Lake Hume water levels, and hopes, are on the rise

Last Saturday it was at 14 per cent; this week it has risen to 19 per cent. That's a rise of nearly 2 metres and about 5 per cent in a week.

Just think about that for a minute - two solid vertical metres of water over the entire surface area of Lake Hume ... that's a hell of a lot of water. At the same time, Dartmouth has risen about 2 per cent as well.

What will that do for us fishos? Well, that depends largely on whether we're allowed to fish them or not.

Hopefully we'll get a positive answer from Dan Andrews regarding that during his proposed announcement on Monday.

One thing with this rising water is that there'll be a bit of floating timber about when we're allowed to hit those lakes, so that's something all boaties should keep in mind for sure.

Most fishos believe rising lakes usually equate to good fishing, and I tend to agree. All that new ground being covered equates to food for fish and, hopefully, increased activity. I suppose any activity is an increase in activity if you take our last month or two into consideration though.

The other thing the rising water does is bring some boat ramps back into contention. The first one back is the low level ramp at Bowna.

I'm happy to say that the council has been out and done some rock work around the edges of the main ramp to protect it from erosion.

As the lake rises and waves crash in and around the ramp, there's every chance the ramp could have got washed out and damaged.

They have put some pretty solid rocks into place but have luckily levelled the little drive through to the lower ramp where the old drive through section was.

I've contacted the council about concerns a couple of fishos have brought up that it still might be a bit rough for lower vehicles to tow boats through.

I snuck out for a look and believe that we probably also need a "get-off" point further down the ramp, so we don't have to reverse all the way from the top.

That would also give us the chance to park a bit closer to the water when the lake's low and save a long walk up to the car park for those that might struggle with it.

I haven't heard anything back from council as yet.

If you're thinking of heading out in a standard sedan, just have a good look before you drive through.

Dartmouth - (49.2 per cent) is sitting there just waiting for fishos to come up and pull some fish out of it.

As mentioned earlier, it's risen sharply in the past week or so.

You would expect that it would fish pretty well, once we get the green light.

Streams - would come into the same category.

Recent rains and subsequent water rises and falls have meant they've had a good flush and have started to settle, although there's a small amount of rain predicted for today.

My guess is streams will be fine to fish if we get the go-ahead.

Hume - (19 per cent) will be well worth a look. The cooler weather should see a few trout poking their noses about. It's not too late to target a yella, cod or reddie either.

It'll certainly be interesting to see what reports we get in after that first week.

I'd personally be having a troll with a diver and a Tassie to hedge my bets, while keeping an eye on the sounder for a school of reddies to drop a blade or bait onto. You've gotta cover all the bases.

The Murray - upper has been a tad high of late, and the Murray below Albury a tad low unless you are below the influence of the Kiewa River ... then it's been a tad high and dirty.

I don't know if you've got the same feeling as me, but I reckon someone's trying to make it a tad hard for us.

Despite all that, there's an occasional trout being spun up as well as the odd yella and cod.

But conditions certainly haven't been in our favour the past week.

Well, all we've got to do now is hope a few of these travel restrictions in NSW get loosened a little, and that the Vic government plays its part.