Where’s Steve?

I know you’ve been wondering! Every day of the last month I’ve spent in Cornwall, England, I’ve been checking the local (Australian) weather, and the messages from house-sitters, pet-sitters, and fishing buddies as spring kicked off. The giant pear tree in front of my house blossomed, lost its blossom and developed a full canopy; the snow on the mountains disappeared, then came back, and was gone again just as quickly. Pictures of dozy brown snakes popped up, along with dire warnings. Regular storm alerts from the BOM pinged away for the Frying Pan arm.

I managed to fish a few times while I was in Cornwall, and had three visits to Stithians Reservoir where my flies were mostly attacked by coarse fish. In other words, nothing much to report. It always seemed to be cloudy, drizzly, and cool – I’d forgotten!

How’s the fishing back home?

A lot of reports from the Snowy lakes have been of generally slow fishing. Why? Well, often, winter fishing relies on hungry opportunistic fish, and slowly-receding lake levels encouraging the fish to come close to shore. Then about a month ago, the lakes stopped dropping and either held steady or started creeping up. For my money, I’d have liked another month so the vegetation had a chance to start to grow before being covered. Apart from that though, it’s nearly always nice to see rising levels, whether as a result of snowmelt, lower power demand during a warmer than usual August, or both.

The end result is, the fish having no reason to come in close to shore. There are a few midge and caddis, but not enough to really get them going. In late August, mate Trevor pumped a Jindabyne brown trout’s  stomach and it was full of pale green midge pupa.

The hot tip is to find the deeper water spots near the banks, in muddy soak areas. The few reports I’ve had all suggest that big flies are still the best option, and unweighted Wooly Buggers, on sinking lines, hovered (long pauses on the retrieve) are very attractive to the fish.

Lake Levels

Lake Eucumbene is at 49% after a winter low of 45%, compared to this time last year when it was at 63%. Halcyon days! There isn’t a lot of snow left to melt so I can’t predict a high lake this summer. As always though, time (not long-term guesses) will tell!

Lake Jindabyne is at 64% after a winter low of 60%. It’s been bouncing around a bit. This time last year the lake was at 71%.

Tantangara Reservoir is at 8.5% but fishing access is still closed due to the brumby cull. We should be back there in another few weeks.

River opening

A quick reminder the rivers are opening on Saturday 5 October. Always a great day simply because we’re back on flowing water again. And we’ve got more Eucumbene River this year thanks to the lower lake levels, which makes the river well fishable down towards Providence campsite, where there should be lots of fish in those newly exposed gravel runs.