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Some very good reports this week with some great warmer weather over the past few days.  Lake Eucumbene is right on last seasons high and is going to be great for bait and fly anglers from the shore.  Midges are about and will provide some fantastic fly fishing very soon.  Trolling in the lakes has been outstanding for some.  Rivers have had another top up with a good storm on Monday afternoon and the Eucumbene and Thredbo are still holding good numbers of fish.

There has been some ramp work done at Angler's Reach recently.  One is at Angler's Reach Caravan park.  The other is located past the caravan park, on the right, near the end of the main road.  This ramp is usable now and reports suggest it is very good. 

Trout Festival 2008 - Not long to go now till the start of The 35th Yamaha and Freshwater Fishing Snowy Mountains Trout Festival.  Dates for the week long competition are Saturday the 1st of November - Friday 7th of November 2008.

More details and entry form downloads can be found at www.troutfestival.com

There are some fantastic prizes on offer and with the way the fishing is shaping up is bound to be a great event this year.

Lost Rod Anyone who may have found rod below or has any information please contact the store on 02 6452 5538

Hi Tom,
could you please post this urgent request on the fishing report for next week.

LOST - One Sage RPL+ 5 Wt 9ft 2 piece flyrod.  Together with an airflo
large arbor reel and grey coloured rio weight forward flyline.  It has
distinctive markings on the butt section indicating 20cm and 50cm
lengths that I have marked using a liquid paper correction pen.  The
rod was accidently left on the roof of the car when departing Thredbo
River Bridge carpark last Saturday between 10:30 and 11:00am.  It has
obviously fallen off in that vacinity.
The rod has a lot of sentimental value.  As Sage no longer make this
model rod, it is irreplacable.  It has travelled with me and caught
fish  all around the world.  It has been used in World, Commonwealth
and Oceania Flyfishing Championships.  My son caught his first
fly-caught fish with the rod.

Incidentally, Phil Ravanello and myself caught about 15 or so fish up
to 1.6kg in the 2 hours prior.  We then had to depart quickly so as
not to be late for his wedding!

Many thanks Tom,

Chris Dawson

Flyfishing

Rivers:-  All now open for fishing.

The Thredbo and Eucumbene rivers have fished well again this week.  Plenty of fish in both rivers have been seen, lost, caught and released.  Most have been rainbows but there were a few nice browns caught as well.  Glo bugs and Beadhead or weighted Nymphs continue to be the main fish takers.  Dry fly fishing is starting to improve with the warmer weather. 

Other rivers worth a look early in the season are the Murrumbidgee, Moonbah, Mac, Snowy, Gungarlin, and a few other smaller high country creeks.

There is a good chance of termite falls in the next couple of weeks.  Some brown, red and black ants are a must in the box at this time of year.  They usually fall in the evenings and the following morning fish can be found mopping them up.  They provide some exciting fishing.

*I got up to Providence Flats yesterday (Sunday) at about lunch time.  There was still quite a few fish in the river and I managed to pick up 8, dropped 3 or 4, missed a number of others and even got busted by a better fish.  In this was one brownie of about a kilo on the nymph.  All the rainbows ate the egg imitation.  All in the space of about 4 hours, overall an enjoyable Sunday afternoon.

Cheers Kieran

*Went to Eucumbene river fly fishing for the opening of season last Sat.  There were plenty of fish still all through the river, we managed 20 fish between us all on nymphs tungsten (hairs ear), a couple of scratchy pics attached

Cheers Brett Wood

Lake Eucumbene:- Is set to fire again this Spring.  As mentioned the lake level is right on last seasons high.  Those that fished the lake last season will remember the huge amounts of aquatic insects, caddis, corixa, snails, damsel nymphs, midges, mudeyes etc that were in abundance, as the lake rose into the grass, and the subsequent rainbows that came in close to feed of an evening and morning. 

The lake should rise to somewhere between 25% and 30% with any luck.

With all this happening again and with warming edges the midges will come on and the fish with them.  There are more and more midge starting to hatch and even in areas that are not grassy.  Several anglers have reported seeing numbers of them in some of the secluded, muddy bottomed bays on the Western shoreline.  It is shaping up to be as good as Spring 2004.

Think locations like Rushy Plains, Seven Gates, Buckenderra, Brookwood, Braemar, Cobrabald, Waiunui, Coppermine, Collingwood, Yens, Wangrabelle, Springwood all these areas are and will continue firing for a good couple of months now both with polaroiding and evening rises. 

The fishing has already improved in Eucumbene with several reports of fish cruising the shallows in the early mornings.  Reports of fish starting to rise early and late in the day is great news and with the water rapidly rising also there will be more fish searching the shallows.  Woolly Buggers, yabby patterns, Mrs Simpsons, Hammills Killer all work well in these situations.  Midge pupa cast at rising fish work a treat as do stick caddis.

Night fishing will improve over the next few weeks with the rising water.  Dark flies like Craigs, Fuzzies, Phantoms, are the go.

Best areas to fly fish the lake at present are all those bays just mentioned, depending on the wind.

 Lake Jindabyne:-  The fishing in Jindabyne has still been quite good and better than expected.  Despite the rapid rise there are still fish around the edges and are very polaroidable. The river mouth arms seem to be the best areas. 

As in Eucumbene the night time fishing will improve over the next few weeks.

Muddler Minnows, Sunset flies, Fuzzy Wuzzys, Hammils and Tom Jones work very well at this time of year. 

 Best areas to look at are Sids Bay, Hatchery Bay, Creel Bay, Kangaroo Bay, and Kalkite.

Lake Tantangara :-   Although the dam dropped a little this week it is still more than worth a look at present.  The edges will be the place to fish with small wets and nymphs.

 Trolling and Spinning 

 We now have Sting Cobras back in stock.

Eucumbene:-   Trolling has improved in the lake and boat access is very easy also.  The best launching areas are still Buckenderra, Old Adaminaby, Anglers Reach (2 ramps) and The Dam Wall.

The lake has cleared significantly in the last week.  Trolling will be good but you still have to find the fish.  Reports suggest that hugging the shore in close early has produced best results.  Other have found fish in the deeper water near the dam wall and Braemar.

All types of lures will work this week with yellows, greens and pinks in Tassie and Cobra style lures very popular.

The new Viking Minnows are proving popular and have taken a number of fish already.  Great little lures and very nice colour schemes.

Trout pattern minnows in Rapalas, Attacks, RMG Scorpions, Rebels, and Alex lures are great lures to try.  Try some of the larger lures down deep to search out the bigger browns.

Rebel Crickhoppers and Smilin Jack Hoppers behind cowbells or fenders are another great early season lure to try.

Best areas to look at this week are the Dam wall, Main basin, Buckenderra, Seven gates and Anglers reach. 

*Fourteen year old Brad Corradini from Kiama had a great four days on the Eucumbene river catching twenty fish on Glo Bugs and Celtas.  The fish averaged around 35-40cm.  He only kept two for the four days.  Great fishing.

Jindabyne:-  Jindabyne will troll well this weekend. Stick to the bottom of the lake around the township and steep banks for clearer water.  Trolling in close should be the go as the water has risen well above the weed beds and this is where the fish will be looking for food. 

*Hi Tom,

Thought I would drop a line to share our great four days on Jindabyne. We camped opposite the Kalkite boat ramp and trolled the top end of the lake for 19 fish. We landed twelve browns all over 50 cm's of varying condition, best sized fish we have had for a good while. Young Ben Lamb, on only his second trip, thinks catching big browns is easy while my son Matthew also had plenty of luck. We took most of the fish in 12 - 20 foot of water with a couple of Peter Stuckey lures in gold and fluro yellow. The wind and rain made bait fishing on shore difficult but we did land a couple on Lime Twist Powerbait.
Even a flat car battery, when we got back to the ramp, could not spoil our weekend and the Cooma NRMA bloke was great.

 

Cheers,

Colin Clark - West Wyalong

*Max Suthern from Canberra had a good session at Jindabyne on Saturday.  He caught fourteen fish, mostly browns to 3kg.  #66 Tassie was the best lure.  Max if you are reading this you left the lures you bought in the shop on the weekend too.

Tantangara:- No Reports.

Baitfishing :-  Mudeyes are back in stock now.  Bait fishing has been excellent in Jindabyne with Gulp Power bait and standard Powerbait.   Quality fish are coming in from the Rushes Bay, Waste point Kalkite and Hatchey Bay areas. 

There will be some great fishing for Rainbows in the next few weeks in both lakes with some really fat fish in Eucumbene and some nice ones in Jindabyne as well.

There have been a few Browns that have already spawned turning up in Eucumbene so these fish will be very hungry as they try to put on some condition after running the river.  A good time to be soaking a bait in the Anglers Reach/Old Adaminaby area.  The Dam Wall can produce late in the day and early in the morning at this time of year.  Powerbait is the pick here as you can float it above the bottom on light hooks and keep it out of the weed and rocks.  Very effective.

 There are still plenty of pre spawn rainbows about at the moment and these have been incredibly fat and well conditioned fish.  PowerBait is probably the pick of the baits for these fish with Orange, Sherbert and the Lime and Lemon Twists being very popular with these hard fighting fish.

It can still be very cold at night and early morning despite the slightly warmer days recently.  Gloves and beanies are a must. 

Best areas in Eucumbene would be The Dam wall, Old Adaminaby/Cemetary point andCollingwood bay areas.

*Hi guys, took my youngest son Tyler Bolitho age 9 to Jindabyne last weekend for a bit trout fishing to catch him his first trout. Trolled around the Snowy river arm for his first brown trout 1.5kg and in beautiful condition, caught on a Rapala trout pattern. He also caught three nice rainbow from 700gm 1.2kg on Powerbait in lime green & orange and red, he was very happy and didn't want to go home on Sunday, when it started to rain. We persisted for a few more hours for a couple more fish, it was a great bonding session.