Headlines: Fishing has been great recently with some fantastic Autumn weather. In the rivers a few early spawners are on the cards anytime now. Bait fishing in the lakes has been excellent and some good trolling and flyfishing in the lakes.
Anglers need to pay attention to the dropping levels of the lakes. Underwater obstacles are starting to appear in some areas and these can be dangerous if hit at high speed. If unsure of the area go slow and keep an eye out.
Store Trading Hours
Mon-Thursday 9am - 5:30pm
Friday 9am - 7pm
Saturday 7am - 5.30pm
Sunday 8am - 4:30pm
Flyfishing
Rivers:- It is that time of year when the browns will start to make an apperance in the Eucumbene and Thredbo rivers as they run to spawn. While it may be a little early, reports suggest that there are a few fish doing their thing already. More rain is need for a fresh run of fish. Possibly later this week if we get some rain.
Glo bugs and nymphs will be the standard patterns of choice but you could also include a few woolly buggers as well.
From May 1st both theses rivers have a bag limit of one fish per angler and this fish must be 50cm or larger. Fish under 50cm must be released.
Nymphing will be the best method when conditions are cool on all the other streams in the area. If you happen to jag a day when there is a large high pressure system with a windless warmer day then, you may still find a few fish will take a dry.
Lake Eucumbene:- The lake has been a little hit and miss but there are still enough of those fat rainbows around to keep most anglers happy. A few more browns have started to show though the rainbows are out numbering them considerably. The top end around Anglers Reach appears to be producing a few more of the browns. Seven Gates and Crowes area has been very good as has the whole Middilingbank arm.
The fish have had a mixture of snails, daphnia and mudeyes in their stomachs.
Lake Jindabyne:- Jindabyne has been great in the evenings with some very nice rainbows on dark. There have been some really good browns starting to cruise the edges and these have been suckers for a small woolly bugger. There is a heap of weed in many of the bays and though this is making fishing a little tough it is also drawing the fish in to the food that it holds.
Lake Tantangara :- No reports from Tantangara.
Trolling and Spinning
Eucumbene:- Trolling has been good overall with many lure types producing fish. Leadcore in deeper water has been a good producer over the last two weeks. . Trout pattern minnows in Rapalas, Attacks, RMG Scorpions have worked well with Tassies in multitudes of patterns turning up some great fish. Lofty's in the Corroboree pattern have been very good also.
Best areas for trolling continue to be Cobrabald, Waiunui, Collingwood, and the main basin area.
Jindabyne:- Jindabyne trolling reports have been pretty good in the Kalkite and waste point area along with the eastern side around Sids bay.
*Dear Alpine Angler,
Spent a few days last week (4-8 May) camped up near the Thredbo River, fishing Lake Jindabyne. In 3 1/2 days early morning fishing mainly, I managed to hook-up to 19 fish, however, dropped 8 of them and released 1. In my frustration at dropping so many fish, I managed to catch up with Chris (Maintenance at Snowline Caravan Park, Jindabyne) and outlined my dismay. He gave me a really handy pointer and put me onto the use of 2 single hooks tied together behind the tassies I was using. He suggested my drop rate was due to the treble hooks???...........well I can say, I'm convinced the single lure hooks used with tassies actually work !!!!
The next morning I trolled over the same water as where I lost a couple fish the previous morning. And low and behold, I manged to land the best Brown of my life, closely followed by the best Rainbow !!!! Brown was a hen, and came in at 59cm (5lb 9oz). I then turned and trolled the same stretch and hit a nice 49cm (3lb 1oz) rainbow. My two best trout thus far in the space of 30mins apart! I was absolutely stoked !!!!.....I didn't drop hardly a fish after then.......it wouldn't have mattered anyway, I was pretty happy.......
The action was pretty hot around Waste Point / Creel Bay area, and although I did do some early morning flatlining, virtually all my fish were caught on leadline (3 colours), using a Pink Bomber Tassie. Just before sunrise till about 9am was the peak period.
Thanks very much guys ! Tight lines.........
Paul Gay of Albury
Baitfishing :-
Mudeyes are scarce but the worm and powerbait fishing has been good enough that most have given up using mudeyes. Powerbait has come into its own this past week. Remember to fish it on the bottom but with a light gauge short shank hook, like the Gamakatsu single egg or Daiichi 2171 in a sz 6 are perfect. Best colours have been the Chartreuse and Sherbert nuggets along with Gulp Chunky Cheese paste. Scrub worms have been doing very well over the last week as well.
*Hi guys,
I went fishing at Kalkite from 4.30 to 9.30 pm last Saturday night and caught four rainbows, two on worm, one on chunky cheese gulp bait and one on lime twist powerbait.
Anthony
