For my former www.nakedtrout.com.au blog readers this is where you’ll find me blogging in future. In this FlyStream blog I’ll focus on the the Snowy Mountains lakes and rivers. The old website is still there of course with details of charters, Dixieland, and the cottage.

This week the weather has been kind. As Sydney dealt with storms and a small typhoon, a stable weather pattern settled over the mountains inviting us to head south for a day on the boat on Eucumbene. It’s a 2 hour drive but always takes longer with intelligence procurement en route. Alec at the Cooma Four Mile BP confirmed the slow start to the year was yet to speed up. Alec showed his picture of a 70 cm brown from the weekend, and reported yabby bed fishing as ‘the only way’; Steve S reported a lack of catches from Khancoban, Jindabyne and Eucumbene. However the night before was a cause for optimism with an ant hatch and plenty of rises, if only a couple of fish; Steve C lost a good fish in the same rise after a 4th run onto the backing before it spat the size 14 beetle.

I pulled up at John’s but he was out and his rods were missing off the deck so that meant something. We launched at Old Adaminaby and the lake was a picture; blue sky with 20% cloud, mostly cumulus with some dark nimbus to the south; water temperature 16 degrees C and a light ripple. The wind was forecast at 3 m/s backing off to 2 and then 1. We headed for Cobrabold and spent the afternoon and early evening fishing loch style among a lake surface covered in insects. Ants, soldier beetles, moths, black beetles and midge. We used the drogue when the wind was up, but by 4 pm it had calmed off and we drifted aimlessly. Whenever the sun went behind a cloud we had rising fish; near the boat and pretty much all over the bay. We fished an assortment of dries, nymphs, and Buggers but couldn’t touch a fish – and neither as far as we could tell did the other 3 boats fishing the bay, or the fishermen dotted along the shoreline. We fished sinking, intermediate and floating lines through to dusk and the only thing I didn’t try was a team of midge. Not sure why, I think the smorgasbord of surface bugs made me think they weren’t selective feeding. But then on the way home I remembered the one bit of intel that should have been front of mind – a fish caught and dispatched the night before in an ant hatch, had been chock full of midge. The really good thing was seeing so many fish on the surface and knowing there are some ripping fish to be had once the code is cracked. Tight tippets all!