Snowy Mountains Revisited

[Centrepin]

I put Evi on a plane for Germany on Friday 9th December and she would be away till 1st January and by negotiated the next work assignment to commence in the new year I was a free man to do as I choose for 3 weeks. Well almost, had to be back for 3 days over Chrissy.

While we were in Tassie I saw they had an enormous amount of rain in the Snowies. Since then there had been no rain for 9 days. Fishing the Yarrongabilly was a strong possibility. Saturday had scattered showers predicted and Sunday rain. Packed up the Avan and headed south Friday arvo. Stopped the night at Jugiong (a lovely place to stay overnight) set the alarm for 5.30 to give an early start on the Yarrongabilly. When I crossed it on snowy mountains highway I was shocked. It was running very high and clear. With no rain in 9 days they must have had a big flood. Changed plans and headed to Eucumbene river.

River was high but looked in good shape.

Started with the usual humpy/ nymph combo and was rewarded second run with a nice rainbow to the dry. Next run saw a nice brown to the dry and a pattern was emerging. I missed a big rainbow tight in against a bank and made a mental appointment to revisit him as soon as possible. As normally happens they become shy of the Humpy as the day wears on and moved to my Adams and had about 6 fish by 11.30. I rounded the hill and found another car. Shock, horror someone else fishing.

Now most fly fisherman will start fishing upstream so I decided leave them to it and headed back downstream as I had an appointment with a Mr R Bow. When I reached to nominated the run the aforesaid flyfisher had gone around me downstream, smart boys. Even though they fished behind me they had still done well. I watched as this guy fished the spot with a Goddard Caddis. He got one small fish but not the appointed target. After making his acquaintance I offered to fish upstream above where they started.

Fish were spooky and some runs had nothing, very surprising. Managed a couple of fish on Adams in faster water, but they were different to when I was on this part of the river in November.

Set up camp at 3 mile dam. Sunday arrived with rain as predicted. This was quite welcome as I had fished yesterday and it is pleasant fussing around camp. The afternoon turned out clear and headed to the Upper Eucumbene. Of course running hard and dirty from the storm and I fished deep nymph for about an hour with no interest. None of the bigger browns I knew inhabited this area would come out to play. I did manage a cracker rainbow on the humpy.

Took him back as a smoker and he was full of big beetles.

More rain Sunday night and rivers were up everywhere. I had heard they were letting water out of Tantangara and always wanted to fish the Murrumbidgee when this was happening and it would not be affected by the rain. Tantangara looks a picture.

If I had not had my fill with stream fishing I would love to fish some of those bays with flooded tussocks, but that could be another story. Yes they were letting water out of Tantangara at an amazing rate. I headed to an area I had fished preciously and you could not determine where the original river bed was, it was flooded over paddocks and into a tough cuttygrass. Where to start fishing was a quandary. It was treacherous to wade and most times where at full depth of full length waders. I found a few small rainbows and they were fussy. Not what I had hoped for so decided to head back to camp for leisurely lunch and contemplate the afternoon.

I had wanted to explore the Murrumbidgee above Rules Point. It is magic looking water but has just not produced on the few times I have fished it. I set off for this mission but was disappointed at the colour and flow in the river, it was not fishable. Mental note I have unfinished business.

Tuesday arvo Chris was due to arrive and I know he likes smoked trout. Headed back to Eucumbene for a morning fish for 6 average rainbows and brought 2 home for the smoker. We had smoked trout in Spinach fettuccini with Pesto sauce and sundried tomatoes for dinner. Still not a worthwhile rise in the dam so not bothering with lake fishing as the streams are so interesting.

With Yarrongabilly still high the big decision was to fish Eucumbene river or Cave creek? Cave Creek was sensational in November and I knew it would not be affected by rain. We chose Eucumbene and this proved to be a good choice. It’s a bit like winning the toss and deciding if your team will bat.

This next day turned out to be one of the best dry fly fishing days we have had. We left our cars at either end of the stretch and headed off. When we met the river Chris went upstream and I detoured down as I had an appointment with Mr R Bow. I was delight he came out to play, took the dry and launch into the air and came down through a dead tree. Somehow the line did not hang up and we had our appointment completed. The day was sunny and clear with almost no wind. These days are made in heaven and not often experienced, but they make up for all the blank ones. When I caught up with Chris at 11.30 we had 7 each and were well pleased, his to a 12 Royal Wulf and mine to 14 Adams.

Chris saw 6 cormorants departing from one run and this and 3 after it did not produce a fish.

The afternoon continued in the same vain if not better. I stayed with the Adams as I knew we were headed to some runs that held good browns and they would be more likely to take this fly than just show an interest in the other larger, bushier versions.

So I was delighted to see a larger model rise from the river bed to take the Adams. He was about 3.5 lb.

This was among 3 others from the same run, all plus 1 kilo. Some runs held only Browns and it was common to get 3 or 4 fish from each run. Chris got 5 in one run, all browns.

In the last run of the day Chris got smoked by a brown that made my best effort look like a tiddler and I finished with the best Rainbow of the day when I did not see the take in fast water and wound my line up.

A day we will never forget.

Thursday was full of anticipation about cave creek. I told Chris we would see thousands of fish and was crestfallen when I saw the river. This river runs through gorge country so a flood does not leave any scope for fish to escape from the torrent. In simple terms they were washed away downstream over a waterfall. All the big beds of weed were gone. All the moss from the rocks was removed. The affect was catastrophic. It will take years for this stream to get back to a semblance of what it was. We headed back to camp at lunchtime and fished right next to the road at Kiandra. We found some very interesting fishing to small and moderate sized browns rising to duns. It was a pleasant way to finish the day after a disappointing start.

Chris headed home Friday and of course I could not stop myself from returning to the previous great fishing. What a difference 2 days make. The weather was overcast and windy. The first 2 hours I could not catch a fish. OK if I have to go to nymphs I will. I could not believe it still no fish landed. I pulled out of 2 but was not connected for long. So I went back to the humpy and nymph to have bet both ways and for 30 minutes the fish went mad for the humpy landed about 8 then they stopped.

Again the same the runs where Chris saw the cormorants were devoid of fish.

We saw lot’s of evidence with fish having close encounters with cormorants. See the damage near the tail of this rainbow. Several good browns showed recent scars just behind their head.

One of these was a lovely 3 pounder that came from the same run as the 3.5 pounder that came to visit when I was with Chris. I thought at first I had caught the same fish again.

I saw fish rising spasmodically and made a concerted effort to catch them. Tried all the usual dries then when to emergers and finally had success on a 14 Klinkhammer. The bad news was they were small rainbows, but it was useful to see they could be tricked.

As I got close to the end I found fish rising steadily to something very small. The Klinkhammer would not interest them. Finally went to size 18 Adams and caught 4 fish with some mid sized browns among them. Called it a day and walked the 4 k’s back to the car.

It was a great trip with some good learning’s. I saw the natural fisherman (Cormorants) and climatic factors (floods and droughts) have far greater effect than human fisherman. The need to keep changing throughout the day was never so evident as on the last day. Whenever you think you have them wired you are about to have a fall.

[austral]

excellent report, thanks for shareing

[bombora]

Great pics and report, got me so twitchy!!

[arpie]

Well done! Sensational fishing! Good to get them on dry too!

One day, I hope to get one on dry, in the river!

Cheerio

Roberta

[irongustavius]

Nice report Geoff.

I've been exploring a few small streams around the Central West while being home for Christmas, but haven't had any success (yet). It's good to see people getting amongst the fish and getting into them in a big way.

[cc118]

grear report Geoff and some good fish

i'll hopefully be out next week and will post a report as well. i was out a few days ago, but left the camera at home.

Regards Caddis

[mark brown]

Nice report and sounds like a great trip well done