I love that at 5.30 this morning there was enough pre-dawn light to load the Pajero. We’ve had a couple of cracking spring days and its all buds and blossoms and nesting cockies in southern NSW.

After the recent good rainfall Steve C reports from Eucumbene that the spring creeks are running and that spawning rainbows are holding in the bays.  Even the smallest trickle can hold fish in a bay whilst they wait for a more substantial flow to run up – which for most of these small creeks will never come. With clear water, these windless mornings are great for spotting cruising fish, especially the small schools of spawning rainbows. Steve caught one fish out of a school before they spooked, and then chased a couple of browns, and then saw nothing. Danny meanwhile was on Jindabyne spotting spawning rainbows, picked one at the back of a school, caught it, spooked the rest, spotted a couple of browns and that was it for the session.  If you’ve read Phil Weigall’s sight fishing article in the latest edition of Flystream you’ll recognise some of this behaviour (fisher and fish) with the golden rule to get a fly in front of the fish as quick as you can – don’t assume they’ll still be there if you blink! And just because you see a few swimming fish don’t give up with all your other senses and instincts.

After four months of surgery and physio on both shoulders today was my first serious attempt to “get back on the horse”. Dixieland seemed like a good option for a half day trip but when we got there last week’s rain had dirtied all the dams.  Caddigat Lake was spilling, with visibility just a few feet at best.  We took the boat to the top of the lake where it had started to clear. The fish were playful and were happy to chase David’s woolly bugger, and whilst I got my casting arm back into shape David missed two, hooked then dropped one, and finally landed a nice 3 lb hen.

For the last hour before midday we fished Dixieland dam, which had the least colour of all the dams. It was 20 degrees and a good midge hatch was bringing a few fish up. I wasn’t at all convinced there was any real prospect in fishing small flies, so we fished the dam wall and used intermediate lines to sink big streamers.  I hooked a cracking fish which David obligingly landed for me – after a titanic scrap with a few runs down to the backing.

Tight tippets.

Cheers, Steve  www.nakedtrout.com.au/stuff/charter/