The Alpine Angler

We've had some great fishing again over the last week , with weather to match. The browns are definitely back in the lakes with some great polaroiding on Lake Jindabyne over the last few weeks.The trolling and baitfishing has also been pretty consistent ,with plenty of fish still coming in. August and September can be fantastic months - just pick the weather and get out there. Remember to call in to the store for a cuppa in front of the fire on your way through or home and we'll update any further details on the day

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 !

Lake Eucumbene:- There are always a few fish sneaking around the Eucumbene river mouth up at Providence.Just remember you have to be out side of any visible flowing water during the closed season on the rivers. Basically so long as your well below the first set of rapids flowing above the lake you can continue to fish right through winter.There will still be some nice browns about for the next month or so,before the rainbows run from August onwards.Intermediate lines and large streamers are the way to go - just pack the woollies.There have been some nice rainbows down around the Buckenderra / Middling bank Frying pan area with fish to 2kgs being taken.Patterns worth having in your box include Woolly buggers,Fuzzy wuzzies, Craig's night times,Tiahapy ticklers and lumo baby dolls.Remember to up your tippet after dark to atleast 8lb as there's always a chance of a BIG one at this time of year.We should also see some polaroiding up around the Eucumbene cover over the next few months - always an area worth a look through winter

Jindabyne:- The browns are defiantly about now - so keep an eye on the weather map for those BIG high pressure systems and get out on the lake for a look - it's great fishing

Most areas in the lake will produce fish , with a boat providing better access to the lesser fished shore lines. Best flies for polaroiding include :-woolly bugger's, and fuzzy wuzzy's, Bushy's Horror's,sand cases caddis,black and peacocks, midges etc

G'Day Scotto/Tom,

Managed to get up to Jindy on Saturday. Fortunately the weather was great
until around 2:30pm when the wind started to come up. Plenty of fish about.
Managed to land 3 after spotting around 30 - in fact I was spooking fish
with the boat just about every time I pulled up on a new section of bank.
Lots of fish feeding over the weed beds but are very difficult to spot and
are feeding on something quite small - midge pupa I suspect . The ones that
ate the fly were those tuned in on the yabbies and found in shallow water
around the muddy banks.

Took a few pics with the digital. Unfortunately Dave couldn't make it which
was a real shame as the footage would have been great. Ended up fishing
alone so the photos are not the best - were taken with rod in one hand camera in the other!

*Hey Scott - Here is a bit of a report, unfortunately someone confidently left the camera at home so no photo.

Saturday was a ripper day on Jindabyne but unfortunately with mandatory time spent at the Alpine Angler Dad and I were on the water a couple of hours later than probably would have been ideal. At 12:00 we had lunch at the car and being my first time polaroiding I was wondering how hard these little blighters would be to when I spotted one whilst munching on a lamington from the car. Of course I managed to spook it before I even got a cast off, but it was a promising start none the less. With beautiful blue skies and an amazing stillness, unknown to those who frequent Eucumbene, we set off. Within 15 minutes we had seen 3 fish but had no luck enticing takes with buzzers or caddis. The next half an hour or so was quiet until we got to some great weed beds. Fish all of a sudden started appearing all over the place. A couple of half decent casts were got away, fish inspected flies, but alas no take. After seeing about 20 fish I decided I'd had enough of the buzzer and switched itched to the woolly bugger. I set off to look for another fish when the lake, obviously realising I was onto something, conspired against me, the wind came up and there would be no more fish spotted that day. Not to be deterred I decided that I would still cast the woolly bugger around where all these fish had been cruising. Second cast I was onto a nice two and half pound rainbow. After that there were a few more takes on the woolly bugger but no solid hook-ups. The fishing was great despite only landing one and with a bit more experience at polaroiding fish I probably would have had a few more. One thing is for sure I'll be back at the lakes this weekend to have another crack at the Jindy trout.

Eucumbene:- The trolling really has been HOT on Eucumbene over the last few weeks with some thumping rainbows 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, although that may now change with some rain. 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 55, 72, Y82 & Y62. Our own Alpine Cobra's in the Alpine Attractor, Black hole and Alpine Special patterns, Rebel crickhoppers and crawfish,Rapala Jointed shad raps,ultra deep Merlins,Stump Jumpers and RMG Scorpions & Poltergeist.This Polaroiding capers not limited to the fly anglers either - I had a go at throwing a Berkeley 2" Hawg at them on an unweighted 90 degree jig hook - and got a few lovely browns to eat straight away.Just get it in front of them as quietly as possible and give it a twitch as they come onto it - great fun

Dear Scott and team - Here is a report from last weekend. I fished with Col from Buckenderra on Friday for 10 magic trout. We let a couple go as well. All Rainbows (800gram to 1 kg) except for the last fish of the day and that was a Brown as attached (1.8kg), it took a Jointed Shad-Rap. The Rainbows were going mad on your Alpine Attractor on leadcore or flatline. The weather was absolutely beautiful all day but we only fished from 1030am till 230pm. Saturday saw another beautiful day so I took my wife Dianne out. We caught another 7 Rainbows in 6 hours again about the same size. Let a few more fish go today. Kelly and Ben fished out of their boat for 3 fish on Saturday. Sunday saw a day with a little wind but we got a few hours in and Di and I boated just 2 fish. Di let another one go. Kelly and Ben got 4 today 3 Rainbows and a Brown about the same size as mine. The fishing was all within one kilometre of the boat ramp. It was good to see the new Maritime Officer on the water on Saturday. He was checking all boats on the water. He said what he does is initially check you out, inputs it into his laptop and has all your information on board for next time. This does not mean you skimp on safety gear. We all wear our Stormy Seas and he was quite impressed. If anglers are not aware as yet it is now compulsory to were a PFD in a vessel less than 4.8mts in all Victorian waters. The great thing about these PFD's is you do not know you have them on. Anyhow see you next week.

Regards Alan

*Eustice Tonna & Hannu Hovi from Canberra fished out from Buckenderra using cowbells and minnows for 17 rainbows and 3 browns averaging 40cm.

*Mario - of "Snowy Minnows" Fame at Anglers Reach reports of some great spinning to be had around the margins.Both rainbows and browns in good condition to 2.8kgs.

Jindabyne:- Best reports have been down around the islands in front of the main township,East Jindabyne and along the Western side of Kalkite.Both flatlines and up to 3 colours of lead line are worth running with the same lure patterns as mentioned above.Gaden trout hatchery have released a heap of ex-brood stock Atlantic Salmon last month - so we can expect to see some more BIG salmon show up over the next few months

Hey Scotto, as promised here is the photo's and a short report of the weekends fishing at Eucumbene and Jindabyne. The Photo's aren't quite as good as I had hoped though.

My father (Andrew) and Brother (James) fished Middlingbank, Hatchery Bay and Wollondibby Inlet mostly shore based spinning and found the fishing to be pretty consistent. Middlingbank saw 1/2 dozen Rainbows up to 1.1kg taken on Berkley Frenzy's and McGrath's Original Minnows (shallow). Only 1 small Rainbow was taken on Orange Powerbait but we mainly concentrated on spinning. All fish in Middlingbank were hard up against the bank and all full of Yabbies

At Hatchery Bay we caught a handful of mini-Salmon about 40cm before the wind drove us away. They were caught on Spanyid Freshwater Maniac Spoons retrieved at medium pace.

Wollondibby appeared to be firing, a couple of Rainbows around 1kg and a lone, thin, post-spawn Brown of about 50cm were caught on Rapala Vibrax Minnow Spins in only 1 hours spinning. A lone Fly Fisho managed 4 fish in 5 casts in here and a few other fish were missed.All in all the Trouting was pretty good.

See You Next Time - Matt

*Andrew Love trolled Kalkite with flatfish for 5 rainbows averaging 1kg in only 3 hours on Sunday morning.

*Mario Imbriano,Chris De La Ru,Frank Res and Keith Smith from the Canberra fishermans club trolld out from Braemar Bay using mostly Rebel crawfish and Merlin minnows for "atleast" a dozen good fish - mostly rainbows averaging around 1kg.

Baitfishing

The best rig through winter is combining scrub worms 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.

#Please note that we haven't been able to secure any more bardie grubs and will let you know once we can find a supplier.

Powerbait Dropper Rig

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 :-

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Archive Date: 10/08/2005