Well that’s not entirely true – we do get a few falls here each winter. What was amazing about the last 24 hours was how sustained the cold was: the temperature hardly rose above 1 C and spent many hours below zero.
Snow blankets the landscape around Millbrook.
It’s been a week that hasn’t encouraged too much fishing across most of the south-east: First storm force winds from the Snowys Mountains to Tasmania, and then a brutal cold snap. One friend in north-east Tasmania is into his third day without power and floods have ruined any chance of his usual trout opening stream fish today. He’s resourceful though, so I’m sure he’ll find a lake somewhere that’s not frozen over to substitute.
The snow coming down outside yesterday – good weather for choosing magazine covers!
Back here near Ballarat, Andrew and I had put off our FlyStream meeting-then-fish day until we’d run out of days, so it was yesterday or nothing. It was good weather to get some work done with snow swirling outside and no sign of a break. Then, with little over an hour of daylight left, we decided to head out anyway for a quick cast on one of Millbrook’s lakes. Despite light snow and cloud, we managed to sight a couple of fish (just) cruising the edges.
A snow-dusted Andrew proving it’s possible to catch a trout when it’s zero degrees.
One thing about low light – the trout aren’t too shy about coming in close. Andrew caught a nice one on a red buzzer, while I missed my two chances with a stick caddis. Then, a combination of an incoming blizzard swallowing the nearby hills, failing light and fingers that weren’t working anymore, sent us gratefully back to the car.
