As the rivers are soon opening I decided to get some practice at this pristine lake. This was the first decent day in a long time. On my walk up to the water I bumped into two guys coming the other way as they had finished for the day. I was starting, they were finishing. I keep gentlemanly hours these days! It turns out one guy was our Martin Mednis who recognized me as a Lakeside member. We chatted for a while and I continued up to water. Conditions were very good with a bit of a breeze. On the water there were no rises and I reluctantly tried some wets and nymphs. Then I noticed a few rises. Most were fairly serious slashes, but try as I might I could not tempt a take. Soon it was time to go (to feed the chooks etc). Heading back, I noticed a more serious swirl type rise. I could not resist a last go, and cast my small dry fly in the location. Immediately a serious swirl type rise hit my fly. A slow deliberate setting and STRIKE!
A fat rainbow hen
After long and trying battle, a fat 3.5 to 4lb rainbow hen was landed.
Can’t wait for rivers to open, the weather to behave and many good days!
Here’s some theory to help your practise next time you’re thrashing your line about in the park. Come and join in a Lakeside Fly Fishing Casting Practise session to perfect your casting arm.
Helpful fly fishing casting terminology
Loop – The fly line as it unrolls through the air. lt has a fly leg and a rod leg and a loop face. lt is our goal, to throw good loops, and to understand how they are made. They are the symbol of fly fishing.
Rotation – the ARC through which the rod rotates during the stroke. \l/
Translation -the distance the hand travels during the stroke. llll
Effective Casting Stroke – the combination of Rotation (arc) and Translation sufficient to create an effective loop. The casting stroke ends at loop formation and begins with the first of the acceleration.
Total Stroke – The combination of the effective stroke plus, drift, drag, lift, sweep, or slide, which are all line and or rod re-positioning moves, made during the pause.
Presentation cast – the cast that delivers the fly to the target.
Tracking – the horizontal alignment of the back cast and the cast (especially if viewed from above) – see 180 degree rule.
The five essentials of good fly casting
S.L.P. To create an effective loop the tip of the rod must have some element of a straight line path during the casting stroke. A fully convex rod tip path leads to tip doming = wide ineffective loop. Straight line path of the rod tip = effective loop. A con-cave path of the rod tip – tailing loop.
The path of the tip of the rod during the casting stroke determines the shape of the fly leg of the loop, and that is the important one.
Stroke short cast short stroke (narrow ARC), long cast, Iong stroke (wide ARC)- the total distance the rod travels through (in a combination of rotation and translation) is determined by the distance you need to cast, the conditions you are casting in, AND by how much the rod bends. This is to maintain the SLP of the rod tip.
Slack in the line means we have no tension to load the rod to make it bend. Slack comes from wobbling the tip of the rod, and from poor timing – ie going forward or coming back while the line is still travelling in the opposite direction in the air. Doming with wide open loops is another form of slack, beginning a cast with the rod tip high above the water begins a cast with slack…” Slack can form between the line hand and the stripping guide……. Slack is the enemy of effective, efficient fly casting. Tension is your friend.
Acceleration that creates rod tip speed must be constant and smooth, not jerky and uneven. The correct amount of power needs to be applied for the dis-tance that needs to be cast and for the conditions you are casting under.
Pause Fly casting is about timing, a short cast requires a very short pause on the back cast and the forward cast, the more line in the air the longer the pause has to be as we wait for the line to straighten. Pause too long and gravity takes over, don’t pause long enough and there’s no line tension to load the rod.
Plus two bonus essentials
Stop Its the stop that makes the line go. Where we stop the rod in relation to our tip path determines the loop size. How we stop the rod (abruptly, smoothly, softly) has a considerable impact upon loop formation and size. A sharp stop just below the SLP maximises the transfer of energy from the rod to the fly line. Where we stop the rod tip determines loop size.
180 degree rule For the cleanest loops the back-cast and the forward cast should be 180 degrees to each other in all planes. ln the horizontal plane we call it tracking. lt is a fundamental, although not entirely true, rule that the line will travel in the direction the rod tip stops in. The position of the line at the commencement of the acceleration has a lot of bearing on what the line will do regardless of where and how the rod tip stops.
Snow and rain in the weeks leading up to closing weekend built anticipation the flush might have started the fish on their annual run up the Eucumbene River.
The Portal was in full flight and the river low but flowing nicely. As usual the run from the Portal to the tree line at Denison was well populated with anglers and campers at the Denison car park.
The portal in full flight
The hot rumour was to fish the Eucumbene down stream of the Portal. So there wasn’t much room either at the junction or down stream. We tested Denison instead, fishing for several hours down stream of the old road bridge but to no avail. One chap said he landed a reasonable sized brown but that was the only report of a catch.
We moved on to Kiandra and fished the river downstream from the Kings Cross Road and Snowy Mountains Highway junction. The river looked perfect and there were only a couple of other people about. Despite several hours of trying we didn’t even a spook a fish.
Eucumbene river at Kiandra. Cold but fine and sunny.
On Sunday we checked the Portal and seeing the usual mob we decided the Murrumbidgee where it joins Tantangara would be a good chance. The volume of Tantangara was 19% so we thought the river would be spot on. Port Philip Fire Trail was in good condition but the Dam Track was very muddy. So much so that we only made it half way along before deciding that it was not worth getting stuck on the very boggy and slippery track. It was well and truly cut up by other vehicles.
After a brief diversion to Tantangara we found it low and boggy so crossed the causeway and tried Mosquito Creek. We walked the creek for about a kilometer and fished back to the car. The muddy water was barely flowing and the lake bed very soft and boggy.
One of the problems was the water level had only dropped in the past month so there was no plant life in the creek or the lake bed. The creek was dirty and so were we.
Mosquito Creek looking south. Not really inviting!!
It was getting a bit late so we made one last attempt on the Murumbidgee below the dam wall at Tantangara. We parked at the old road bridge and although the river at this section flows through very thick undergrowth and tussock we could see some nice pools a few hundred metres down stream.
The tussocks were a pest but the pools were just fine. There were even a few rises to be seen. An active fish of at least ten centimetres jumped several times, tempting us back for next year. But aside from the occasional rock, log and tree, we didn’t hook anything.
We caught up with the Illawarra Fly Fishing Club back at the cabins and swapped tales of woe. In summary the trip was great; the weather fine and the company perfect. No fish for us, though we did hear of a few being taken down stream of the Portal.
It must unfortunately be recorded that Illawarra Fly Fishing Club caught one fish (no photo but a real live Illawarra member claimed he witnessed the event). The consequence of that one fish is that Illawarra get to keep the Cup for the end of season competition. There is always next year.
Fishing these days is limited to snippets between toddler demands, which would be fine if I lived on a trout stream but the Cooks River is the closest I get. Those dumped shopping trolleys are harder to hook than you might think.
So with the mother-in-law in town and happily assuming my share of child duties I escaped for a morning out to the Fish River at O’Connell.
Luckily I didn’t get out too early because the fish didn’t appear until about 10am. They fed actively, but evidently not on dries. A lack of fishing practice was my biggest hindrance at this point. I lined a fish that surprised me by porpoising on the surface parallel to where I stood.
Eventually, with the casting arm warmed up, I hooked a one pounder on a prince nymph at the head of the pool but the tippet snapped almost immediately. Testing the tippet after (Rio 6X Flurocarbon), I was able to snap it at almost every attempt. Time to invest in some new tippet.
After a beautiful, still morning, the wind picked up at 12pm and the fish shut down. So I set off on the drive back to the Cooks River.
Monaro streams
We rented an Airbnb on a high country property while visiting family in Cooma over the Easter. With family commitments pulling me every where but where I should be (on the trout streams), fishing here was limited to hit and run expeditions while the toddler had her midday nap.
On the first morning I sat on the balcony, coffee in hand, admiring the views of the Monaro plains and googling ‘trout stream near me’ when I realised there was a creek in the valley right in front of me.
Enquiries put to the Airbnb owner revealed the following:
Yes there are trout in the stream
Yes you can access it, it’s public access, Torrens Title
It’s fly fishing, catch and release only
Point 3 is the owners rules. He doesn’t have any jurisdiction to enforce it, but he’s evidently a good bloke.
Rain the prior week, and warm sunshine this week, meant there would be prime fishing time during the evening hatch. The owner had seen some decent fish on his evening constitutional with his wife.
However I was expected at family dinner in the evening. So instead I hit the stream at midday, during toddler nap time. It was a typical Monaro stream with clear, slow flowing pools. And with the sun high, the fish were hiding. Never mind, I told myself, I’ll get down for the evening hatch later in the week.
Snowy River
During the next day’s toddler nap I ventured a bit further afield to the Snowy River. This was another clear, slow flowing stream, so I was surprised to find a trout tailing in the midday sun. I only had about half an hour to spare before said toddler was due to wake up though and this was not enough time to lure that trout into a trap.
The clear, slow flowing water of the Snowy River
Eucumbene Trout Farm
Yes folks, you read that title right. Instead of the planned venture to fish the evening rise, I found myself with niece and nephew minding duties. And for better or worse, over the years, time with Uncle Jodi comes with the expectation of a fishing trip.
An earlier expedition to the creek with niece and nephew ended in many sticks, stones and children throwing themselves in the water. Conditions entirely unsuitable to stalking trout. So instead I took them to the Eucumbene Trout Farm.
This is about as close as trout fishing gets to fishing for yellow tail off a jetty and therefore entirely suitable to the limited attention spans of eight and ten year olds. Although hooking a trout on powerbait, in a pond the size of a backyard swimming pool with about 50 fish in it, is harder than it sounds.
The real challenge was not jag hooking them, but at the end of the day, two trout were landed and niece and nephew went home satisfied. While Uncle Jodi went home with his wallet considerably lighter and, well, there’ll always be another evening rise.
Gundowringa is located half way between Goulburn and Crookwell and is famous for fat lambs and potatoes. What has this to do with fishing? Nothing.
But based on recent stocking figures and the proximity to Sydney, we had to give it a go. So in early March Lakeside Fly Fishing Club descended upon Gundowringa.
Fish stocking 2017:
Pejar: 5,000 Brown Trout; 10,000 Rainbow Trout; 4,200 Bass
Todkill: 2,000 Rainbow Trout
Redground: 4,000 Rainbow Trout; 5,000 Golden Perch
Accommodation at Gundowringa consists of shearers’ quarters accommodating up to 18 people, shared non gender washroom/toilet block, communal sitting, dining room, wood fire, kitchen, industrial fridge and BBQ. As there were only six of us we each had our own room, and at $30 per night it was a bargain.
We had access to Pejar Dam, Todkill Dam, Redground Dam and two private dams on Gundowringa.
Jim Screen in action at Pejar Dam (he’s the little speck just off the point)
The lack of rain has made fishing challenging and this was reflected during the weekend. Pejar Dam was picture perfect but the other two dams need a flush out as they could not be fished due to the weeds. The catch rate was disappointing but fine weather and good company made the weekend a great success.
Trevor gets on the sauce
On Saturday night it was planned to have dinner at the Willowvale Mill restaurant. Upon trying to book the restaurant we were advised by the owner that the restaurant would not be open as he was taking his lady friend to the Blue Mountains.
Alex asked if we were invited but he said his friend would not approve. So we all ended up at the Commercial Hotel in Crookwell for dinner.
Jim celebrating the landing of the only trout for the weekend.
One trip to Lago Strobel is the fly fishing experience of a life time but going twice must be close to visiting fly fishing heaven.
David Screen has visited Lago Strobel in Argentina twice in the last two years. But the fish still have to be caught and landed just like any where else and like any where else the special conditions of the fishery have to be managed.
In this particular part of the world cold and wind prevail to a very large extent, in a very rocky landscape. The lake has no outlet but is fed by a constant flow of water from the Barrancoso River that rises in the Andes Mountains.
Where does the water go, you might ask. Well the wind takes care of that and just blows the water away. One has to make sure when making a cast your line goes downwind otherwise you will get a very quick reminder to come to the Club’s casting days.
For those interested (envious) David’s caught and landed statistics from South America are:
2017 – 204 fish landed, 44 fish over 10lb 2018 – 207 fish landed, 106 fish over 10lb
The largest fish was 15.5lb caught in the river followed closely by six 15lb fish, including one caught on a dry fly.
My brother Robert and I are long term members of Lakeside fly fishing club; Robert also being a member of Monaro Acclimation Society and living part time in the Jindabyne region.
We are both passionate trout fly fishermen concerned for the future viability
of our sport. Over the last decade we all have noticed a steady decline in the amount of fish, particularly rainbow trout in the Monaro region in general.
Another concern is the increasing amount of sand particularly in the Thredbo River, damaging spawning gravel river beds; the levels of sand being the result of the devastating bush fires over a decade ago.
Sand extraction companies have indicated that they would pump sand out of the river at no cost and possibly a small royalty could be obtained. One such location to remove the deposits at minimum environmental impact would be Paddy’s Corner.
The traditional rainbow trout spawning run in early spring has become relatively non existent in recent years, by comparison to say a decade ago.
What are the reasons for this considerable reduction in fish numbers?
Recently while on a fishing trip to the Ebor region our group visited the Dutton trout hatchery and were shown around the extensive facility. A very helpful person answered many questions and advised that all the rainbow trout released in the NSW rivers and dams were produced at that hatchery.
It appeared that mature rainbow stock held at the hatchery are stripped of milt and eggs to produce the fish that are then released at various ages by fishing clubs and also sent to Gaden Hatchery for their release program.
Why are so many of the rainbows in particular, not living to maturity? I have heard 1 in 1000 survive to that stage. Is it the method of release and their age at that time or are such factors as being spawned from hatchery and not wild trout that has an effect?
We all know that rainbows are easier targets for cormorants and predators other than brown trout. Maybe rainbow and brown trout should not be released until they are older to obtain a more acceptable chance of reaching maturity.
Also releasing fish in broad day light at boat ramps with cormorants present, seems a contributing factor to the very low maturity rate of these fish.
Surely releasing fish at numerous places on the rivers and a higher percentage released at night would increase the maturity rate. I am sure many of the fishing clubs would be happy to assist in the distribution of hopefully larger say 25 to 30cm trout.
The fishing industry is of major importance to the tourist industry and the economy in general in the high country regions of NSW. Something must be done to rectify the current situation.
Alan and Robert Steege
Update: Robert and I attended the Jindabyne DPI Trout Strategy Workshop on the 17th May. Ninety people attended, 75% of whom were recreational anglers each with up to sixty years experience fishing for trout in this region.
The DPI recognises that fish numbers, particularly Rainbow Trout and also current stocking practises require review.
The department has employed a number of scientists to assist this study, they tended to blame a lot of the problem on climate change.
The fishos who spoke talked about current stocking practices, particularly the release of fry and fingerlings which has a very poor success rate. Generally the consensus of participants wanted larger say 25-30 cm fish released and controlled releases including night time to allow a greater chance of survival.
Gaden Hatchery were not in favour of a change in release times, saying the costs of night time releases were prohibitive and the weaker fish would be the ones at most risk.
It’s difficult to predict the outcome of this trout strategy, money is being provided by DPI, so hopefully there will be some positive results.
Even though I have for various reasons been unable to attend meetings it does not mean I no longer fish. Quite the opposite I now consider myself a fly fishing addict !
The fish in this picture was caught by me a few weeks ago in ‘my river’. I have been trying to catch this Monster, 4lb / 50cm brownie for more than a year.
The waters out west are very low and whilst it is easier to see them the reverse applies. There is bugger all visible flow and most of the fish have reverted to doing beats in pools, rather than sitting in non existent flows.
This of course makes catching them even harder than it normally is. The story has a sad end as I was in a situation I could not revive him, no flow, inhaled fly, difficult to land (reeds etc).
It was therefore with great sadness I took him home and we feasted on him with my neighbours who have been nagging me anyway to bring some catches home!
Tight lines, hope to see you soon at next meeting.
After a BIG breakfast at Raymond Terrace and lunch at Bellingen members of Lakeside and Woolly Buggers Fly Fishing Clubs arrived at Ebor in the New England National park. We had National Park accommodation in The Residence, with ample room, air-con plus outside fire pit and bbq in a very pleasant bushland setting.
The Residence
We had tea at the Ebor Pub, which was the right price and quite tasty. Warren had crumbed fish because he likes anything crumbed. I suggested crumbed greens, but he declined, preferring smokes and Pepsi max.
Next morning at gentleman’s hour (timed for the morning rise ) we set out for Coutts water, where the group had success last year.
Coutts water
We stationed ourselves on various sections of this pleasant stream, which was running fairly clear, anticipating a big catch.
My day got off to a poor start by slipping down the bank head first into cool water. My clothes eventually dried out but my waders and booties stayed wet all day. Fortunately things improved and I caught some reasonable size browns and rainbow trout to brighten my dampened spirits.
Coutts water brown trout
Tuesday was our Murray Cod excursion, after getting the good oil from the Manager of Dutton Hatchery we headed on a long journey to the Severn river west of Glen Innes.
Murray Codless Severn River
We fished the stream pictured above but there was no sign of anything. Heading further west ending at Pindari dam after a lot of dust and dirt roads, I guess I got what I deserved wanting to look for cod – a flat tyre.
Thanks to all the group for their help, especially Keith, I managed to continue the holiday with no spare, thankfully getting home okay.
Back to the trout around Ebor, the fishing got harder, but we had great meals, bacon and eggs breakfasts followed by steak and veg dinners plus plenty of beer, wine and spirits to help to fortify our fishing excursions.
The gang at Coutts water
To be honest the others were far keener than me, fishing well after dark, with some rewards.
Thanks for the great company fishos, an excellent holiday, well organised Alex, hopefully a few more fish next time, not sure about chasing those Cod again.
Many of you will have read the excellent article by Josh Hutchins in the Autumn edition of FlyLife about fishing in the Southern Highlands. I had never considered this area as a place for trout fishing, having always concentrated on either the Snowy or the Oberon areas in NSW. My interest was piqued by the article, so my mate Simon lined up a day of fishing down there.
I drove down in excellent Autumn weather, taking a tour of the Highlands area, including Don Bradman’s birth place, arriving at Moss Vale in the afternoon. After a late lunch, I checked in at the Moss Vale Caravan Park, a little way out of town, where we’d booked a cabin. It was just as well we’d booked, as that was also the weekend of the Scottish Gathering at Bundanoon, and the place was packed with grey nomads.
For those who don’t know it, Moss Vale is a lovely little town, with all the facilities you could want, including great restaurants and clubs. After Simon had spoken to our guide Angus about arrangements for the following day, we headed up to the local RSL club for an excellent dinner.
At 8am the next morning, we met up with Angus and his Land Rover Defender in the McDonald’s car park. After a brief discussion, we followed him in our car to a local creek. This was a lovely little creek, but very closed in, and we had to follow an ill-defined ‘track’ a fair way along before we had our first go at the water.
Angus setting up. Just the other side of him is a sheer 75 metre drop, straight down. That’s why I’m standing this side of him.
Angus showed us the ‘bow and arrow’ cast, which we both used a lot, as it was extremely difficult to get a proper cast in. It was mainly high stick, short line, nymph fishing with small bead heads and some dry fly action thrown in.
There seemed to be a lot of time between being able to fish, as it was always walking through brush, over and under and around logs, up and down hills, and fording the stream backwards and forwards. On one of those occasions, I went for a very cooling swim, stepping off a log straight into a deep hole, but luckily only wetting my fly boxes.
Tight water
While I didn’t see any fish, Simon managed to catch two, one a nice size for that area. However, I did manage to ‘catch’ a few leeches. Luckily no snakes were sighted, although Angus said not to worry as they were only red belly blacks.
Simon’s fish
Around 1pm, we arrived back at Angus’ car. He’d run off earlier and fetched Simon’s so we had the two together. After a very welcome lunch of quiche and fruit, we followed Angus to another local creek on private property. The going was a bit easier here, with better access to the water. Bow and arrow casts, and some ‘dapping’, although we were able to get some proper casting in too.
Again, while we saw a few rises, I didn’t see any fish. Angus reckoned you had to be there on a good day when there was a hatch on, and then the fish go mad. I would have loved to see that on the day.
As we were quite tired, hot and sweaty, we finished up around 5.30pm at beer o’clock, and said our farewells to Angus to drive back to our accommodation.
Again, the delights of the town came to the fore, and we found an excellent seafood restaurant (if you can’t catch them, eat them) for dinner, before going back to our accommodation for more drinks.
All-in-all, I thought it was a valuable learning experience, learning some new casts, and seeing a new part of really close in fly fishing I hadn’t really considered before. Possibly, ‘twig fishing’ might not be for everyone, but I think it’s worth a try, particularly if you get a good day when there are hatches on and the fish are really feeding and aggressive.
Angus is a great guide, a member of the local Acclimatisation Society, and having grown up around the area, he knows the streams like the back of his hand. He was always available to demonstrate a cast, tie on a fly or lengthen or shorten tippet.
Angus and John surveying the stream
If you’re interested in a trip, you can book through Josh at Aussie Fly Fisher, as he’s always been a good friend to the club.
