Matt

Some nice Flatties there. On the subject of plastics at night (or any lure), the darker the better. The best colour is in fact Jet Black, it gives off the best silhouette in the water. Unfortunately Jet Black isn't a colour that sells well so its hard to find. You can modify plastics and other lures with a permanent marker. Keep up the top Flathead reports! Windy

Been this way for a long time now Grant, I remember about 6 or 7 years back reports of Jewfish in the Cooks were met with a dramatic increase of anglers for a period of time. The vast majority taper away though and its amazing how deserted a 'gun' spot is after only a short period of time. It's an aspect of the wonderful instant social media world we live in, especially for metro spots. Cheers Windy

ACT has quite a few decent natives in the lakes scattered around. The best of them is a bit out of Canberra (closer to Queenbeyan), Googong which is an excellent lake for Yellowbelly, decent Cod and I am hearing of Trout being in there again. The lakes in Canberra do hold good fish but are a tougher proposition. Berley Griffin, Gunghalin Lakes and Ginninderra all hold Yellowbelly and Murray Cod and can sometimes turn on good fishing. Last time I fished the ACT was in the Gunghalin Lakes (I think it was Yerribee actually?) and I only got one hit for a lot of hours spinning when I assume a Cod smashed my TN50 off the Damn Wall and found its home again! I can't help too much though with specifics, on average I fish those lakes once every year so I have little knowledge preferring to head back to the Snowies and chase Trout. Cheers Windy

Great report Geoff, and a cracking Brown, top fish for those rivers. Haven't fished the Goodradigbee in years and never even looked at the Cotter. Got meitching to explore that river Cheers Windy

Just got back from the Eucumbene, was very high on opening on day and the fishing tough. But it dropped and cleared quickly the next day and we slowly found fish, but it was one of the hardest opening weekends for a long time! The amount of anglers drawing blanks was amazing and the river was almost clear of anglers at most spots by Monday. Most fish were Rainbows the 800-900g range with a few up to 3.5lb, best was a 4lb Brown. According to a few sources the Rainbows had all-ready spawned so it looks like we missed the run. Lake was fishing poor too. The conditions were attrocious on Saturday too, plenty of snow and driving wind. The Bredbo Pub lost half its roof too! Cheers Windy

Love reading about fishing in other countries. Sure looks like a Rainbow and I wouldn't be surprised if they are stocked. The native Trout are primarily Browns I believe, or maybe the Marble Trout? Great effort, not many folk here can say they got Trout in Poland Cheers Windy

Don't you mean behind the hardbody? Deadly technique when run behind minnows (yes and even Tassies ), wouldn't see it working as effectively when in front of the hardbody though? My Dad used to use the bubble float with a Fly, never was very successful though. Have heard it work though. Cheers Windy

Couple of favourites: Rapala/Blue Fox Vibrax Jackson Komachi Rapala F5 (modified to a spotted dog) Rebel Crawdad (diff sizes for diff areas) Most minnows though work and I adjust for intented depth, whether I want a rattle or not or if there is a specific size needed. The Vibrax I find better than a Celta for Lake work anyway, bit more weight for size and the minnow body gets a nice sway going behind the blade. All though I believe they have stopped making the model I like And as some of you are aware, I am a NO TASSIE DEVIL zone Cheers Windy

Thats an honest to god Horse of a Rainbow! Top spawning colours too, geat effort Cheers Windy

Not a giant fan of Deep Creek itself, got a couple of EPs and the odd Bream but I find it slow and uninspiring a lot of the time. I normally head down to the mouth of the creek and work the flats there. Some nice Flathead frequent this area and the odd Whiting. Haven't encountered a serpent though yet! Cheers Windy

Oh I agree that TCD has great food sources, but Pejar has a handy food source in massive Smelt schools and it used to be a good Mudeye lake too. Not sure about Yabby population though? Seriously hoping it picks up in the future Cheers Windy

It used to be a Trophy lake before the drought and I am sure it was more heavily stocked then. As a comparison, TCD is a trophy lake and is stocked heavily. The ingredients are there in Pejar for it to return to a trophy lake, I still think it needs heavier stocking though to establish a better base line population. No point attempting to create a trophy lake if the return for anglers is so low it gets ignored for better waters, which seems to be the case at the moment. On another note, I keep hearing rumours that the nearby Sooley Lake is going to be open to rec fishing, apparently it has a decent population of Trout too. Cheers Windy

My theoretical approach would be too first run some deep divers or downriggers/leadlines along the path of the Wollondilly River channel. The fact that I have not seen to many shallow cruisers leads me to believe the Trout are holding deeper in Pejar. Find where the thermocline is and troll below this. The other aspect would be to locate the Smelt schools, they are the prime food in Pejar and I bet if you find the schools you will find some attendant Trout. Run some plastics down through the schools or troll minnows around them. Both tactics would need a good sounder on the 'Yak. All theory though as I haven't been out on Pejar in 'Yak or boat, just shorebashing. Hope that helps! Cheers Windy

Lyell is a bit more hit and miss than TCD, had some fantastic fishing and my PB Brown has come out of there but then it can really shut down at times too. A boat is a massive bonus as you can track the Gudgeon schools, find the Gudgeon find the Trout. The other aspect I like about Lyell is I can endulge in some relaxing ass-sitting style fishing. A Powerbait out, a camp chair and a cuppa. For when I don't feel overly active and just want to relax with my thoughts. The Bass are an added bonus too. Cheers Windy

The Trout are there, it was restocked recently again. But they sure are hard to catch and Pejar has jumped up to my number one 'bogey' lake (edging out Three Mile by a whisker). I don't think the stocking is sufficient for the size of the lake or the pressure it gets. The last time I was there I saw a few fish hammering the smelt schools, didn't manage any but it was a good sign. Keep your fingers crossed that Pejar may return to its former glory, I am certainly hoping so. Windy

There ya go, explains the 3-4 times a year. Didn't think about the acclimitasation societies either, is the Southern Highlands mob who stock that region? All though most of their fry purchases go into the private dams around the Southern Highlands I believe. My question now is, is Lyell still being stocked? I heard rumours that only Bass were being put in and personally I don't think the recruitment from the Cox' river is sufficient to maintian Lyell as a viable Trout fishery. Be a shame, as Lyell is one of my favourite lakes. Cheers Windy

Disagree about the wind needing to be low at TCD, some of the best fishing I have had there has been in a howling gale and sleet/rain. Makes casting a fly tough, but Trout no matter where respond to wind quite well. I remember a day up there when it was a blowing hard and there were giant slicks of mixed bugs'n'stuff being washed up on the shore (along with mountains of suds!), there were Rainbows all along the edge, you could sometimes see them in the waves like Salmon on the beach. Had to resort to a spin rod though as I spent more time hunting rabbits behind me with a Fly! I find it hard to believe they stock it 3-4 times a year with Fingerlings, Trout only spawn once a year so Fingerlings would be only available twice a year (once for Browns and once for Rainbows). They source them from Gaden, unless they are getting a secondary input from Dutton? Cheers Windy

Bugger me, yes its a Trout (kinda). Its a Brook Trout, (they are actually a Char, same family though) and they are the Trout hardest to find in Australia. I have spent decades trying to get one and you go and catch one first time! Excellent effort Nice fat fish, what bait did it take? Cheers Windy

For shore based Squid'en I reckon the Hacking system wins hands down. The Harbour wharves used to be really good but have faded a lot lately. Clifton Gardens used to be a gun spot, but my last few tries down there has resulted in one baby Arrow Squid. Conversely, spots on the Hacking seem to always produce a few nice Calamari Squid. Cheers Windy

Scents for Squid is an interesting concept, mainly due to the fact that Squid don't have olfactory (smell'en bits) sensors like Fish or Humans. So theoretically they don't detect scents in the water, their hunting is vision based. However, they do have some form of scent sensing ability based on their candles (the long tentacles) but I believe it is touch based (or very close vicinity). The application of the scent probably isn't attracting the Squid as such, but is turning 'lookers' into solid 'takers'. Those Squid that have been visually attracted to the jig but aren't taking it. It can be interesting to watch, the Squid touches the jig (or appears too) but then backs off. The egimax probably changes that, when the Squid touches it instead of backing off it becomes a little more interested. It certainly can't hurt using egimax and other scents. Cheers Windy

Now what are you going to do with all that Dollie in Hawaii? Did you have a vacuum packer with you? Judging by the photo you were out on Sea Hawk (Maggie Joe charters). I have been out on that Charter and all though the fishing wasn't great the young skipper was good and did his best to find us some fish. We got some good Dollies though and he offered us some good cuts from the fillets so we can get a Restaurant to cook it for us and even gave us some advise on which Restaurants would do something with it. Did you ask for some? Or just assume you were getting some? You are trying to apply Australian charter operations to a US based operations. They don't operate the same way, ALL the charters over in Hawaii are the same, the fish they catch get sold to the restaurants. I have been on a few out of Honolulu and on Maui and they are generally the same, fish get sold to the restaurants and all have offered some good cuts from the fillets (off Maui we got some Yellowfin and Big-Eye, YUMMMM). Also remember the skipper and deckies don't get paid a great deal and depend on tips and selling the fish to local restaurants. Cheers Windy

Holy crap! When fishing trips go wrong! Good reminder about telling folks what you are up to. Interestingly enough, if you had done that now (as in this year), there would have been 20 odd other fisho's in the area! Kudo's to Delta as well. Cheers Windy

Cracking Brown Caddis The Euc has been throwing up some of the best quality Browns I have seen in ages, plenty of fish up to 12lb are being caught. Also hearing some interesting rumours about big fish in the Thredbo too Keep up the great reports. Windy

What if the lake is full and you can fish from the 'top'? I tended to stay of the wall itself anyway, when the Dam was down around 20% I would clamber down to fish that 'island' that formed but otherwise stayed off. Always thought the fishing was better elsewhere anyway Echo Stewys sentiments though, if we lose this magic lake due to some clowns then I too will be **insert strong word here** fuming... Cheers Windy

Damn, I was really hoping to read a good report about Pejar.... Thats a shame, I hit it consistently before X-Mas and it was woeful. A couple of small 'bows and I talked to a chap who had amanaged few better 'bows but its been a real tough lake. I am hoping with some consistent stocking that I will return to its former glory, in fact I am banking on it! Give it time and Pejar will be great again with hopefully some of the monsters it was once famous for. Was there any weed beds developing closer to shore yet? Cheers Windy