Australia’s highest trout

See full length version of Australia’s highest trout here

So was hatched the plan to find the highest trout in Australia.  Not the most impressive, most remote, or most challenging.  Certainly not the largest.  But the highest trout in the land was something we could tackle in our backyard, and represented a pinnacle in its own right.

The stage was obvious – the Kosciuszko National Park hosts Australia’s highest peaks, and has an abundance of fishable water.  Out came the maps, and candidate waterways were quickly identified around the Charlotte’s Pass and Perisher areas..  The Snowy has fish, everyone knows that, and its headwaters are due east of the highest point on the Australian mainland.  The track to Mt Kosciuszko from Charlotte Pass crosses the top of the Snowy and a notable tributary in Merritts Creek, not long before the two converge further down the valley.  The Snowy flows North and East off the main range, before hooking southward bound for Gippsland.  Tumbling off in the other direction is the Swampy Plains River.  It eventually joins the Geehi, then the Murray below Khancoban. But it’s head is Lake Cootapatamba, a shallow and exposed tarn within a kilometre of the summit of Mt Kosciuszko.  We were all sceptical that trout could get that high, especially given the rapid fall of the river off the western escarpment.  Nonetheless, it was worth investigating, and broadened our search area to two catchments. 

Up in the clouds, looking down on trout