flycaster

Great post, Stewart, very funny. It's great to see you having fun with the ferals. It's probably a good idea to encourage people to rid the waterways of this introduced pest. Kindest regards Ross

Hi Raiders Headed down to Goodmans Ford on Sunday with Royce. River looked good, if slightly discoloured. Seemed to be plenty of fast flowing water. We covered many kilometres for one small carp about 1 kg in weight. I was thrilled to catch this carp as it was my first ever and on fly. It broke my "duck" out of 14 blanks at TCD. I'm really not that "hopeless" a fisherman, it just seems that the fish are responding to different techniques at the moment. Royce had two "takes" for no hook ups, but we called them as definite trout as they were in fast water as opposed to calm water where I took the carp. I must say that the carp pull very hard for their size, but don't jump. I will attempt to load some of my iphone photos here. Kindest regards to all Flycaster (Ross)

Hi Raiders I must be a masochist, I headed up to Thommo's AGAIN today in the hope of better weather and cooperative fish, unfortunately neither eventuated. The weather was predicted to be sunny, but it was overcast and cold. No wind though. I fished the south eastern side and saw many "false spawners' but none of them showed any interest in my offerings. I had the great pleasure of meeting Royce today (another of fishraider's nature's own "gentlemen"). We are very privileged to have so many wonderful people belonging to the site. He is a man of vast experience and knowledge, but I didn't notice him fool the trout today. In the past "Caddis" and I have usually been able to fool one or two, but this year they seem to have total lockjaw. I think I will wait until the false spawning "nonsense" is over before I rush up there again. Kindest regards to all Flycaster (Ross)

Hi Raiders I fished Thompson's Creek dam again today with my friend Chris (Caddis). Unfortunately the wind was gale force and made conditions for fly fishing very difficult. We fished right around the dam and saw no fish moving at all. We had the great pleasure of meeting Chris (Foolforjesus) and his friend David who caught a very large brown on a soft plastic at the western end. It was a great pleasure to meet these two gentleman and no doubt our paths will cross in the future. I think it pays to take notice of the wind conditions in details before heading to TCD as the wind can be diabolical!!! Apart ffrom the wind the cold temperatures, it was a cloudless beautiful day and certainly beat "mowing the lawns" (lol). One of these days, I will actually catch a fish or two. (I've had a dozen Blanks in a row so far. I feel that since the dam was raised so high over the last two years that the fishing has been damaged. Before the rise, I found that I could catch two or three most times I went there. Kindest regards to all Flycaster (Ross)

Hi Raiders. I went up to TCD yesterday (Friday) for the first time in many months. Headed along the southern side and spotted a number of false spawners. There were a number of quite sizeable fish among them, but unfortunately they didn't hang around long enough to get a fly in front of them. I suspect theat maybe in a week or two more fish will be gathering and there will be greater opportunities to target them successfully. I also checked out Lake Wallace, but no sign of spawning activity there. Some years ago there was an amazing spawn run in Lake Wallace that ran for weeks with massive fish patrolling close to shore in huge numbers. Kind regards to all Flycaster

Hi Boatart I would like to give you two pieces of advice. I've learned from bitter experience that it is absolutely vital to take lessons from an accredited professional flycasting instructor, rather than teach yourself and pick up every bad habit in the book. The second piece of advice is: Never, NEVER buy a flyrod without trying it out with different weight lines FIRST. Flyrods are such a personal thing that one could purchase a very expensive rod and hate it, or buy an inexpensive one and love it. Kind reards Flycaster (Ross)

Hi Raiders Caddis and I fished Thommo's yesterday (Sunday) in freezing cold and very windy conditions. We even had sleet at some times. Needless to say we saw very few fish and may have broken one off. The weather forecast was for cold but sunny. As usual we had five seasons in one day. Another donut. Flyfishermen being the tough insane people that they are will no doubt head back for more of the same in the not-to-distant future. Kindest regards to all Flycaster and Caddis (Ross and Chris)

Hi Raiders I headed up to Thommo's today as the weather man said it would be a nice sunny day (HA HA). It was a typical TCD winter day, COLD WET and WINDY!!! (I should have known). For reasons known only to themselves Delta have seen the need to fill TCD to almost overflowing. Consequently the water was murky and very difficult to find a good place to fish at the western end. I gave it a go for a couple of hours and got fed up and went home. I probably should have tried the south eastern side. Caddis and I may go at the weekend if the weather is OK. ANOTHER TCD DONUT!!! Regards to all Flycaster (Ross)

Hi Raiders Headed up to Thommo's yesterday. Weather was fine but cool and blowing hard from the north west. Went down the southern side for an hour or so, with no activity, so walked the 3 kms or so to the base of the wall at the western end. Had about three casts of the 6 wt and came up tight on a 4 lb jack rainbow that nearly spooled me in a heartbeat. Unfortunately I had taken the wrong reel and had a broken 7 wt line with no backing. (Old age ha ha). As this appeared to be the only bite for the day, I gave it away about 1 pm for the long haul home. I love TCD (SOMETIMES). Kind regards to all Ross

Hi Guys An absolutely AMAZING dat!!! In all the years I have fished at TCD, I've never looked like catching any mo0re than one or two in a whole day. They were all a great size too. I will have to get up there soon and try to hook a monster. Great work Regards Flycaster (Ross)

Hi Raiders Just had a week at Providence Portal. The weather was superb. Blue skies and mide thirties everyday. The fishing was dismal. Landed one 3.5 lb brown on a dry fly on Monday afternoon and nothing but a few fingerlings in Tantangara for the rest of the week. After Monday, the fish in the river seemed to be locked in to dragonflies and would not look at anything I had. Anyhow it was better than sitting in the rain in Sydney I guess. Regards to all Flycaster

Hi Raiders Caddis and my other mate, Les had a very slow day at Thommo's yesterday. Poor Caddis had a very frustrating day trying to blood his new 5 wt "Cannon". He's spent quite a few days at Thommo's lately trying to get a monster, and yesterday's fabulous brown was very well deserved. It was the best conditioned brown I've seen and the best fish I've SEEN out of Thommo's. Congratulations Chris on breaking your own record. Knowing you, you'll probably break it again before Christmas. Wishing all Raiders a very Happy Christmas and a Happy and fishfilled New Year. Cheers Flycaster (Ross)

As Caddis has said it was a slow day at Thommo's. After several hours of nothing, we moved to a part of the dame that has served us well in the past. After many casts, we were considering moving on when Caddis spotted two fish almost at our feet. Whilst I persisted with a bead head nymph under an indicator, Caddis in his inimitable fashion changed to an unweighted nymph on a long leader. Using an 8 weight rod and a heavy 8 weight line Caddis presented his nymph with pin point accuracy right on the hen rainbow'e nose. It eventually took his offering and with Caddis whooping and hollering and backing up the bank, a moment's inattention saw the fish gain a tiny piece of slack line and wrap him several times around a sunken bush. Caddis was fortunately wearing waders and managed to net the fish with my long handled landing net. He then skilfully managed to hand me his rod and untangle his leader from the bush. It was a great team effort and saved a very slow day. Cheers Flycaster

Hi Nanook, Cheman and Gregl Thommo's has been slow fishing these last couple of weeks, due in part to the wildly fluctuating water levels and the false spawning mode of the fish. Caddis and I were up there yesterday and got one each for the day on fly. The spinner boys, however seemed to be quite well. I think once the water level goes down a bit and stabilises, the fishing will return to its best. We tend not to fish in Lyell or Wallace. We went up to Oberon Dam yesterday afternoon for a donut, but we didn't have the time to really explore. Cheers to all Flycaster (Ross)

Hi Raiders I went to Thommos on Thursday of last week and a return trip on Monday of this week. Thursday started very slowly, but after a few moves, I managed a sweet spot of three in three casts. All rainbows, one female 47 cm, one 30 cm tiddler and one male about 49 cm. After that things went dead quiet. On Monday I returned with high hopes, but found that Delta had pumped the dame even higher. It's the highest I have ever seen it and I did not see a fish all day. I guess that's fishing, but very disappointing nonetheless. I will attempt to add some photos. Regards Flycaster

Hi Raiders Went to TCD on Friday. Freezing cold and blowing a gale. Typical Thommo's winter weather. I was fishing indicator nymphs. Covered most of the dam, long walk, saw one fish (false spawner) and busted one off. I will not go again in strong winds, Regards Flycaster

Hi Irongustavius The fish are in spawning mode at the moment and will take a weighted glow bug imitation nymph under an indicator. Cheers Flycaster

Great work Stewy. Great to hear that they are still on the chew. I will probably get up there myself the weekend after next. Cheers Flycaster

Hi Chris and Stewart Disappointing day yesterday and thoroughly miserable weather. It was great to meet you Stewart after reading Fishraider posts for so long. I really thought we would get amongst them after a few good sessions lately. It just goes to show that you can never be too confident about the natural world. Stewy gave us a few lessons in how to cast into a howling gale. Double hauling etc, etc (pretty to watch). The fish were just not switched on yesterday, but we will have to give them another try in the next few weeks. Great company and a few laughs. Kindest regards to all Ross (Flycaster) Hi

Hi Stewy We fish the nymphs dead drift under a floating yarn indicator. A bit like fishing for luderick as Caddis and I are both luderick fishermen also. We usually set the depth at about a meter and I use six to eight pound fluorocarbon tippet. Caddis likes living dangerously and uses four pound. Cheers Flycaster

Hi Raiders Caddis and I had a great day's fishing at Thommo's on Saturday. After a slow start, we ended up catching about 8 rainbows between us of varying sizes from fingerlings to about 1 kg. We caught most of them on indicator nymphs. I was using gold bead heads in olive and green and Caddis was using his own home tied red tungsten bead heads to great effect. I managed at one stage to slip over and break the tip off my fly rod, but managed to continue on and catch fish with out the tip. We had a lot of laughs and enjoyed each other's company and the fishing immensely. I feel that Thommo's will fire well as the weather cools. Thanks to Caddis for his great company and good humour. Regards to all Flycaster

Hey Matt You are obviously much more experienced than I. In previous years I have also had consistent success at TCD, but this year has been hopeless (for me). Thank you for your information, I will concentrate much harder in future. I know where the creek is and have not fished it much. Kindest regards Ross