A hot few days in spring chasing trout

[61 crusher]

After arriving in the afternoon & unpacking our gear & launching the boat for our stay at lake Jyndabine instead of the Fitzroy river Rockhampton (COVID border lockout). My mate & I decided to troll around the islands & clay pits before sunset, we did manage  2 strikes but no hook ups

the following day did a morning & afternoon session for a couple of rainbows each session which seemed to be the norm for most of our trip up to 40cm, certainly different to what we were used to when previously coming down in June & getting mainly browns & a few rainbows & the odd 60cm+ fish (salmon or brown)

The following day was much the same except that in the arvo session my mate managed to pick up our first decent fish, a stocky 45cm rainbow & after netting it I noticed a pink tag, one of a 170 odd tagged fish released in early October into the lake with potential prizes attached to each number, not all tags have a prize yet as they are still looking for sponsors but at this stage the equivalent amount have been released into lake Eucumbene & a further 80 odd into various smaller lakes & resivours throughout the snowy mountains (2 tags $4500, 1 x $1500 & various other tags $$$ & 10 x $100 vouchers for local tackle store)

Noticing that the water temp was around 18 to 19’c (daytime temps up to 28’c) even around dawn when flatlining the shallows & running planners & down rigging during the day we ended up chatting to one of the local born & bred local fly fishos who suggested looking for cooler oxygenated water.

We decided to head up to Careel bay next morning pre dawn, with overcast & the coldest  day of our trip the water temp running at 16 odd degrees we put out our flatline spread & within 15 minutes we had our first double hookup of the the trip a couple of nice healthy 40+cm rainbows 🌈, Both of us cold from the cooler weather we persisted & managed to get another double hookup & managed to get our first 2 browns (legal but under 38cm) which were released & managed 10 fish for the morningincluding a skinny legal salmon, we even found the coolest water getting down to low 12’s

Needless to say we were up there the next morning nice & early worse for wear after both of us had a good evening on the vodkas 🥃😄😜🤕 The air temp was back up to normal sunny & in the 20’s by 8:30am & even though we found the cooler water the fishing was back to 2 or 3 fish per session for the rest of our stay, around midday at my usual spot driving the boat & on strike my mate was about to grab a hooked up rod fortunately me being quick to react I managed to bring in a 44cm rainbow 🌈 & low & behold another tagged fish 

The only other thing worth mentioning was that on our last day we ended up with a salmon each up to 38cm 

Overall not a bad week away with probably a couple of undersized fish, 6 browns all released 3 salmon & the rest being rainbows of which 4 were males all fish caught on either yellow winged or holographic tassies & hardbodied lures, flatlined down rigged or on planners, we chose not to run the lead core as it can get quite messy with tangles when running 4 rods & tight to structure even though others did alright using it with 3 to 4 colours 

[61 crusher]

[61 crusher]

[61 crusher]

[61 crusher]

Managed to fluke a fish rise in this photo in the reflection on the water in the middle of the 2 kangaroos 

[masterfisho7]

Great photos and well done on the trout

[kingie chaser]

Great report & trip Dieter, sounds like the weather cooperated this time around, 28*c & light to no wind sound ideal for Jindy, no need for the ski jacket & gloves  

[Rebel]

Great report and Super photos. Well done.

[61 crusher]

On 11/20/2020 at 7:40 AM, kingie chaser said:

Great report & trip Dieter, sounds like the weather cooperated this time around, 28*c & light to no wind sound ideal for Jindy, no need for the ski jacket & gloves  

Thanks Adrian @kingie chaser that one morning where we did well I was shivering for the first couple of hours & nearly downed a whole thermos of tea, a bit of a breeze on the lake is always helpful as they feel safer from above (birds of prey) on quite a few occasions we’ve had hits in the middle of the day when the wind was upthis one was caught after midday flatlining & happened to be my tagged fish, you can see the tag if you zoom in& this is one of the reasons the trout are weary this sea eagle photo was taken last year & I happened to see 2 soaring around while we were down there last week 

Edited November 22, 2020 by 61 crusher

[rickmarlin62]

Sounds like an awesome trip  congrats on the tagged fish