TCD False Spawners - Have we ever seen them so early?

[Delraiser]

Hit Thommo's today for a spin and much to our chagrin, the Rainbows have already started their futile spawning attempts. A couple of fellas had picked some up on Glo-Bugs, but their minds were on other things and lockjaw had set in.

The false-spawn is somewhat of a regular thing at Thommo's, but I can't ever remember it coming on so early. It's usually something that kicks off well into July, but I guess the recent cold snap, and the sudden water level rise could well have triggered the trout to go early. The big question now, is given this has kicked off so early, will the fish finish early as well? Usually Thommo's fires back up sometime in October, but this year we might see some decent action in September.

[foolforjesus]

Hi Delraiser,

I've been fishing good ol' Thommo's for quite some time now...In recent years I too have experienced the conditions that have now set in with the Rainbows going into their spawning mode.

Last week in fact, whilst fishing with Raider "Hooked Up", we witnessed something truly amazing...We actually saw the Rainbows successfully spawn!!!

We watched the female and male engage in their nose to tail courtship...We then watched in amazement as she made several passes over the little dug out she had made, flipping on her side laying the eggs...We then watched the male pass over and produce his milk over the eggs!!!

Too boot, we captured it all on HD camcorder. We actually saw this take place in a few spots on the south east shore.

As you said with the water level rise, this has enabled the Rainbows to access the gravel areas of the shallow bays, in turn allowing them to successfully spawn.

With the water level being so low in recent years, I guess they have had no chance of successfully spawning, hence the usual futile spawning behaviour.

The last couple of weeks has proved in my mind without a shadow of a doubt that if the conditions are right, the Rainbows can and will successfully spawn up at Thommo's!

My only hope is that this water level stays up for at least the next two months, as I believe it can take up to 8 weeks for the eggs to hatch. Obviously if the level drops, the eggs will die.

We are still landing fish at the moment, albeit quite hard going. We were up there today actually...Hooked Up picked up two on the fly rod.

To answer your question, I would say that there is a very good chance the fishing should be back to normal by the end of July!

Cheers, Chris

Hit Thommo's today for a spin and much to our chagrin, the Rainbows have already started their futile spawning attempts. A couple of fellas had picked some up on Glo-Bugs, but their minds were on other things and lockjaw had set in.

The false-spawn is somewhat of a regular thing at Thommo's, but I can't ever remember it coming on so early. It's usually something that kicks off well into July, but I guess the recent cold snap, and the sudden water level rise could well have triggered the trout to go early. The big question now, is given this has kicked off so early, will the fish finish early as well? Usually Thommo's fires back up sometime in October, but this year we might see some decent action in September.

Edited June 10, 2012 by foolforjesus

[Delraiser]

Hi Delraiser,

I've been fishing good ol' Thommo's for quite some time now...In recent years I too have experienced the conditions that have now set in with the Rainbows going into their spawning mode.

Last week in fact, whilst fishing with Raider "Hooked Up", we witnessed something truly amazing...We actually saw the Rainbows successfully spawn!!!

We watched the female and male engage in their nose to tail courtship...We then watched in amazement as she made several passes over the little dug out she had made, flipping on her side laying the eggs...We then watched the male pass over and produce his milk over the eggs!!!

Too boot, we captured it all on HD camcorder. We actually saw this take place in a few spots on the south east shore.

As you said with the water level rise, this has enabled the Rainbows to access the gravel areas of the shallow bays, in turn allowing them to successfully spawn.

With the water level being so low in recent years, I guess they have had no chance of successfully spawning, hence the usual futile spawning behaviour.

The last couple of weeks has proved in my mind without a shadow of a doubt that if the conditions are right, the Rainbows can and will successfully spawn up at Thommo's!

My only hope is that this water level stays up for at least the next two months, as I believe it can take up to 8 weeks for the eggs to hatch. Obviously if the level drops, the eggs will die.

We are still landing fish at the moment, albeit quite hard going. We were up there today actually...Hooked Up picked up two on the fly rod.

To answer your question, I would say that there is a very good chance the fishing should be back to normal by the end of July!

Cheers, Chris

Thanks for the info mate, it's good to see the fish having some kind conditions up there for a change. I reckon they have done it a bit tough over the last 5 or 6 seasons. I certainly hope that they can successfully spawn, but most of the literature I've read indicates Rainbows need running water, so who knows? I might park Thommo's for a few months now to leave the fish in peace. Hopefully by late August they will be feeding up again. While it was good to see, it certainly came as a shock being only early June. The long weekend has traditionally been one of the best times to hit the lake as the fish are usually super aggressive and you don't normally have to be too selective with lure size or colour. Looks like I will have to reset the calendar forward a month or two.......

[oarderve]

They may have droped their egg's but they will not hatch ,they need running water

[luderick -angler]

oarderve is spot on the money the do lay the eegs they do fertilize them but yep cool running water needed theres only once place I know of the ydo this and the eegs hatch and thats in one of the Rotorua lakes as there is a cold spring upwelling through the gravel! Most likely those redds will be disturbed by oother fish and the eggs eaten! What actually get sthe trout spawning iswhern the water gets to a certain temp and theres a bit of rin the yknow the difference between dam fed water and natraul run off, one just needs to look at the Tongariro they got rain in February this year the temp dropped and the first fresh run hen I heard of was caught on Feb 28th full of eggs so time of year is not really a factor its more enviromental

[foolforjesus]

Thanks for the info too Guy's...I have heard though, that it is only Brown Trout that need running water for the eggs to hatch?

From what I was told, Rainbow Trout can and will have successful hatches without running water?!

I'm sure though too, that the "REDDS" will mostly get eaten by the Browns at night, however, I am pretty sure (I am hoping), that some do hatch and make it...I would like to believe that anyways

So yeah, generally I concur with the other comments on successful spawning, but I still think we cannot be 100% sure either way.

Whichever way it turns out to be, I'd love to believe that the Rainbows in some way at Thommo's are self sustaining!

[jimmy72]

hey guys ,

long time lurker .. infrequent poster ..

my mates and i were lucky enough to fish thomos for a while before it was open to the public ( lose lips at the alexander hotel rydal gave us the heads up on access via the back of the dam though a fellow drinkers property)... we had some great days with no one around fishing both to crusing & rising fish around the edges when it was warmer and the false spawners in winter... (could not belive the false spawners when we first found them.. never saw anything like that at lyle or wang dam.. ).. back then the max size then was not much more than 4lb.. with 2.5 - 3lbers the standard --- but catching fish was lots easier, as they had hardly seen a fly..... we actually dobbed ourselves in as word got out to try and stop the meat fishos who were killing masses of fish ( this resulted in a large fine for ebing on the dam, until it officially opened ) .. we fished it hard with success after it opened too but these days the fish usually make a fool of me and my dying casting skills - my hat goes off to you guys getting amoungst some of the trophy fish available now

on a weekend similar to the one just gone (pissing down) we fished the drain/ normally a dry tiny creek bed.. just before the quarry -- it was a raging torrent of brown water we were really just mucking about and ran a fly down the torrent, wham .... we scored around 5 fish before a mate jumped in and started tickling the fish ( funny but stupid ) -- all released.. even seen fish trying to swim up the clay pipe up the back that comes form a local farm dam. One evening we even sight fished in the full moon to fish feeding over the sand flat in the sth east corner near the wall.. in less that 2 ft of water.. feeding fish swiming between you legs - getting chased by security in the dark to nearly get trampled by stampeding goats WTF?? ----- that place was full just of surprises for a youngish fisho

on the subject of spawners i think you will find that generally the trout population in any specific fishery will have different groups spawning (trying to spawn) at different times, .. i.e nature does this so that all the eggs are not in the one basket so to speak (pun intended)... so we may see the spawning routine go on for a few months

if the westerlies keep constant .. they will effectively have running cool water i think thats why they seem to choose that sth east bank as its the usual wind for the winter and creates conditions like moving water that may??? enable some reproduction - from what i have heard and read over the years natural recruitment can happen in lakes if all goes well .. its not likely but apparently can happen ( dont forget lake trout .. as in salvalinus namaycush.. breed in lakes ) with rainbows silt build up over the eggs kills them hence the flowing water being a usual requirement for success.

anyways i'll be down the megalong chasing the NSW ' steelheads' over winter if my old legs can get me in there -- been a while since conditions looked so good

tight lines and fast fish !

grant

Edited June 12, 2012 by jimmy72