The Alpine Angler

Another great weekend in the Mountains, with plenty of anglers up enjoying the conditions & fishing. The fishing really has been very good both on the lakes and high country rivers, and should only get better with some warm stable weather.The country side looks better than it has in many,many years - with some much needed rain some far this season. With any luck we'll see the flyfishing really fire up leading up to Christmas - bring on the midges ! 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 few weeks , 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 being found in just about all the good soaks. There have been a few midge starting to get about with myself & Tom have a few good evenings out on Eucumbene last week - 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

*Tony Hynds & mate ( Sorry - didn't get the name ? ) from Vic did well trolling / downrigging with J-plugs up on Jindabyne last week - 27 fish to 2.6kg in three days !

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.

*The Diplomatic Fishing Tournament was held out at Buckenderra over the weekend - with 74 anglers recording 84 fish in total over the two days. Largest fish in the "open" category was actually caught by a Junior - with 12 year old Dean Keenan landing a brown of 1.4kgs. Peter Harber won the Adults section with a 1.3kg Brown and the "DEFAT" crew took out the winning Teams event. A great weekend was had by all !

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:- Better reports this week, with the 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 just about all the "Yellow Wing" patterns producing fish, as well as our own Alpine Cobra's in the "Black Hole" and "Alpine Attractor" doing well .

*The Vikings Fishing Club from Canberra also had an outing on Lake Jindabyne with the following results :-

27 adults and 12 juniors attended with 101 fish caught( 43 browns 56 rainbows and 2 atlantic salmon ) for a total weight of 70.72kg. there were 15 boats on the water and the biggest fish adult went to jeremy brown ( 1.976kg brown ) the biggest bag adult went to john didlick (10 fish ) the biggest fish junior went to jason turk ( 2.165kg brown ) the biggest bag junior went to ben hasler ( 4 fish ) and the best boat was breezabout there was also 21 fish caught and released - A great weekend was enjoyed by all - Jeff Hasler weighmaster VFC

Baitfishing

The baitfishing has been great,with some beautiful brows 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.

*Our local bait man - Johnny "Scrubworm" with a thumping 4kg brown caught on a mudeye out at Eucumbene Friday night

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: 28/11/2005