The Alpine Angler

What a great weekend it was in the Mountains, with plenty of anglers up enjoying the conditions. The fishing did flatten out a little,with the best reports coming in from lake Eucumbene. A few of the Celebrity challenge teams commenting on tuff fishing over on lake Jindabyne.The fly fishing has picked up with good fish being found on both the Eucumbene & Thredbo rivers.The warm weather has triggered good hatches of both midges & duns, so hopefully well start to see some consistent dry flyfishing from now on.All in all the country is looking better than it has in many,many years - and the fishing looks set to only get better as things warm up.Remember to call in for a cuppa on your way through OR drop your fish in to be photographed for this report on your way home

Rivers:- Both the Eucumbene & Thredbo Rivers have had plenty of rainbows holding back after spawning since the opening.The average fish have been around the kilo mark with quite a few over 2kgs. We should still see quite a few of these fish stay on and provide some dry flyfishing once we get some stable warm weather and hatches.There have been reports of termites and dun's over the last week , so it should only be a matter of time.

Lake Eucumbene:- There have been some nice browns showing up down around the Buckenderra / Middling bank & Frying pan area with fish to 2.5 kgs being taken. Patterns worth having in your box at present include Woolly buggers,Fuzzy wuzzies, Craig's night times,Tiahape ticklers and lumo baby dolls.There have also been a few midge starting to get about - so hears hoping we'll see a repeat of last years fishing as conditions continue to warm up

Lake Tantagara :- Has started to produced a few fish , and should get better once the lake level stabilizes a little as it's been up & down like a yo-yo recently.

Lake Jindabyne:- There's been a few fish about - but not a lot of fly anglers chasing them. Best fishing has been working yabby beds with streamers until we start to get some warmer weather and some insects moving ie:midges,caddis etc.Flies worth having in your box include :- woolly bugger's, and fuzzy wuzzy's, Bushy's Horror's,sand cases caddis,black and peacocks, midges etc

*Bob Payne from Leeton with a thumping 4.5kg brown caught trolling with a Juro "Mimic" crickhopper out from Anglers Reach lakeside Village

Eucumbene:- The trolling really has been great on Eucumbene over the last few months with some great rainbows & browns coming in. Both leadline and flatlines have been producing fish with the cooler surface temperatures.The best fishing has been down the bottom of the lake well away from the main river in-flows. The rainbows are in peak condition and averaging around the 1kg mark, feeding heavily on daphnia in the open water. Consistent lures include Tasmanian Devils in Cols 36,89,55, 72,S12, Y82 & Y62. Our own Alpine Cobra's in the Alpine Attractor, Black hole , Lime spider and Alpine Special patterns, Rebel crickhoppers and crawfish,Storm Hot N Tots , ultra deep Merlins,Stump Jumpers,RMG Scorpions & Poltergeist.

HOT NEW LURES :- River 2 Sea Humbugs, Eco Gear SX 40F & 48 F minnows, 2"inch Bug Ants, Sting Cobra Col B/S, Squidgy "Slick Rigs", Team Diawa Pro-Vibrations,Trout Killer E-Chips !

Jindabyne:- It's been a little patchy on Jindy over the last few weeks, with best area's being up around the Thredbo river mouth at around Waste Point and the eastern shoreline around Sid's Bay . Fishing a mixture of small minnows like RMG Scorpions, Merlins & Attacks along with Tassies in "Yellow Wing" patterns should see a few nice fish in the boat.

Baitfishing

*Tony from Sydney with a lovely 2kg brown taken with a live spider mudeye out at Middling Bank on Eucumbene.

*Jacob Young from Eden with one of 4 nice rainbows he caught fishing Powerbait out at 7 gates Saturday

*John Daniele from Canberra did well fishing orange Powerbait out at 7 Gates Friday night with 3 rainbows to 1.5kgs

The baitfishing has been great,with some fantastic browns starting to come in over the last few weeks. The best fishing has come with combining a scrub worm with a Power bait dropper ( pictured below).Power bait in orange, rainbow and lemon twist have been the main fish takers.This rig has really proven itself over the last few seasons, with both options you really have it covered.Power bait naturally floats, so the distance you make your dropper is the distance you can expect your Power bait to be above the bottom. This means that fish will find your bait a lot quicker even if you have cast into weeds. If they don't eat the Power bait they have found your main bait a lot quicker. The hook is important when fishing with Power bait and we get a special "single egg" pattern in from Gamakatsu just for the job - which has a short shank and ultra wide gape. Feel free to ask us to go over the rig next time your in if still unsure. We have also started to see a few fish coming in on mudeyes - and expect this to pick up as things continue warming up.

Best areas on Eucumbene include: Middling bank, Frying pan, Seven Gates, Yens bay, Breamar bay ,Providence around the Eucumbene River Mouth and along the dam wall at Eucumbene Cove.

Best area's on Jindabyne include: The clay pits in front of town, Hatchery bay, Hayshed bay and Kalkite.

Jindabyne Dam Wall project Up-dates :- For detailed information regarding the work being carried out on the Lake Jindabyne Dam wall, including road delays etc go to :-

#Please Note - NSW Fishing Licences:- Due to the amount of work involved with licence returns we are now ONLY offering fishing licences On-Line Via the NSW Fisheries web site with the use of CREDIT CARD PAYMENT ONLY !

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Archive Date: 21/11/2005