A week ago, I was travelling home after a fantastic week's fishing on estuaries around Narooma/Bermagui with a couple of mates.

We flicked plastics for a week and landed just over 300 flatties and a few flounder, had a heap of laughs and generally had a ball.

We get home to find out just about everything's been shut down.

I usually have enough trouble wracking my brain for something different to write about in these articles, and now the state governments on both sides of the river close everything up.

Both states had closed all the dams and lakes that they have jurisdiction over, as well as stopping camping on all reserves they control, including those on rivers.

But wait, it's midweek and NSW has now recognised fishing as passive exercise, saying as long as we practice social distancing we can fish.

This is in NSW only and means locally we have the Upper Murray, the Murray from Albury downstream and also Mulwala to wet a line in.

Unfortunately, at time of writing the Victorian government hasn't done the same.

Western Australia is still open as we speak as is Queensland, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Tassie - so it's unfortunate that Vic is the odd one out.

These rules and regs are changing all the time though. So who knows what might happen tomorrow or the next day.

Don't stuff this up though! Those making these decisions will be looking carefully at our behaviour. And the last thing we need is photos floating around on social media of people ignoring social distancing guidelines and using fishing as an excuse to have a big get-together with family or friends.

We all know there is no health risk if you travel directly to a fishing site by yourself, fish by yourself and then travel directly home. And we're probably lucky we live in a regional area rather than a city.

While it would be a bit of a nightmare trying to socially distance yourself from 50 people on a busy pier or jetty, we should have no problem at all.

I'm hoping just as much as everyone that this lockdown lasts for as short a time as possible and we can get back out and wet a line whenever and wherever we like within weeks, rather than months.

We've already knocked one week over anyway.

I suppose another positive will be that most fishos' tackle boxes will look amazingly organised by the time we get back into it.

The Upper Murray - is still running dirty but has been going pretty well for bait fishos.

You'll need to fish at or above Jingellic to have a chance though, and best bait seems to be chicken.

There's been a few on cheese too, but still appears it's not so great for the fish.

Access to reserves is fine, as is boating. You're not allowed to camp out, though.

The Murray below Hume - has been pretty low of late, but fishing reasonably well.

Again, bait fishos are ticking a few over, with a lot of smaller fish out there among the keepers and the odd oversize model. Lure fishos using spinnerbaits have been nailing a few yellas too, as well as the odd decent cod.

That's a big advantage of this lower water - the snags and holes are more exposed. And with the lower flows, it gives you that bit more time to place your cast, or even two, into a likely looking snag before getting swept past.

Mulwala - was fishing reasonably as well of late, but not sure if this rain has affected it at all. There were a couple in their 90s caught on Wednesday evening before that rain hit. Anyhow, I'll try to bring you up to date with whatever news or changes that we fishos might need to know about next week.

But before I go, my tip of the week is to ignore 90 per cent of what you hear from your mates and jump on a government site to confirm the rules as they're changing often. Keep well and wash your hands.