Fishing Jindabyne

[arpie]

Hi all

After meeting up with fellow yakkers on Lake Burley Griffin on Sunday morning & having a pedal in a buddy's Outback (still amazed at how light it was compared to my SPORT!), it was very windy so we put in near Duntroon & even after borrowing Kim's TCurve & Sol, I was unable to catch any fish!

Lots of bird life in the trees tho - virtually every nest had chicks in it!

Kim & I then packed up & headed towards the Snowies ....... virtually raining all the way! We arrived in the rain & scouted some of Kim's favourite spots to try & get out of the wind ..... had I mentioned the wind as well?? It had played havoc with Keith doing the 1/2 Ironman earlier in the day ..... he finished in 6hrs 45min & won his age group, but 89 others pulled out! Even the tinnie putting out the buoys for the swim got swamped & they had to be rescued from LBG!

We decided to try a couple of spots before heading to the lodge where we were staying & were disappointed as we got no hits at all & we were being drenched with continual rain (even tho we were in our wet weather gear,) it was very uncomfortable! I think Kim had a couple of hits, but no takes. Another bloke was there & to our knowledge also got none. At 10.30pm we left!

We headed back to the lodge & unpacked & Kim put dinner on & we were eating after 11pm! Kim was talking about getting up at 4am to fish the 'morning rise' whilst I was less than enthusiastic as my arm was sore from the continual casting & I was also dead tired!! The next morning, I heard Kim get up at 4am to check out the conditions & shortly after, heard the door again, so figured she hadn't gone out!

We headed for the river & it had almost dropped to a 'fishable' depth (they'd had over 2" rain over the previous couple of days), so we went 'tiki touring' around the mountains instead, till it had warmed up enough for some hatches. Kim took me to Guthega & Charlottes Pass & everywhere in between, so it was great to get an overview of the whole area! It was a beautiful sunny day, such an improvement on the day before!!

The message re the Gaden Hatchery was very Obvious!

For the river, I had downsized from my 9ft fly rod from the previous night to a dinky little Shakespeare 'spin/fly' rod that was about 7ft long - and found that I could cast it quite easily & it did not annoy my sore arm! I was quite pleased with how it performed & had lots of hits on it ..... it was just my technique that was somewhat lacking, hence the misses!

We hit the river after lunch & on my first cast, got a small brown trout on ..... unfortunately I forgot my camera, so didn't get a pic! He went back & then I had 2 more hits on the next casts!! I worked my way along the river & saw fish rising everywhere! Kim was in the middle of the river, doing beautiful casts to the shadows under the trees on the opposite side .... and she was rewarded by a couple of nice fish (all put back.) I chopped the tail off one of my flies & was rewarded with an instant hit (where I had seen a fish rising) only to rip the fly from its mouth .... still no legal sized fish for me! We had a late lunch & once again hit the lake in the late afternoon for the 'evening rise' - once again with no success! Darn it! Kim had a couple of hits & we could see the fish rising around the place but couldn't tempt them to take the flies. Late dinner again that night & Kim once again threatened to get up at 4am the following morning (our last day there!) Once again, I declined ..... I was knackered & wondered how Kim can keep up the constant fishing pace! This girl is driven when fly fishing!

Didn't hear Kim get up this time (ear plugs are great!) but found out at 7.30am that she had decided not to go after looking out the window & seeing it was quite windy. It then turned into another gorgeous day. We had a leisurely breakfast in the Village & once again headed to the river where Kim hooked up to a beautiful 3-4lb brown! I watched many fish move along the edge & tried to cast to them, but they didn't like my choice of fly & after inspecting my offerings, would turn away! It was fun sight fishing tho! I continued 'fishing hard' to try & catch my first decent fish ...... and managed to drop a couple more (one on the same fly at the same place as yesterday! ) I wonder if it was the same fish??

Ne'er mind, we had fun, and saw lots of fish - even went to Sawpit & watched the little trout in the stream there ...... tossed a couple of bits of plant into the stream & the fish grabbed the first bit & checked out the 2nd bit, so was in a 'feeding mode' - fun to watch tho!

Hope to break my trout drought the next time we get together down there!

Cheerio

Roberta

[james7]

Top report Roberta. Congrats to Keith for winning his age group too.

Sounds like you and Kim had a great time despite the overall lack of fish. Although, Kim's 3-4lb brown sounded like a beauty. It must have been frustrating for you, besides the rain and wind, watching the fish rise only to ignore your offerings, although I agree that would still be a great site to see.

I've never caught a trout (because I've never been trout fishing), but saw some once years ago in a stream. I'll never forget it. An amazing sight.

Cheers

Peter

PS Like the bird photo too.

[arpie]

Thanks Pete - to be honest, I wasn't too upset about not catching, as the river fish would have been put back anyway - we only keep the odd lake fish (make the 'Kim only keeps lake fish' .....) I have yet to catch & land a keeper anywhere down there yet!! Busted off a beautie last year in the lake too!

I enjoyed watching the 'pro' fishing the river - Kim has trout fished since she was about 10 & is a delight to watch! She actually says that my 'style of casting' is better than hers (big pat on the back for me) but it is her casting (ie knowing which fly to use & where to put it & how to strike) that catches the fish. It is very rare for her to not catch any ..... specially on the lake edge! If it hadn't been so windy, I bet she would have been up at 4am too

I caught the odd tree & snag tho

I took a whole bunch of pics of the birds with babies, but that one was the clearest. One nest had late hatchings & the babies were loud & pink with no feathers at all! The pic didn't really even show them tho i know they are there somewhere!

We even saw a platypus as well! Initially I thought it was a big fish that had risen & watched till it did it again, only to reveal the platypus! Lots of ducks & ducklings chasing our flies too ....... Kim was very adamant that we not cast to the ducks! (on purpose!)

Roberta

Edited December 19, 2008 by Roberta

[Matt]

Great report Roberta That weather up is making it tough, my Dad tried a few trips to Tantangara and Jindy but got rained on, hailed on and eventually driven off by wind!

Still, just being up there and seeing the fish is enough reward.

On another note, they can take down the sign at Gaden. I believe it's now officially safe One for the good guys!

Cheers

Windy

[arpie]

That's terrific news about Gaden - in the local paper last week, the local Pollie indicated that it would not happen in his lifetime ..... but ..... you know you can never trust what a pollie says!! Maybe he did have something to do with the decision being reversed!!

Shame about the weather being nasty for your Dad - at least we got the 2 nice days & only the one horrible one! The wind was the bigger pain, as we were driving around trying to find spots with the wind behind us! In the river, luckily, it was blowing up river, so you could just stand in the middle & cast upstream, tho getting the flies across the river to under the trees was more difficult (for me, anyway ...... less so for Kim!)

It just makes it miserable fishing, eh?

CHeers

Roberta

[Matt]

It sure does, being a Lake Trout fisho it really destroys my limited Fly Fishing ability I am heading up there over the chrissy break for a few days, hopefully that wind will go to sleep for a while. Looking forward to having a solid crack at Eucumbene, its still rising and is covering ground that hasnt seen water in a few years.

The Gaden "win" is something we should all take good note of. I believe it took quite a lot of differing groups from locals to ACORF to secure it. If the angling community can continue to bring all these areas together and apply this sort of pressure to bigger things such as the NPAs Lock out Angling policy then we should be able to secure Rec Fishing for the future

Cheers

Windy

And here is the info about Gaden:

The Minister for Primary Industries has today made this media release...

Gaden Hatchery secured - funding agreement reached

The immediate future of the Gaden Trout Hatchery in Jindabyne has been secured after the Minister for Primary Industries Ian Macdonald agreed to a funding proposal.

The proposal was put forward by the Advisory Council on Recreational Fishing.

It follows a meeting between the Minister and key stakeholders, including the Chair of the Advisory Council on Recreational Fishing, Bruce Schumacher; Steve Samuels, President of the NSW Council of Freshwater Anglers; Member for Monaro Steve Whan; and Robert Brown MLC.

“I am pleased that everyone has worked together to achieve this great result for the local community, tourism, and freshwater anglers across the State,” Minister Macdonald said.

“This is a sensible solution put forward by the Advisory Council on Recreational Fishing, it involves allocating funding from the Freshwater Trust to the Gaden Hatchery.

“The trust will invest $417,000 annually to cover the cost of ongoing recurrent expenditure of this important resource.

“This funding will be in addition to the $124,000 support already provided by the Freshwater Trust each year.

“This is a financially viable solution that will keep Gaden in public hands but reduce the Government’s continuing financial exposure.”

Member for Monaro Steve Whan welcomed the outcome.

“I am thrilled with this result, it means we can retain this important asset for the community and NSW,” Steve Whan said.

“Ever since I was informed about this issue on the day of the Mini Budget, I have been working hard with industry and the community to find a solution.

“Some things really are worth fighting for, so I am pleased that the rally I hosted last month, the petition and the hundreds of calls to my office helped achieve this result.

“I would like to especially thank Steve Samuels from the NSW Council of Freshwater Anglers for his hands-on involvement in the process from day one.”

The funding is due to commence in 2009/10 and is subject to a number of conditions including:

• A business plan will be developed for the Gaden Hatchery.

• There will be no additional closures of recreational fishing facilities without prior consultation with the Advisory Council on Recreational Fishing.

• Any financial profit from the hatchery will be returned to the Freshwater Trust.

Ends.

---------

One other condition that has been agreed with the Minister is that a management board of directors from relevant fishing organisations will be set up as a management body to oversee the operations of the hatchery. This wasn't included in the media release--government solicitors still have to work out how that body will be formed and operate, but it was one of the conditions of ACORF's endorsement of the proposal aqnd it was agreed by all parties in the meeting last Tuesday.

Cheers

Windy

[arpie]

Good luck at Euc, WIndy - we nearly went there, as we heard the fish were really firing there at the moment!

Thanks for the info on the Hatchery! A good Win for common sense!

Cheers

Roberta

[bunney10]

Good luck at Euc, WIndy - we nearly went there, as we heard the fish were really firing there at the moment!

Thanks for the info on the Hatchery! A good Win for common sense!

Cheers

Roberta

Fantastic report roberta ( As always)

Could you please give me some locations of where you fished as being new to here from the Uk ( 2 yrs) i still haven't taken my fly rods out just beach and rock fishing so far, and was planning a trip down there with my brother in the near future and didn't want to waste too much time trying to find good trout spots as it we will only be having a long weekend break

Thanks again

Steve

[arpie]

pm sent steve

The wind at Jindy was a problem with lake fishing (plus no fish when we did manage to fish it!) Try to find spots where the wind is on your back to assist casting.

Roberta

Edited January 7, 2009 by Roberta

[slinkymalinky]

Hi Roberta,

You're making me homesick for Tassie and the fly rod! Magic report... won't be long before you get a good fish with your competitive/determination streak. Congratulations Keith! Can't understand at all though why anyone would want to jump into an alpine lake for a swim

Cheers, Slinky