The Alpine Angler

Headlines: Fishing has been great recently with some fantastic Autumn weather. In the rivers a few early spawners are on the cards anytime now. Bait fishing in the lakes has been excellent and some good trolling and flyfishing in the lakes.

Anglers need to pay attention to the dropping levels of the lakes. Underwater obstacles are starting to appear in some areas and these can be dangerous if hit at high speed. If unsure of the area go slow and keep an eye out.

Rivers:- It is that time of year when the browns will start to make an apperance in the Eucumbene and Thredbo rivers as they run to spawn. While it may be a little early, reports suggest that there are a few fish doing their thing already.

Glo bugs and nymphs will be the standard patterns of choice but you could also include a few woolly buggers as well.

From May 1st both theses rivers have a bag limit of one fish per angler and this fish must be 50cm or larger. Fish under 50cm must be released.

Nymphing will be the best method when conditions are cool on all the other streams in the area. If you happen to jag a day when there is a large high pressure system with a windless warmer day then, you may still find a few fish will take a dry.

*Hey guys,

I fished the Eucumbene river for the first time this weekend. 2 glorious days under blue skies. Was put on to using a weighted glo bug with bead head nymph whilst buying some well needed gloves. Caught my first river fish on fly which was this very well conditioned browny on my 3wt. She was released for a well needed swim after taking me down 2 pools.

Lake Eucumbene:- The lake has been a little hit and miss but there are still enough of those fat rainbows around to keep most anglers happy. A few more browns have started to show though the rainbows are out numbering them considerably. The top end around Anglers Reach appears to be producing a few more of the browns.

*Stuart "GC" Sturgeon with a chunky little lake brown from a recent night session.

Seven Gates and Crowes area has been very good as has the whole Middilingbank arm.

The fish have had a mixture of snails, daphnia and mudeyes in their stomachs.

Lake Jindabyne:- Jindabyne has been great in the evenings with some very nice rainbows on dark. There have been some really good browns starting to cruise the edges and these have been suckers for a small woolly bugger. There is a heap of weed in many of the bays and though this is making fishing a little tough it is also drawing the fish in to the food that it holds.

Eucumbene:- Trolling has been good overall with many lure types producing fish. Leadcore in deeper water has been a good producer over the last two weeks. . Trout pattern minnows in Rapalas, Attacks, RMG Scorpions have worked well with Tassies in multitudes of patterns turning up some great fish. Lofty's in the Corroboree pattern have been very good also.

*Good morning Tom
A couple of photo's from last week at Buckenderra. Caught some beaut
rainbows from the bank with Ken and John. John Nowak made these new AAK flies (Alan's Arse Killer) so we decided to troll them around the lake.
Caught a few nice Browns over the last couple of weeks near Pasture Bay.
No sooner got in the area and off she went. Gee it is good when things come together and they work. The bank fishing was great on Gulp Chunky Cheese power bait. See you next week.

Best areas for trolling continue to be Cobrabald, Waiunui, Collingwood, and the main basin area.

Jindabyne:- Jindabyne trolling reports have been pretty good in the Kalkite and waste point area along with the eastern side around Sids bay.

*Good day on one of the cold lakes, awesome even...
Perfect conditions with very little wind, overcast mid morning and still warm to boot. Water temps around 12 degrees and 10 in the shadows, fish still rising and taking interest even at 11am. Trolled all the way up to the Snowy arm from Kalkite on the east bank, took awhile but had one hit, one landed, one lost and one follow on a plastic all from the same weed bed. Sighted some good fish around the banks, ideal polaroiding weather but the water level is dropping pretty fast.
By the time I caught up with the others they had retired to the bank for some playdo / worm bashing. Using some new techniques and educating Luke to the random Powerbait game was fun, with eight rods out between four of us only a chosen couple won the lottery ( Jason and Victor excluded ). Lemon Twist and Scrub worms took out the day and I was seriously smoked by an unstopable, called it for a big Brown / Atlantic who took me to dissapointment town ( Population, me ).

Luke had a lucky Scrubby which commenced to hook and land two fish in 10 minutes while I was running out fingers to count on my rod was getting hit so much. Got busted off again on 6lb braid ( Think snag rub type stuff ) before landing a nice 51cm Brown and another Rainbow, biggest Bow went 42cm on the troll. Such an unpredictable place that runs hot or cold for various anglers, almost bagging out and losing a fish of a lifetime is just viewed as the norm here.
Looking forward to returning, the Brown was completely full of tiny Shrimp and the Bows had small Yabbies and some green stuff ( Daphnia? ). All fish on lures on Predatek Min Min in Perch and Brown Trout pattern, Jason even caught some on olive powerbait flick baits chucked at the trees. 2 x rainbows.

Mudeyes are scarce but the worm and powerbait fishing has been good enough that most have given up using mudeyes. Powerbait has come into its own this past week. Remember to fish it on the bottom but with a light gauge short shank hook, like the Gamakatsu single egg or Daiichi 2171 in a sz 6 are perfect. Best colours have been the Chartreuse and Sherbert nuggets along with Gulp Chunky Cheese paste. Scrub worms have been doing very well over the last week as well.

*Hi Alpine Angler
Just a quick note for the web page on fishing at Seven Gates 2 may 2009 bait fishing on Green powerbait.
We called into Alpine Angler on Saturday morning to pick up some mudeyes and have a chat on the lastest fishing tips. Thanks to the advice on the green powerpait, we netted 10 lovely trout over saturday and sunday, 9 rainbows none under 3lb and a king brown 6.5lb off the bank at 2 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, unheard of. I have added some photos of some of the fish caught on a great weekend weather wise. The challenge was on between Craig and Janette against Mick and Lisa. Craig and Janette came in with 9 fish (Craig 7 Janette 2) and Mick caught the last rainbow at 7pm Sunday night.

We had a great weekend at Seven Gates. Thanks again for the always friendly advice and service. Great going Guys you even let the dog Mishya in for a visit into the shop.
Regards
Janette Mulcahy & Craig Hansen.

*David and John Xuereb and John Palmano pictured below (Johnny Scrubworm Photo) with a catch from Collingwood bay on Saturday night. John "Killer" Palmano is holding the biggest on the far right which went 1.4kg cleaned. Fish ate mudeyes. Foxes again have been a problem in this area and they will steal unattended fish, bag and all!

*Lachlan Sturgeon with a nice rainbow out of Jindabyne recently. It seems that he has made a habit of out fishing dad of late.

If so, email them along with pictures to info@alpineangler.com.au for inclusion in our weekly report.

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Archive Date: 13/05/2009