away the townies”.

He explained it wasn’t too cold back in the bush by the water — “there’s spots in there still pretty warm”.

But by the time he returned with the detectives he had rugged up, beanie pulled down against the cold.

No longer needed by the police, Mr Douglas left for home in his car.