Tantangara. Col relaxing during a temporary respite from gusty winds.
Living in the Snowy Shire in lockdown hasn’t been too bad. Fishing is classified as exercise, and I’m allowed one person on the boat, as long as we don’t drive to the ramp in the same car. I can exercise anywhere in our local government area which, by my reckoning is about five times the size of Cornwall, and bigger than Northern Ireland. And of course the Shire contains most of the Snowy Hydro lakes. All in all, as I said, it’s not too bad.
Unfortunately, the single COVID case in Cooma, means we’re still in lockdown. And if that holds for the next few weeks, it’s going to be a pretty quiet river opening weekend in October.
Eucumbene rainbows like this will be around the kilo mark by Christmas.
Lake fishing reports are scarce, but Jindabyne has produced some good browns from the southern end, whilst the western bays of Lake Eucumbene have turned up some rainbows. We’ve seen quite a few on the sounder, but they’re deep, and tricky to catch.
Nungar Creek on Tantangara looked ripe for a spot of polaroiding. Those pigweed stems, and the Scotch thistles, would trouble the best tippet.
I got some exercise on Tantangara with Col this week. The wind tried our patience. Blew from the north, east, and west often only for a few minutes at a time. This made setting a good drift on a likely looking bank almost impossible. We ended up cruising the eastern shore with the electric, dragging browns off the bank with big green Woolly Buggers. At the end of the day we found a patch of rainbows in the bay near Kellys Plain Creek. Last time the lake was up like this the shore was covered in earthworms. This week there were none. Not sure what to make of that other than maybe the level needs to get onto land that hasn’t seen water for a long time before I can dig out the old San Juan.
This Tantangara brown took a green Woolly Bugger, swung away from the bank.
Lake levels are all excellent. Jindabyne is at 81%, up nearly 5% in a week, and 24% higher than this time last year. Eucumbene is creeping up at 33%, up 3% on this time last year. Tantangara is at 39%, up 22% on this time last year. They’re all great statistics, and bode well for a cracking lake season once travel restrictions ease. I am truly looking forward to getting the Wooly Buggers off, and the midge patterns on.
Stay safe, and once the restrictions ease, I look forward to no longer being the only boat at the ramp, and getting a few charter customers!
