Actually, (previous post) I wasn’t suggesting that the only fly anyone should use is a black Wooly Bugger. In fact, ‘au contraire’! I did wonder however, as I hauled in a fish taken on an orange nymph behind a BWB, and watched fish after fish flashing at it as we lifted the flies on the hang (at Providence) what it is that attracts them? As the picture shows, there are an infinite number of Buggers on the market using the same formula. Body chennile, tail Marabou, palmered hackle, with endless varieties of head, weight, and beading; this is Col Sinclair’s “Snowies Pick” at the Adaminaby Angler. And they go by different names too. In England there are some called Dog Nobblers and there are endless variations by different names like the Magoo, the Shrek, and the Singe, each of which is someone’s favourite.

A big question of the week is, can you catch tadpole feeders on a Bugger? Well of course you can but there’s a better pattern in ‘Australias’s Best Trout Flies Revisited’ Click here (Free copy in the post to me no doubt!) These fish are way too sneaky; they seem to cruise the weedbeds on the falling lake waiting for a tadpole to bolt to the surface for air/food, and dash in to grab one. It’s very unpredictable and those fish don’t want much else seemingly. The taddies, by the way, have a yellow stripe. I walk away from tadpole and termite feeders – too much patience required!

I had a trip to Tantangara and spotted a cicada. So I need to revisit my thoughts that the forest-din (last weeks blog) was crickets, I just hadn’t seen a cicada at Eucumbene before. Now, as it happens, they are everywhere. Here are a couple of shots.

One with a 20 cent coin for scale on my windscreen at Tant; the second scooped from the water at Providence last night – one of many. The Tantangara Reservoir water level drop from 70% to 30% illustrated by these dam wall pictures.

 

Day trip with David to O’Neills on Lake Eucumbene – on the boat – was hard work. Lots of fish on the sounder, along with what looked like clouds of daphnia; a few dropped fish before David got it sorted out

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The Eucumbene River level picked up after a good cloud burst. There were places where hillside gullies had been raked by the torrent, some of the larger slow pools still had some colour 24 hours later, and I saw a lot of future-spawning-gravel piled up against a bank. The small fish 1/2 to 3/4 lb were quite plentiful; the larger rainbows have either been bagged or returned to the lake, and the bigger browns could be drawn up, but are perhaps a little shy with all the seasonal pressure. More rain forecast today so another visit is demanded soon. 

The wind decided to blow hard from the south earlier this week, so I headed to Seven Gates with Col to look for some shelter. As the sun dropped, the gulls were picking up beetles and it wasn’t long before the fish found them. A mental hour followed, some on a beetle pattern; others on a Griffiths Gnat for the midge feeders.

Yesterday afternoon the wind moved into the south-east and then east and I fished at Providence with Andy – and again picked it beautifully. The southerly had been pushing food in all day; the easterly then came and moved it around. Midge, black beetles, brown beetles, cicadas, moths – a trout smorgasbord.

Just a little more ripple would have been nice, but Andy still got three fat browns up to 3 1/2 lb. I should note there is a downside to fishing a size 16 midge; they have trouble sticking in bigger fish, and they do straighten and snap. Oh, did I mention Andy wasn’t doing so well until he tied on a bead head black Woolly Bugger then got those three in an hour.

Lake levels: Eucumbene 49% and falling. Jindabyne 86% and steady. Tantangara 29% and falling.

Tight tippets all (Snowy Lake Fly Fishing Charters)

Steve