A crackdown on illegal camping has helped keep the peace on the Snowy Mountains trout spawning streams, which come under intense fishing pressure in the lead-up to the Queen's Birthday holiday weekend in June.
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At Eucumbene River, anglers wanting a trophy trout of more than 50 centimetres long can drive their cars close to the water's edge. They have previously camped overnight along the banks and hunted rivals from pools during the brown trout spawning run.
Monaro Acclimatisation Society president Steve Samuels said about three kilometres of the Eucumbene River were accessible between a steep gorge and Lake Eucumbene.
"You would go down there and it was like a mini-refugee camp, tents everywhere," Mr Samuels said. "You can drive right to the river. They are up first thing in the morning, pitching tents, three or four would be telling the others to piss off."
This year, because of the lake's increased volume, only a little over a kilometre of river is accessible, and between 40 and 50 fishermen from Victoria and NSW are at the river each day.
"Overall, I have to say, I have been up there twice when the run is on, everything has been very good; anglers have been accommodating of each other, no reports of barneys or blues, and it's all since we have removed the camping," Mr Samuels said.
Good autumn rain in recent years has led to excellent spawning runs, which have lured more people to dedicated trout streams, the Thredbo and Eucumbene rivers, where anglers are restricted to one fish a day. .
Mr Samuels said the number of dead fish in the rivers concerned authorities.
An angler may take a legal size trout, then hook an even bigger one later in the day, and throw the first one back in the water.
"We don't know whether a lot of that is happening, or because of handling of fish a bit roughly when releasing them, causing the fish to die, or natural mortality, because a spawning run is quite stressful on the fish," he said.
"We have not had a lot of rain. [The fishing] would be nowhere near as good as last year. I was up there last Tuesday, there were probably about 30 fishermen on the [Eucumbene] River and some had done quite well, those who got up early in the morning. Those who arrived a bit late didn't do well because when the river is quite low, and the sun comes out, the fish sort of hide a bit," Mr Samuels said.
"Indications are those who know what they are doing are doing reasonably well, but the fish are not there in the numbers they were in the past two years," he said.
