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Weekend on the Turon with Irongustavius


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Well it was time and the paln was hatched after seeing bomboras awesome report Angus and I decided this was 5 weight mission time! Well I had been looking at doing this since they started re stocking the river....anyway it was to be a short trip. So headed over to Angus's place after a very roundabout cab ride!!!! Another story in itself.......! Well after a 5am start and an uneventful ride to Lithgow for the obligatory maccas breakfeast with the Lithgow panther's (should be cougars) present and prowling we were off! Got tot Turon Gates at 8.30am checked in had a chat with the owner who said theres thousands of trout (we'll see) and set up camp we quickly tooled up the rods and were off. Ran into another fly fisherman who ahd no luck that morning near camp so we headed up stream for a whiles and thats where it started Angus is on to his first fish (and only for the day) but he made it count and after a good fight some happy snaps it was back to the pool for the fiesty bow (I read for optimum survival you should keep the fish in the water and return to the pool it was caught.yes for those who like to hold their trout by the gills placeon rocks and grass before release please take note!!!!.

So off up river wego covering loads of good water and runs wit hno luck until we spot two nice fish working a fast run Angus had rights so i spotted whilst he cast the yfollowed his fly how many times but would they take no! Eventually they went doggo so we moved on, I found a nice slow run and hit it first cast bang I'm on after a good what seemed 5 mins and plenty of aerial angus has the fish to the net another fat healthy bow and my only for the trip....but I blooded the Scott E2 % weight damn she is a sweet tool! So off up river we go spotting a couple more fish which followed but never took our offerings, by this stage we had got well up stream and decidedto head back for camp. On the way back ran into our fellow fly angler nad he kindly offered us a lift......thank you cause we would have bee nstumbling back in the dark without torches.

Well back at camp it was discussed and the owner told us the fish were there we just missed them I agreed thinking the weeks previous floods couldhave put them down or the barometer was rising who knows but thats fishing! Dinner was a hodge podge of beans eggs and two minute noodle washed down by the local Cab Sav offering from Orange quite drinkable at $12 dollars!

So a good nights sleep and day two............

Off down stream and what a different river slow and wide loads of hydroxa weed great brownie water (did we see any no) Anyhow covered some awesome water for a few hours wit hme donuting and Angus half donuting whe nhe hooked and lost an absolut horse of a bow in fast broken water all I saw was nothing but I and the rest of the Capertree Valley heard his heartbreak........

And that was that we called it quits and headed home via of course Lithgow Maccas which I shall nickname the cougar den! Thanks to Angus for awesome company and doing the driving your an awesome guy to fish with. Have to say even though there was a lack of fish caught and spotted those we did were all good solid fish in the 2.5lb - 3lb mark and they are fat and well conditioned the amount of mayfly and caddis nymph on the stones has to be seen to be believed and they are huge....its an awesome fishery and one that really deseves to be a mainly catch and release with the odd one for the pan tp preserve it for the coming years.

Well I will definately head there again, enjoy the pics

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Edited by luderick -angler
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The fishing was tough alright, I spent ten minutes with some hardbodies trying to catch some dinner but to no avail.

I think I scared some Russians who were camping by the river near where I was busted off by a stonker rainbow. There were some loudly proclaimed four letter words thrown around.

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Great report and pics guys! Was looking forward to it. Know the feeling about being sent nuts by the amount of teasing follows! And they are all fatties which go like the clappers in that river aren't they! Looks a tad more open country than the bit I stumbled around. Water looks a bit greener as well. Pondering whether to try to get up there again before school hols or wait until after. Have read it gets a tad crowded during hols. Love the wood framed landing net, beautiful, gotta get one, though it seems an easy river to land by hand. Looking at your pics again it really is stunning country to a city/coast bloke.

Edited by bombora
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Great report and pics guys! Was looking forward to it. Know the feeling about being sent nuts by the amount of teasing follows! And they are all fatties which go like the clappers in that river aren't they! Looks a tad more open country than the bit I stumbled around. Water looks a bit greener as well. Pondering whether to try to get up there again before school hols or wait until after. Have read it gets a tad crowded during hols. Love the wood framed landing net, beautiful, gotta get one, though it seems an easy river to land by hand. Looking at your pics again it really is stunning country to a city/coast bloke.

Yeah most of the photos were from a bit lower down . . . we got up river a fair bit but, since we didn't catch any fish there, we didn't take many photos! I reckon I'll go again in January, try to take the missus and stay in a cabin. It's a gorgeous place, the fact that you can reasonably expact to catch the odd fish is a big bonus in my book.

Although maybe next time I'll resort to throwing rocks at fish that just aren't interested in the fly.

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Nice fish, Sunday was tough for me on the fish river, I could only put it down to the high and dirty water, thats fishing. Looks like a nice stretch of river, do they get a few browns up that way or is it mainly rainbows.

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Nice fish, Sunday was tough for me on the fish river, I could only put it down to the high and dirty water, thats fishing. Looks like a nice stretch of river, do they get a few browns up that way or is it mainly rainbows.

I'm lead to believe it's mostly rainbows, but I don't see why there wouldn't be a few browns lurking in the pools. There's some pretty deep water there.

I'm beginning to think that the fish were there, but they were a lot better than me.

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Great report guys and some lovely photos.

I was at Thompson Creek Dam the other day and watched 2 guys land a few 6+ pound fish on spin gear. They lost one fish that would easily go to 8+ pounds. They do catch fish.

Regards Caddis

Edited by Caddis
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Great report guys and some lovely photos.

I was at Thompson Creek Dam the other day and watched 2 guys land a few 6+ pound fish on spin gear. They lost one fish that would easily go to 8+ pounds. They do catch fish.

Regards Caddis

Chris, I still believe that spin will mostly outfish fly. But the challenge (being a not very experienced fly fisherman) for me is to find techniques that work and will close the gap compared to what I know I could be doing with a few little ecogear minnows and a 7 foot spinning rod.

Interested to see your spey casting by the way.

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Angus, Chris,

Yep spin will outfish fly I have seenthe spookiest brown trout in NZ in the Hutt River brought undone by a CD7 brown trout rapala when they won't look at the most perfectly presented #18 pheasant tail under a royal! I reckno it depends on the day!

Fished TCD with Bustoff today to give the new 2nd hand SAge RPL 5 weight a test and the result was two bows to 40cm odd one to an unweighted PT below and indicator and the other to a #10 Bead head Woolly bugger stripped fast. As for the RPL the best rod I have fished with even though it is close to 20 years old!!!!

Chris your thoughts on all the yabbie claws on the banks at TCD there were hundreds littering the shoreline? All I can think of is it si what the trout have left behind there no carcasses? And what really annoye dme was the blatant evidence of bait fishos rod rests on the shore line stuck in the mud!!!!!

Chris we still need to have that fish!!!! I want to play with that switch rod!!!! And the NS5

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Hi Guys,

Where did you pick up the fish?

I had a call from a friend on Wednesday night. He took 3 clients to TCD and hooked 7-8 pound bow on the eastern bank, slow stripping black bead head nymph. The fish took his client to the backing twice before lossing at the net.

I'll be hitting the dam a few times this week.

Best

Caddis

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