Eucunbene River (the brown trout spawn run) 25th - 27th May

[luderick -angler]

Hi all

So at at a late hour on the 25th of May we hit the motorway and made the trek to the Snowies with an uneventful drive no roos to dodge thankfully and a quick stop in Cooma for a feed of dirty Maccas we made the Alpine Tourist park and checked in (Lars and Jan are top folks who run this place and Lars knows his fly fishing and where to point you) Well the the next day and a half the trout gods smiled on Jacob and myself we each banked a dozen plus solid browns and got dusted by many more fish average weight was 5 - 6lb. This was slow apparently as the previous week a 40 - 50 fish session was common still we were happy and I have not had it this good since my days on the Tongariro and Hinemaia. These fish go hard on 5 weights and 6lb fluro the trick was to get deep with tungsten beads and glow bug droppers!

Highlight of the trip was spending a few hours with the great Les Hawkins who wrote Basic Trout Fishing and listening to his stories of fishing the area as the flooded the valleys slowly was amazing. When he and his mates rocked up they were not catching fish and aquaintences were made I politely suggested they try a glo bug and offered them round little did I know i was politely telling a fly fishing legend what to do (I had no idea who he was and I as offering a fly as he had no glo bugs so he could get a few) well once we had the rig sorted Les had a fish on which was a brute fresh 6lb jack that took 10 - 15 mins to get to the net nd I had the plesure (no pressure) of landing it. After that it was dispatched to the heavens for the smoker and at 9am single malt promptly poured and a good yarn! It was here I learnt whom I had just stood next too and netted a fish for Talk about feeling like a prize idiot, but he was most thankful and actually complemented on our politeness by inviting himselfand the other mebers of thier fly fishing club into the run to share he actually said to me ina later email that Jacob and I had restored his faith in the goodness and comaraderie fly fishing can bring..well it was a little crowded down there but thanks to NSW Police and Fisheries doing an awesome job most people abided by the no camping rules and size and bag limits actually i saw more fish released these spawners are not crash hot in the pan!

[ifonly]

awesome stuff, keen on getting down there next year

[W4z]

Looks good and nice report. Heard it was great fishing leading up till the close

[luderick -angler]

Looks good and nice report. Heard it was great fishing leading up till the close

We had a slow two days!!!! We ledt as the rain hit and that Thursday the fish ran up in massive numbers key to a good spawn run is plenty of rain over February and March leading into April to ensure good water levels and flows for the fish to move up to the spawning grounds

[diesel]

absolutely beautiful Royce, geez the browns are really brown down there,They apparently run before the rainbows yeh?

[luderick -angler]

absolutely beautiful Royce, geez the browns are really brown down there,They apparently run before the rainbows yeh?

Yes mate the ydo though there were a few bows taken in the 3lb mark in the river on the Tuesday one angler got three on fly, the bows usually run rain dependant as arly as late July for the first trickle then right up until opening weekend last year they ran and left early and there were none taken to speak of opening weekend 2013 the Eucmbene depending on run of fish and seasonal vagretirs can be a feast or famine or in between!!!!!!

[Guest hawkesbass]

Nice royce very nice ill get there one day