Headlines: Both lakes have fished well this past week but Jindabyne has been really firing. Some great fish have been taken by both bank and boat anglers. Lake Eucumbene has been fishing well with some nice fat fish still being caught. Recent rains have kept the all rivers flowing well and it is looking really good for the opening in a few weeks time.
There has been some ramp work done at Angler's Reach recently. One is at Angler's Reach Caravan park. Though not usable at present, as the lake rises it will provide useful access. The other is located past the caravan park, on the right, near the end of the main road. This ramp is usable now.
Other launching in Eucumbene is available at Old Adaminaby, The Dam Wall and Buckenderra.
Trout Festival 2008 - It's on again this November, The 35th Yamaha and Freshwater Fishing Snowy Mountains Trout Festival. Dates for the week long competition are Saturday the 1st of November - Friday 7th of November 2008.
Once again prizes will include a Boat, Motor and Trailer package, Category prizes for Trolling, Spinning, Fly and Bait fishing, daily secret weight cash prizes, plus an overall secret weight cash prize. The fishing is bound to be excellent and it is a great family orientated event. Book your holidays early and don't miss the countries premier Trout Fishing event.
Flyfishing
Rivers:- Now all closed till October.
Lake Eucumbene:- Fly reports have been good with some quality Rainbows showing up in the the Braemar Bay area. Late afternoon searching with Woolly Buggers and Tom Jones Beadheads has produced the goods. Evenenings have been good too with Lumos and Craigs.
*Victor and Eric from the Lakeside Fly fishing club in Sydney had a couple of good afternoon sessions at Braemar Bay on the weekend. They landed two Rainbows and six Browns averaging about 750gms. The best fishing was in the shallows later in the evenings before dark. Best fly was a large olive Damsel Nymph pattern. They reported that despite the walk to the water the fishing was quite good with plenty of fish rising as well.
Polaroiding is still an option for Browns in the Dam Wall area or searching with a streamer on an intermediate sinking line, will find you fish during the day if visibilty is limited. Best area to do this is the dam wall and some of the steeper shores adjacent to this. Try using Olive Matukas, Beadhead Woolly Buggers, and nymphs.
The River end of the lake fired on the weekend with some great Rainbows being taken.
Best areas to look at are Dam Wall, Collingwood, Coppermine and Old Adaminaby.
Lake Jindabyne:- Jindabyne again turned on some great polaroiding during the week. There have been both Browns and pre spwan Rainbows in many areas. The Eastern shore early in the day and the Western shore in the early to late afternoon are the best options. If you have a boat that will give you more shoreline access. Don't despair if you are only on foot, as with a little persistence, you can still find fish.
There were good reports from virtually everyone who has ventured out for a look, on the lake this week. Seems to be more Rainbows than Browns being spotted but there are still some large Browns to be found. The Rainbows have been a little picky with flies, so if you are getting follows but no takes, keep changing till you find something that works.
Best flies to use on fish that are stationary or moving slow are small #14 and #16 Midge Pupa, Stick Caddis, Cased Caddis, Black and Peacock Spider. If the fish are cruisers and not laying doggo try a larger # 8 or #10 Woolly Bugger, Jinde Specials, Olive Matukas, or Woolly Worms. Leading the fish by a considerable amount can be important, especially if it is really calm.
Night time fishing has been good with the current moon as well. With large wets and some glowing flies.
*Leo Harding sent us this photo of his 58cm brown trout that he caught recently at Lake Jindabyne. He was fishing with Neil Nelson (President) and Adam Kearns from the Illawarra Flyfishers club. In the photo Adam is seen in the background putting his boots on after getting his feet wet to net Leo's fish. What great mates!
Best areas to look at are Sids Bay, Hatchery Bay, Creel Bay, Kangaroo Bay, and Kalkite.
Lake Tantangara :- No reports access is difficult due to snow.
Trolling and Spinning
Eucumbene:- Trolling reports have been good with some really quality fish. Big Rainbows are the main target at present both getting deep and on flatlines depending on the conditions. Working deeper open water will find some quality fish.
Covering as much country as possible with a good array of different depth lures, fished at a good speed, should find a few fish. The Rainbows have been on Daphnia, so greenish and yellow wing lures are good options. Fish have been sounded at 30ft as a regular occurance this week, so fishing deep as well as shallow is a good idea.
The good old Yellow wing (#36) and Y48 Tassie have been great colours of late in Eucumbene. The Snowy Minnow, while more commonly used as a spinning lure has worked on the troll this weeks too. RMG Scorpions colour R32 is a great newish colour, that looks alot like a Crucian Carp. These would do well around the edges of the main basin, with reports of numbers of these small forage fish in numbers in close.
Ultra deep Merlins are another good diving lure that get down to a considerable depth and are great fish takers. Browns love them.
Launching access is available at Angler's Reach Buckenderra, Old Adaminaby and The Dam Wall
Jindabyne:- More excellent reports have come in from Jindabyne over the last week. The trolling has been very good. Spinning from the shore or boat with plastics and minnows has been deadly on the fish as well.
*Danny from Queanbeyan had a good early morning session at Kalkite, where he hooked six and landed three. Fish landed were Rainbows in the 1kg size range. One was taken on a Frog Flatfish the others on MN coloured Rapalas.
*An unkown angler (but prossibly known to Lemmo as Andrew Butt) had a great troll and spin session at Kalkite during the middle of last week. Trolling a Rainbow Trout Attack minnow on flat lines, he landed four quality Rainbows to 1.3kg and released two. Later spinning with a Rainbow Trout Squidgy Fish he hooked and landed a great 64cm, 2.5kg Brown. Very good fish and top fun on the 1kg line that Andrew was using. Really great effort. Photo below.
*Local angler Andy and his son Matt from Sydney had a interesting day at the Lake on the weekend. They spent the day spinning with various lures and had plenty of follows from some good Browns, but struggled to get a bite. As it turned out Andy hooked and landed a very impressive 65cm, 2.6kg Brown, with the fish taking a Vibrax Minnow Spin lure. Andy was a little unsure for a while that the new rod he purchased was a dud, obviously now it is a very lucky rod. They reported seeing another angler hook and land a very good fish in the same area. Andy dropped one on Bait too. Curiosity Rocks was the area fished. Picture added below.
Tantangara:- No Reports.
Baitfishing :- Bait fishing has been excellent in Jindabyne with Scrub worms and Gulp Power bait. Quality fish are coming in from the Rushes Bay, Waste point Kalkite and Hatchey Bay areas.
Power Bait is still a great option and will take fish when things are quiet. Lime Twist and Lemon Twist are very good colours, with the Gulp Pastes also a great bait to try.
*Paul and Leslie Lawson from Wollongong had a great weekend Skiing during the day and they only fished two evenings. Using Gulp Powerbait they landed two Browns to 60cms and five Rainbows to 55cm. Leslie was very happy with her 60cm Brown. The fish were in great condition with the Browns full of Yabbies. Rushes Bay was the area they fished.
*Hi Tom and the gang.
Had a fish Jindabyne, Kalkite area with Colin on Saturday afternoon into the night, the wind to say the least was bad,we managed three fish two rainbows around 2lb each and this brown which was 60 cm long and weighed 5lb.the wind finally sent us packing around 11.45 pm,all fish were caught once again on chunky cheese powerbait,
Cheers David Baker and Colin Palmer
There will be some great fishing for Rainbows in the next few weeks in both lakes with some really fat fish in Eucumbene and some nice ones in Jindabyne as well.
There have been a few Browns that have already spawned turning up in Eucumbene so these fish will be very hungry as they try to put on some condition after running the river. A good time to be soaking a bait in the Anglers Reach/Old Adaminaby area. The Dam Wall can produce late in the day and early in the morning at this time of year. Powerbait is the pick here as you can float it above the bottom on light hooks and keep it out of the weed and rocks. Very effective.
There are still plenty of Pre Spawn Rainbows about at the moment and these have been incredibly fat and well conditioned fish. PowerBait is probably the pick of the baits for these fish with Orange, Sherbert and the Lime and Lemon Twists being very popular with these hard fighting fish.
It can still be very cold at night and early morning despite the slightly warmer days recently. Gloves and beanies are a must.
Best areas in Eucumbene would be The Dam wall, Old Adaminaby/Cemetary point andCollingwood bay areas.
In Jindabyne try Rushes Bay, Sids, Waste Point, Creel Bay and Kalkite
Lake Levels
