The Alpine Angler

Headlines: Despite the howling gale on Saturday there weresome nice fish caught by those that persisted. The main lakes continue to produce some excellent bank fishing, with Eucumbene rising nearly 2% in a week and the fishing has definitely picked up off the bank here with the rise. Access is now much better with hard banks to fish off.

With the continued snow melt Eucumbene should continue to rise well into Spring.

Water flows for the streams on the opening weekend are looking perfect at this stage also. There are lots of rainbows in the Eucumbene and Thredbo.

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 and reports suggest it is very good.

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.

Lake Eucumbene:- The fishing has improved in Eucumbene with several reports of fish cruising the shallows in the early mornings. These should respond well to a small streamer like a Tom Jones or Olive Matuka.

The Seven Gates area has started to produce a few for bank anglers and late afternoon spent searching with streamers and small wets is a very good option. Nightime fishing will improve with the warmer weather we are experienceing this week. A few early Midge pupa will be hatching and the fish will be onto these.

Rainbows can be found schooling in the Dam wall area at this time of year and are suckers for a Wooly Bugger, Matuka, Wooly worm and Epoxy trout fry pattern.

Best areas to look at are Seven Gates, Dam Wall, Buckenderra and Old Adaminaby.

Lake Jindabyne:- The fishing in Jindabyne continues to produce some really good browns and excellent polaroiding. While not every fish that you see will be hooked on a good day you will get plenty of shots at cruising fish. 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.

*Hello Tom,
Russell Rose and I spent a couple of days at Jindabyne during the past week.We didn't have any luck with the polaroiding as the rising water level seemed to have pushed the fish beyond our viewing range... younger eyes may have seen them. However we had good action at times, loch styling(drifting)from the boat.We managed 10 browns ranging from 55 to 62 cm.As you can see from the photos(sorry about the poor quality) the fish were in great condition.Also picked up some rainbows and 2 pretty little 30 cm brookies.The couple of browns we kept were full of small green yabbies with the odd crucian carp as well.Small black woolly buggers with a little bit of lureflash in the tail seemed to do the trick.As often happens,as the wind picked up, so did the catch rate. Photo's may not be the best quality but the fish quality is great.

*Kieran O'Shannassy has been at it again with the these two great browns polaroided in the lake. He only saw the two and did well to get both. Really pretty fish. Photo's below.

Have not received any night time reports but there will be some nice browns to be had in some of the bays on the Western side of the lake after dark. Think big Muddler Minnows, Sunset flies and Fuzzy Wuzzys. Best areas to look at are Sids Bay, Hatchery Bay, Creel Bay, Kangaroo Bay, and Kalkite.

Eucumbene:- Most anglers are catching some fish but not always in big numbers. 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. Browns will start to make an appearance as they look for food after spawning. Deep diving minnows will get down to fish when trolling in close and this is where you should find the Browns.

Alex Tango lures in some new Yabby colours would be good in theis scenario, Stumpjumers, Bennett Deep and Ultra Deeps, Rapala Taildancers and Glass Shad Raps, Oar-gees, and Cultiva Mira Shads are other good lures to use when targeting browns on the troll. Tassies and Alpine Cobras will also take the occasional brown near the surface too. Best to cover you depth spectrum with a few differnent types and stlyes of lures.

Best areas to look at this week are the Dam wall, Main basin, Buckenderra and Grace lea.

Launching access is available at Angler's Reach Buckenderra, Old Adaminaby and The Dam Wall

Jindabyne:- Not many reports have come in from Jindabyne over the last week. The trolling will continue to be good, with the Eastern shoreline having been the most consistent over the past two weeks. Spinning from the shore or boat with plastics and minnows has been deadly on the fish as well.

*Reports of two very good browns came in from Jindabyne this week at 3.2 and 4.5kg they were crackers. The Anglers were from Albury and were using larger 13cm Rapalas. They found that the best method was to give the lure plenty of action by holding the rod in the hand and ripping it forward, then letting the rod drop back, leaving the lure motionless, before ripping it again. Great quality fish!

*Hi Tom, After reading an article of some Tassie Anglers using switchblades in Arthurs Lake like the Ecogear VX35s thought I would have a go with them at Jindy. It was pretty filthy weather last Sunday which made trolling hard so I started having a few casts with a VX35 in shad pattern. On the 6^th cast I got absolutely smashed and blown away by a bloody big brown in the shallows. (4lb leader) I was casting the switchblade at the shore of a small bay and working it into the deeper water with gentle rod lifts allowing it to sink and flutter to the bottom. I am going to do some more work with them over the next couple of months and will let you know how I get on. They are an interesting lure, because they cast like a bullet, and you can target fish at any depth spectrum with them. It is pretty exciting fishing them in the shallow bays around the weed bed edges. Think I will up the leader a bit as they are pretty expensive when you leave them in browns gobs. Burnsy

*Tom and Joel Penders from Canberra had a very succesful one hour trolling session late last week at Kalkite. They caught two rainbows of 42 and 58cms as well as two browns of 45 and 55cm. Rapalas in brook trout, frog Flatfish, and coachdog flatfish were the best lures. Couple of photo's below.

Tantangara:- No Reports.

Baitfishing :- Bait fishing has been excellent in Jindabyne with Gulp Power bait and standard Powerbait. Quality fish are coming in from the Rushes Bay, Waste point Kalkite and Hatchey Bay areas.

*Paul and Connor from Canberra persisted in the wind at Seven Gates on Saturday and Sunday. They hooked a total of twelve fish landing seven. Six were Rainbows and one Brown. Lime twist and Orange Nugget Powerbait were the pick of the baits. They reported seeing a few rising and one big fish cruising in close.

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.

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.

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Archive Date: 01/10/2008