Headlines: The Snowy Mountains Trout Festival is in full swing and there have been some very nice fish coming in from both the main lakes.  Trolling and bait have been the best method with plenty of quality fish around. So far the largest fish taken is 3.4kg (cleaned) and was caught by William Lee.

There have been good numbers of Rainbows coming in and some very nice sized ones amongst them. 

The competition concludes at 10 am this Friday with the presentation at Berridale.

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

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.

The Thredbo still has numbers of rainbows up high and some good fishing can be had there.

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.

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.

*Ian, David, and Stuart had a good session recently.  They managed twelve fish on fly with the biggest a brown of 2.5kg.  Best flies were black nymphs, hare and coppers, olive fur flies.  Fish were full of stick caddis.  Stuart caught his 1st fish on fly on this trip and was a great kilo plus rainbow. 

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. 

Fishing deep has given the best success with lead core and tassies being very effective.

Y94, Y82, 55, 63, and Sting in colours 9 and 25 have been very good.

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 have continued their run of quality fish.

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. 

*Terry Richardson has been fishing the comp this week and had caught browns of 1.7kg, 1.3kg and 2.4kg plus a nice atlantic salmon of 1.4kg.  That is some very good fishing indeed. 

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.

*Hey Tom & Mick

As promised here is a run down and some photo's of our fishing last week.

We ended up with only 10 fish for the week with the weather playing
havoc on some days.  We hit Tantangara, Jindabyne, Eucumbene, Tooma,
Guthega, Island Bend and even a short session on the Swampy Plains
river.  Fishing was quite hard at times and we found the fish totally
unresponsive to lures of any type in the larger lakes.  Mudeyes after
dark seemed to be working the best but a couple of guys I spoke to at
Jindabyne were doing well on Mudeyes in the middle of the day however.
We ended up with 4 Browns with the best at 1.86kg and 6 Rainbows with
the best at 750g, most on mudeyes with only a couple falling to Storm
Scatbacks or Vibrax Minnow Spins.

Hope the Trout Festival is keeping ya busy.
Matt and Andy Taylor.

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.