Headlines:  The fishing in the Snowy area just does not get any better at present.  Lake Eucumbene is firing in a major way.  Jindabyne has produced some class fish and a monster!  Rivers have had plenty of activity on dry flies and lures.  Bait fishing in the lakes has been very good. 

Wind has been the only downside of late but with patience and persistance you can find still find some areas with a little protection for bank fishing at least.

The fishing is that good that we must remind anglers that the bag limit in lakes is five fish per day, with a ten fish possession limit.

Store Trading Hours

Mon-Thursday  9am - 5:30pm

Friday       9am - 7pm

Saturday  7am - 5pm

Sunday     8am - 4:30pm

We are open everyday except Christmas Day, over the holiday period.

Flyfishing

Rivers:-  Mountain streams have had a good top up over the weekend with the Eucumbene flowing stongly.  Levels will drop fairly quickly and will provide some god fishing over the next week.  Weather and temps have been cool recently but with a return to some warmer days the dry fly fishing is going to be sensational.

Dry flies to use at the moment are small emergers like Klinkhamers, Blue wing olive parachutes, attractors like Wullfs and Stimulators, along with beetles and hoppers.

There have been alot of small hoppers showing and this augers well for the coming weeks.

  A nymph suspended under the dry during the day is a good method to use, but a dry at dusk will have best results.

Other rivers to fish are the  Thredbo, Moonbah, Mac, Snowy, Gungarlin, and a few other smaller high country creeks.

Lake Eucumbene:-  The lake is offically firing.  With fishing being very good despite some wind and warm days.  Reports of great fishing around the edges are still flooding in with literally cricket score catches.  Daytime fishing has been spectacular plenty of nice rainbows searching the edges along with a few browns.  Midges and caddis have been the main insects hatching but there all sorts of food being taken by the fish.  Snails, corixa, damsels, beetles, mudeyes, tadpoles, daphnia and hoppers have all been on the menu.  You need to find the areas where the fish are working.  They are not everywhere.  If you fish an area for more than thirty minutes without a few hits, move on.  When you find some fish there are usually a few to catch before they wise up or move on.  If you stand in the one spot you will catch fish.  If you move around a bit you will catch many more.  Shallower weedy, grassy soaks have been the best areas along with some of the deeper banks next to the soaks. 

Thistles have been causing a few bust offs in some areas but most anglers are putting up with losing a few as there are plenty of fish working in these areas.

Areas to look at are Seven gates, Buckenderra, Braemar, Cobrabald, Waiunui, Coppermine, Collingwood, Yens, Wangrabelle, Springwood 

Night fishing on the whole has been a little quiet.  There has been so much good daytime fishing that the nights have been for sleeping rather than flogging away in the dark for the odd fish.

*I had a daytime Boxing Day sesssion and managed to get nine rainbows to the bank plus missed and dropped a few.  All fish on beadhead nymphs in about sz 12 or 14.  All fish were rainbows and were released.

*Fished again on Saturday with Sturg.  Second cast produced a nice fish and that was the start of my best ever session on the lake.  Ended up with twenty three for the afternoon and Sturg landed eight.  All were rainbows in the 40-50cm size range and full of fight. Nymphs took the majority of the fish with a few on midge balls on dark.  Spectacular fishing.

*Bushy has been fishing the lake regularly of late and said he has simply lost count of how many fish he has caught on the fly.  It really is that good.

*Matt, Stuart and young Harry Sturgeon had a good couple of days on the lake with some nice fish landed on the fly.  Didn't hear how many they caught but they sent through a couple of photos.

Matt with a chunky brown

Below - Harry with a very nice rainbow. Well done Harry

We have heard reports of an angler catching 71, 45 and 35 fish in a day and I would believe it.  Best lake fishing in ages at the moment.  Don't miss out!

Lake Jindabyne:-  The fishing in Jindabyne has still been quite good and better than expected. The lake continues to rise and there are some good fish to be caught cruising the edges during the day.  Evenings and early mornings produced better fishing overall and after dark has seen some nice rainbows coming in.  With the way Eucumbene is fishing at present it would be a better option on the fly.

Areas to look at are Sids Bay, Hatchery Bay, Creel Bay, Hayshed, and East Jindabyne

Lake Tantangara :-  No reports.

Trolling and Spinning 

We now have Sting Cobras back in stock.

Our Rapala Minnow indent has just arrived with trout patterns from 1cm to 11cm.

New Bushy's Stiffy Devilfish Vibes are in stock.

Eucumbene:-   Trolling has been good with some excellent reports coming in.

Fishing in close in the shallower bays with small lures like Crickhoppers, Rapala CD1 and Strike Pro Vibes is going to get you some good rainbows.  The fish are in close in these areas as it is where the food is.  Holding the rod is a good idea as you can lift and drop the rod depending on the depth so the lure won't hang up ont

White rocks, Anglers Reach and Coppermine areas have been very good.  Top water lures like Tassies and small shallow minnows have been the beat overall but there are some good fish being caught deeper too.

Leadcore or a downrigger has been good in some of the deeper bays or where the fish are on daphnia.  Daphnia has been large part of the diet of rainbows at present. Yellow wing tassies and green tassies are usually the go in this situation. 

Trout pattern minnows in Rapalas, Attacks, RMG Scorpions, Rebels, and Alex lures are great lures to try.  Try some of the larger lures down deep to search out the bigger browns.

The new Stiffy Devilfish Vibes have been starting to clean up on a few fish.  These lures have a very tight action at slower speeds and get reasonably deep for such a little lure.  Have a look at them soon.

Spinning off the bank with Celtas, Tassies, Snowy Minnows and plastics is another method working in the lake at the moment.

*Greg fished with the Sturgeon brothers and caught his first ever trout this week.  Well done Greg.  The fish was caught on the old faithful Celta.

 Boat launching in Eucumbene is available at Old Adaminaby, The Dam Wall, Anglers Reach, Buckenderra.

Jindabyne:-  Jindabyne trolling reports have picked up dramatically with both rainbows and browns on the chew. 

*Mornings have been the best with one angler catching nine in a session,  he drove back to Canberra that day realised that the fishing was just too good and headed up again the next morning for another seven fish.

*Tracey Blundell has caught on the weekend, what is possibly the biggest fish for the year out of the lake.  This magnificent fish weighed 16lb 4oz on the digital scales.  Taken trolling a small Strike Pro minnow on leadcore Tracey knew it was a good one but according to father Ray, all legs on the boat went to jelly when it first surfaced.  Ray had the rather unenvious task of getting it in the net but did the job well and it was smiles alround.  When asked how long the fish took to land Tracey uttered one word. "Ages"!

The fish has gone to Skins Alive to be mounted as a life lasting trophy.

Baitfishing :- 

Mudeyes have been a key bait over the last week though Powerbait is still doing exceptionally well in Eucumbene. 

*As well as catching them on fly, Harry Sturgeon likes pulling them in on the bait rod too.  Another great fish that would make even dad jealous.

There have been some very good success stories this week out of Eucumbene.  Mudeyes continue to be the pick of the baits.  Reports of ten fish in a session have been common.   

Eucumbene  25.7%

Jindabyne    59.3%

Tantangara     8.3%

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.