Headlines: Lake Eucumbene is continues to rise though it has slowed a little.  Midges numbers are increasing and the mudeye fishing is starting to improve for bait anglers.  Trolling is producing a few fish in the main lakes.  Rivers are really starting to fire for fly anglers. 

Boat lauching in Eucumbene is available at Old Adaminaby, The Dam Wall, Anglers Reach, Buckenderra.

Trout Festival 2008 - Starts this Saturday!

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.

Store Trading Hours

Mon-Thursday  9am - 5:30pm

Friday       9am - 7pm

Saturday  7am - 5pm

Sunday     8am - 4:30pm

Flyfishing

Rivers:-  Dry fly fishing has really improved in all the local rivers in the past week.  Early and late in the day have produced the best rises from the reports received.

Dry flies to use at the moment are small emergers like Klinkhamers, Blue wing olive parachutes, attractors like Wullfs and Stimulators, along with beetles and ant patterns.

Reports from the Thredbo suggest that a few caddis have been hatching and the fish have been on them.  Weighted nymphs are still working very well also.

The Murrumbidgee has produced a few small fish but can turn up good ones on the right day.

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

There have been a few termite falls this week and with some good stormy weather this will continue.  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.

*Hi Tom/Mick,  Another short trip to the Euc River early Saturday morning (on the water by 6AM off by 9AM) saw ½ a dozen fish to hand and a couple missed or dropped.  The river itself is at a great level for fishing and though many fish may have dropped downstream to the lake there are still enough numbers to keep you entertained.  Again a small bead head nymph was the fly most keenly taken. 

Cheers Kieran

Lake Eucumbene:-  Has started to produce a few more fish around the edges and will gradually improve as more and more fish return from spawning and start hunting the food that is gaining in numbers around the edge. 

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.

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.  Think locations like Seven Gates, Buckenderra, 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. 

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. The dropping water has slowed the polaroiding for some but there are still fish around the edges that are very polaroidable. The river mouth arms seem to be the best areas. 

Night time fishing has been good with some nice reports coming in.  Muddler Minnows, Sunset flies, Fuzzy Wuzzys, Hammils and Tom Jones work very well at this time of year. Lumos will turn on some nice fish with the dark phase we are in now.

 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. 

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. 

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. 

*Daryl and Ben from Cooma had a quick morning session recently for five fish.  Tassie devil in YFR was the pick of the colours.  One of the larger browns actually broke the wing off a Tassie.  Never seen that before. 

*Sturg from Cooma took his son Lachlan out for a morning troll and Lachlan hooked three and landed two on Tassies.  They had to leave early as dad had to do some baby sitting back at home but it was still a great session and Lachlan was reportedly very happy with the fish caught.

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.

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

*Hi Tom,

John Tuckwell and I dropped into the shop today and Dave suggested that you may be interested in a photo from a fishing trip to Eucumbene on Saturday night for your weekly newsletter.

  Brian Reeks from Glouchester, UK is a keen coarse fisherman on the River Severn. He is in Australia for a few weeks and came along on a fishing trip on Saturday night to a spot about 4 km up the Lake from Buckanderra. He managed to outfish most of the locals in the party with a beautifully conditioned rainbow just over 1 kg caught on powerbait. He loved the fishing but was overheard to say that fishing aussie style is hard work compared to his coarse fishing in the UK! He normally targets a species called barbel which can grow to 10 or 15 kilos.  Incidentally, fly fishing was not easy on Saturday evening. Very little insect activity with a few midges coming off and a few ants on the surface but little interest from the trout and infrequent rises. John Tuckwell and I put in several hours of effort with only one brown of about 3 ½ lbs to bank, caught on a reids mudeye pattern at sunset. Perhaps the cold snap in the middle of last week was still influencing things?  Cheers Ken

* Brett Wills and his two sons fished Buckenderra for three days over the weekend and caught 18 fish on coutas and scrubbies. Good fishing indeed.

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