Headlines
Reports have been varied over the last week and the weekend was a little tough with the weather. Still there have been some good reports from the lakes and rivers.
Some people on the weekend said it was very cold and uncomfortable. Well have a look at these photos from regular Lake Jindabyne and Eucumbene anglers Mick and Luke Atkinson. They recently returned from a road trip across North America where they had the opportunity to try their hand at ice fishing.
Montana locals Brendan and Terina Mullen kindly treated the brothers to a day of 'hardwater fishing' for trout on Delmoe Lake in Beaverhead National Forest. The fishing was steady with a mixture of Rainbow and Cutthroat trout being taken on maggots and small jigs.
The best fish of the day was a Cutthroat weighing 600g caught by Luke.
Now that is cold!
FISHING LICENCES These are available online and you can purchase them directly from the NSW fisheries website with a credit card. Click on this link below.
https://www.licence.nsw.gov.au/gls_eservice/renewals/Application.aspx
Note: We do not have licences available through the store with Cash or EFT. We can do them online with a MasterCard or Visa only.
Flyfishing
*Remember that from the 1st of May the size and bag limit changes in the Eucumbene and Thredbo Rivers. From May 1 you may only keep ONE fish OVER 50cms per day in these waters. Fisheries will be very active this season in these waters so make sure you stick to these rules and have your fishing licence with you while fishing.
Rivers:-Have been topped up with some good rain over the weekend. Thredbo had 54mm and Cabramurra 67mm over a 24 hour period on the weekend. This has seen both the Thredbo and Eucumbene rivers rise and become slightly dirty but they will clear quickly and both have fished well already.
The Eucumbene river has fished very well with some good rainbows being taken. There have also been a few browns showing though not a big run of fish at this stage.
Overall nymphs have been best with black, hare's ear and pheasant tails being the pick.
*Two anglers have fished the portal area over the weekend catching seven nice fish on bead head nymph and Mrs Simpsons.
*Another angler did well on big Craig's Nightimes after dark landing some reasonable browns.
*Hey guys,
Thanks for sorting me out with the new 96 Loomis GLX 6-weight on the weekend (if you remember, my buddy stepped on my Sage XP and snapped it off at the butt) made it back down to the Eucumbene River in time for the manic afternoon session, whereby we managed over a dozen fish in two hours, with plenty more hits + misses. The rising water really seemed to bring them on, with most fisherman we spoke to reporting catches in excess of 12+ fish.
Sunday the river was running hard and very dirty, so the fishing was tougher (although we still managed to remove a couple)
Strange thing happened too I was glo-bugging a deep channel when I felt a take. Striking, I lifted the rod into a heavy weight and felt a fish for a few moments, only for the hook to pull clear. On closer inspection, impaled on the end of my hook was an inch of a trouts intestine, complete with the requisite mush of bugs / grubs inside it. All I can think of is that a big brown mustve been munching on the remnants of a fish that someone had chucked into the river after cleaning their catch, and made a swipe for my glo bug mid-chew
Weird
Catch you guys later
Andrew Wilson
The Moonbah, Murrumbidgee, Gungarlin, Eucumbene, Thredbo are all great rivers to have a look at over the Easter weekend.
Lake Eucumbene:- Fly reports have varied over the past week. Daytime fishing has genereally been the best with the evenings and night time fishing a little slow. Bead head nymphs fished slow and deep have been the best fish takers of late.
Best areas have been Seven Gates, Cobrabald, Buckenderra and Rushy Plains, with some fish also at Braemar, the dam wall and Anglers Reach.
Lake Jindabyne:- Jindabyne reports have been quiet at this stage.
Lake Tantangara :- Reports have been quiet from the lake on the fly front.
Trolling and Spinning
Eucumbene:- Eucumbene trolling reports have been few and far between. Hopefully with some better weather more anglers will be able to get out and troll a few up.
*Ian Jones and Jason Smith had a good session on Monday between 8am and 3pm catching ten between them, best Tassie was number 54. Most of the fish were rainbows in the 600gm range with one brown being caught that was a little over 1kg and was full of yabbies. Fish were showing on the sounder between 15 and 20ft. Best area was the Angler's Reach arm.
Best areas to try would be Collingwood, Coppermine, Buckenderra and Angler's Reach.
Jindabyne:- Reports from Jindabyne this weekend were reasonable with one group fishing from three boats doing well on Y94 Tassie Devils fished flatline in the afternoons. They managed 25 fish between them for the weekend.
Baitfishing
The bait fishing in Eucumbene has been very good with Powerbait taking some good catches. Grubs have come into their own now with the cooler weather
Best report over the weekend was eight Rainbows on Powerbait at Buckenderra.
The bait fishing will be very good over the next week with some good rainbows starting to school up in many areas.
Best locales to try will be Seven Gates, Buckenderra, Cobrabald, Wangrabelle, Homeleigh Bay and the Dam wall.
In Jindabyne reports have been scarce with some angler saying that they have not caught any fish on bait despite trying their hardest. Hopefully things will improve down there.
Try areas like Rushes Bay, Hatchery Bay, The Clay pits, Curiosity rocks and Kalkite.
Lake Levels
Eucumbene 23.7%
Jindabyne 57.3%
Tantangara 7.1%
Cheers Tom
Got any reports from the local lakes or rivers?
If so, email them along with pictures to info@alpineangler.com.au for inclusion in our weekly report.
