Sorry for the lack of report last week. Needed some family time and R n R on some saltwater fish on the South Coast. Needless to say the fishing was O.K with some nice Salmon and kings on fly.
Now back to the trout.
Headlines
Fishing has been great for fly anglers in Lake Eucumbene and the mountain rivers. Bait anglers have also done well in Euc with Jindabyne producing some great trolling and some nice fly fishing.
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Flyfishing
Rivers:- Have continued to fish well with plenty of fish and insects about for them to eat. Dry fly fishing has been great with plenty of varying sized fish being caught. The Thredbo has been great with some good small browns, post spawn rainbows and some thumper browns.
March flies have been a little fierce of late so long sleeves and sun gloves are an advantage.
There are a myriad of smaller streams that have been fishing well of late and certainly dries have been very effective. Light rods, light tippets and small flies are the go for some good fun in these waters.
*Daniel Wilkins took a break from the Barra and the tropics coming home to Cooma over Christmas and managed to get in some time on the streams. This is one of the better rainbows taken on a stimulator but there were bigger ones seen, missed and spooked on this day.
*Had a fantastic fishing session last week in one of the smaller streams and caught a stack of little ones with plenty in the 25cm range.
Caught and released a stack of rainbows for the day with brother in law Jose doing the same and Troy McNab catching a heap also. Fish were not big but lots of fun on the dry and 3 and 4 weight rods.
Troy with his first of the day.
Caddis and Mayflies have been hatching in many streams so patterns representing these are good options at present.
There have been many productive patterns worth using of late. Try Wullfs, Humpys, klinkhamers, parachute adams, elk hair caddis, blue wing olive, greenwells glory, black epoxied foam beetles and parachute caddis.
The Moonbah, Murrumbidgee, Gungarlin, Eucumbene, Thredbo are all great rivers to have a look at over the next few weeks.
Lake Eucumbene:- Fly reports have been excellent this week with many anglers catching some numbers of reasonable sized rainbows. There have been a few more browns showing up as well of late.
Beadhead nymphs during the daylight hours have been very good with deeper bays producing better catches. After dark mudeye and streamer patterns have been turning up a few too.
Stomach contents of the rainbows has varied but there are snails, midge, stick caddis, mudeyes and water boatman turning up regularly. Patterns to imitate these will also take fish during the day and evenings. Emerging caddis patterns can do well just prior to dark.
*Below is Jose Maria Carbonetti from Argentina with a nice and plump lake rainbow. An olive beadhead nymph took this fish and a couple of others during the late afternoon. The little 8' #3 Loomis rod was well and truly loaded up on these feisty lake rainbows.
*Alan Grey had a great daytime session at Seven Gates on Monday. Thirteen rainbows and one brown were landed from eighteen hooked. All of these were off the bank and taken on fast stripped and twitched black beadhead nymphs. Best time was between 10am and 2pm.
*Matt Sturgeon had a couple of sessions on the lake recently landing these two nice browns.
It can take several trips to work out where and what the fish are up to, so it pays to keep trying. If you are lucky and the weather conditions are favourable some great fishing can be had.
Areas to look at are Wangrabelle, Seven Gates, Buckenderra, Braemar, Springwood, Yens and Cobrabald.
Lake Jindabyne:- Jindabyne reports have improved with some mudeye activity and some nice fish about. Muddler Minnows have been working well and cubits and hi-vis mudeye patterns also taking a few fish.
Sids and Rushes bay, Kalkite are all worth a look as is Hatchery bay, Hayshed bay and Curisoity rocks.
Lake Tantangara :- No reports this week.
Trolling and Spinning
Eucumbene:- Eucumbene trolling has varied but flat linedTassies, Lofty's and Stings have taken fish along with deeper running minnows. Anglers fishing the deeper water with downriggers or leadcore are also catching some. Any of the yellow wing patterns are ideal but darker purples and blacks do enjoy success when fished deep.
Boat Launching is available in many areas. Anglers Reach, Buckenderra, Old Adaminaby, Dam wall.
Best areas to try would be Collingwood, Coppermine, Buckenderra and Angler's Reach.
Jindabyne:- Jindabyne has been fishing well though from reports received getting deep seems to the best method.
*One angler fishing his lures 30-40 feet on the downrigger reported catching ten rainbows in an hour on yellow wing tassies. Though the fish were not all big it was still an exciting session.
*Below is Claire Walsh with another beautiful Jindabyne brown taken trolling in the later part of December.
Baitfishing
The bait fishing in Eucumbene has been good with many anglers catching a couple per session. Powerbait in your favourite colour has been taking plenty of good fish and mudeyes fished deep or off the bottom is the other best bait at the moment.
Mudeyes have come into their own recently although supply of mudeyes has been sporadic. We do currently have some available but there are no guarantees as to how long they will last.
Seven Gates, Buckenderra, Cobrabald, Yens Bay, Cemetary point and Anglers Reach are the pick of the areas overall.
Jindabyne has been a little quiet report wise but will produce some excellent bait fishing as over the weekend. Mudeyes Grubs, and Powerbait will be the pick there.
Try areas like Rushes Bay, Hatchery Bay, The Clay pits, Curiosity rocks and Kalkite.
Lake Levels
Eucumbene 33.5%
Jindabyne 58.5%
Tantangara 6.9%
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.
