| Resolution No.2 - Fishing | ||||||||||
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Resolution No. 1 I will do several Blue Mountains Canyons in 2006
Resolution
No. 2
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Leigh fishes the trout streams of the
western Blue Mountains quite a lot, and every now and then I take some
time off and accompany him on one of his adventures. Leigh has taken
me to several streams where he has only ever caught brown trout - and
naturally I'll pull rainbow after rainbow. It had become a long
standing joke between us. So I decided that this year it was high
time to make sure I caught a brown trout.
Monday 2nd October 2006 - We head back to the Thredbo River at 4am, and walk into the best pool in under Petzl power. Fantastic - we have the whole place to ourselves! Just after it's light enough to see, I catch a damn nice rainbow trout hen. She took a Rapala brown trout pattern BTF5, with upgraded VMC trebles.
In the afternoon we headed to Charlotte's Pass, hoping to fish a couple of streams that Leigh has tried to fish last year. On his previous attempt, the snow was still very thick on the ground and the wind was so strong that it was literally blowing him off his feet. This year we were surprised to find that there was a lot less snow, but there was still a significant volume of melting snow remaining, and quite a few people still skiing the slopes near the resorts in Perisher Valley. Unfortunately the road was closed for an unspecified reason well before Charlottes Pass. The attraction to this area is the sheer challenge of fishing pristine waters that the tiny streams offer - it's certainly not the size of the fish. You have the whole place to yourself, and there is a distinct lack of intrusion by man in these places - and the skill required to cast and land fish in the small streams is several quanta higher than the Thredbo.
Instead we fished the upper reaches of the Mowamba River, which we had all to ourselves. I managed to snag another Brown Trout among the tussocks. Again, it was just under size, and took a Celta lure - this one with a green & black blade.
I also hooked several rainbow trout of similar small
size. Leigh found the breezy conditions to be very challenging with
the fly gear, using his 5 weight gear in the small stream. Tuesday 3rd October 2006 - It's 3.30am and we headed back to the Thredbo River. Once again we were the first to arrive in the dark, and enjoyed fishing the place all on our own for probably 30 mins. Then "Beanie Pig" and "Old Pig" arrived for a repeat performance of casting right in front of us and then wading right where the pool to the spot where we were casting! Another pair of fishermen arrived - Leigh knew them to say G'day to, having bumped into them repeatedly on this river over the years. The other guys were fishing with spin gear, and using it to great effect. They cast "Muppets" and glo-bug flies teamed up with a nymph, and out fished the rest of us put together. Ron & Joe really knew this game backwards. They were only too happy to share their hard-won knowledge, and we enjoyed their tales of LBG fishing in Jervis Bay. Geeze, they didn't mince words when "the Pig Family" started their antics again. The Pigs beat a hasty retreat. The afternoon session was spent back on the Mowamba, this time in the lower reaches, just above the weir. Once more, we had the entire place to ourselves. The water level was really low, courtesy of environmental flows being diverted into another river. The weir had always been full when Leigh had visited previously. This year it was a shadow of it's past glory, with a large island in the middle of the weir. The island was bordered by super shallow sections that still held fish.
Anyway, we walked further upstream, and the river broadened. We observed quite a few fish rising, but gee they were well educated. They refused my Celtas & minnows, and Leigh's flies, until just before dark. I was lucky enough to land a small brown trout, again just under legal size. . . It took a small "Ugly Duckling" deep diver.
Wednesday 4th October 2006 - 3 am and we were back on the way to the Thredbo. Once more the very early start paid off and we had the whole damn place on our own. We were all set, just waiting for it to be light enough to see to start fishing and around the corner comes some head torches. Damn it - it's that bloody mongrel "Pig Family", and this time there are three of them. Just great. . . It's almost light enough to start fishing, and right on cue, "Old Pig" wades right in front of me,
straight through where I was going to cast in about thirty seconds.
I can see the fish in the water in front of me and the old bastard has
just spooked the whole lot of them. I'm ropeable! Three
mornings in a row, we have got up in the small hours, braved the
near-freezing temperature, walked forty minutes or so under head torch to
ensure we had the pick of the pool. Three mornings in a row, these
bastards have walked right through the fish we were casting to, and had
the bad manners to cast across to our very feet. Karma is watching us, and neither myself or Old Pig catch anything this morning. Leigh kept well clear of the whole kafuffle this morning, cleans up with some more solid rainbow trout.
Better still, a few minutes later the new Pig falls over in the freezing cold water and fills his waders. He leaves the pool and heads back to the carpark. A few minutes after that, Beanie Pig also falls over and fills his waders ! Talk about serendipity. He too departs for the carpark. Ron & Joe arrive soon after, and we have a great old catch up. Leigh tells Joe about Old Pig's behaviour and boy-oh-boy, did Joe put him straight. Ron & Joe proceed to pull fish after fish. Leigh gets a couple more. Old Pig & I both luck out. We have heard whispers of a tiny stream that offers brook trout. We decide to take the long drive up to the Eucumbene River to visit a secret river, and see if we can be lucky enough to snag a Brook Trout.
I could barely believe that there were trout in the tails of some of these riffles and pools. Leigh's 5 weight fly gear allowed him to to present a nymph using "Czech" technique where only the 3lb fluorocarbon leader was in the water. The long wand allowed him to keep the whole fly line out of the water, presenting the nymph in a drag free manner. This was immediately met with success - he managed to hook four trout, one after the other, but because of the heavily overgrown banks and ultra light leader, was unable to land them. Each time the fish was lost, but we were thrilled to get brief glimpses of the trout each time. They were very dark, and had a heap of crimson on them. Of course we fantasized that they were Brook Trout, but as we have never seen one in real life, we have no idea if they were actually Brookies or not. They actually looked a lot like miniature versions of the very dark buck rainbows from the Thredbo, so they were probably rainbows, but we live in hope. Brookies have a reputation for being easy to catch, and Leigh hooked four in a pool the size of a large dining table, which we could scarcely believe ! We'll have to see if we can find some photos of Brookies in spawning colours. I think that they are supposed to spawn in June, so again, the odds of the fish being Brookies is probably very low, but we can dream. . . The drive back to Jindabyne provided more
of an "adventure experience" than we had bargained for. In the morning, the truth was revealed.
The impact had been taken by the driver's side rear mudguard & wheel.
There was panel damage, and also damage to the suspension & rear
taillight. Bloody hell we were lucky. Thursday 5th October 2006 -Leigh fished the Mowamba River in the morning, just to ensure he avoided the Pig family. He managed to hook and drop a few fish. I needed my beauty sleep and stayed in bed! The trip home with the damaged Suzuki was slow, but we got home safely. In summary, it was a great trip with some fantastic fish seen, landed and dropped. We had a ball. I would like to thank Leigh for inviting me along on his annual pilgrimage to the Snowy Mountains for opening season. It was a great trip, and a fantastic learning opportunity. I have never seen fly gear used in anger before, and enjoyed watching Leigh use it to good effect. Watching a skilled fly fisherman cast is simply poetry. Watching the whole process from spotting the fish, observing it's behaviour, selecting the right fly to suit, making a cast to the right spot at the right time, ensuring the fly "presents" in the correct manner was a privilege. Make no mistake, it is an art and a very skillful art. Casting a tiny Celta, small Rapala or unweighted bait such as a worm (gasp!) accurately on ultralight threadline spinning gear requires a lot of skill, experience and practice. It's not in the same league as fly fishing when it comes to being pretty to watch. Spinning gear is just as effective as fly when it comes to hooking fish though. Each have their inherent strengths and weaknesses. In some situations, the fly wand is better, while in other situations spinning gear is the only way to go.
I'll be sticking to my spin gear and bait
(where legal) for a lot longer yet. I am on the look out for a 3
piece, 9' long, 4 - 6 weight blank to make into a threadline casting
weapon though. Ron & Joe were by far the most consistent &
successful fishermen on the Thredbo with 6 weight fly rods made up to suit
a 4000 size threadline. I think that these specialist rods will also
make the ultimate yakka catching rods for our live baiting spots off the
rocks around Newcastle. Leigh had always experienced extremely enjoyable fishing on trips past. He had never seen anything approaching the behaviour of the "Pigs" before - it was the kind of stuff that you hear about but never see first hand. On every previous trip the fishing had been outstanding and the behaviour of the other fishermen was exemplary. The abundance of fish was much lower than years gone past, and was a function of greatly lower water levels in the Thredbo River this year. The lesson is that unless Lake Jindabyne is allowed to fill and the snow season is a good one, a similarly competitive situation will be likely to develop as the fish will be concentrated in a small stretch of the Thredbo River. Also, you should be aware that the prices for everything from accommodation, petrol to even food are ridiculously high in Jindabyne. Ever paid $7 for a bloody lettuce? Neither have I! I learned a heck of a lot about trout
behaviour and fishing for them on this trip. I have seen fish come
from "pocket water" before in the western Blue Mountains. The
highland rivers of the Snowy Mountains take this to the next level - I
could hardly believe my eyes when I spooked a fish 3 inches from the bank,
amongst the stones in the very bottom left of the photo below; I had expected fish to be hugging the shadow lines on the right hand bank, in heavy cover under the overgrown banks, and in the head and tails of the pools, but not among the rocks on the very edge of the stream. The obvious solution to the overgrown banks is to wade the stream bed - I'm sure that it would be a highly effective approach, but it would also be very damaging in such a delicate environment, and must be discouraged in these small rivers. I managed to land three brown trout,
which broke the brown trout duck for me. I didn't think to specify
at the time that the
brown had to be of legal size, so I have now fulfilled 4 out of 5 of my
New Years Fishing Resolutions. If I can make the opportunity happen,
I'll try to get a legal brown trout before the year is over, but it may be
a challenge left for next year.
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