Turon Gates

[joshGTV]

Hi, I went to Turon Gates yesterday for the first time, targeting trout with a small lure. Saw no evidence of fish there at all. Is anyone familiar with the upper Turon? Could it be that stocks haven't recovered post-drought? Or is it just the wrong time of year? Can anyone share any knowledge about that area?

[bombora]

Hi Josh, what was the water flow like in the upper Turon? Been wondering how this magical river and its trout have fared in this most recent drought.

When the millenium drought broke the fishing there was very good. But it is a fickle fishery. Not a heap of trout but what's there was always good size back then - never caught a rainbow  smaller than 32cm; biggest 54cm. Only ever caught one brown, but it was a beautiful little fish of 30cm, sight cast to, in a shin deep riffle. More gold than brown, with pure silver sides, presume because of the clear water.

Crystal clear freestone river means super finesse is the go. I would use 3 pd braid and 4 pd leader, and tiny (1/32 to 1/20 hair jigs. Tiny translucent bibbed minnows also did OK if they snubbed the jigs. 

Hope the nuclear bomb/drought proof carp haven't taken over.

I'm also from the Northern Beaches and miss the trips up there - such a contrast to the beaches!

[PaddyT]

havent fished up that way in years but back in the late 80's , early 90's had some excellent trout fishing in both the Turon and Palmers Oakey Creek, after a pretty serious drought in the 90's the fishing slowed right down and I havent really been back to it (lost property access). I do go up in the general area a fair bit and the last 12 months its been incredibly dry, there is still a lot of area that is dry underneath despite some better stream flows etc. Reality is that the central west needs some winter rain.

[joshGTV]

15 minutes ago, bombora said:

Hi Josh, what was the water flow like in the upper Turon? Been wondering how this magical river and its trout have fared in this most recent drought.

When the millenium drought broke the fishing there was very good. But it is a fickle fishery. Not a heap of trout but what's there was always good size back then - never caught a rainbow  smaller than 32cm; biggest 54cm. Only ever caught one brown, but it was a beautiful little fish of 30cm, sight cast to, in a shin deep riffle. More gold than brown, with pure silver sides, presume because of the clear water.

Crystal clear freestone river means super finesse is the go. I would use 3 pd braid and 4 pd leader, and tiny (1/32 to 1/20 hair jigs. Tiny translucent bibbed minnows also did OK if they snubbed the jigs. 

Hope the nuclear bomb/drought proof carp haven't taken over.

I'm also from the Northern Beaches and miss the trips up there - such a contrast to the beaches!

The water flow was great, running fast and strong. Some good deep holes and a lot of rapids.

[bombora]

That's good news about the water levels, now just gotta hope some trout survived the drought. Wonder if the local acclimatisation society has done any stocking recently, imagine not. The rainbows they have previously stocked were Californian steelhead heritage, I understand; really beautiful strong fish. 

[rickmarlin62]

Josh  did you fish below or above turon gates   i fished a few miles downstream a coupla months ago and only seen carp

[joshGTV]

Upstream. About 2km drive from Turon Gates. The first bridge. Damned carp!