Snowy Mountains Report January 2010

For my usual end of January week in Jindabyne I was this year accompanied by trusty ghillie Daryl Hart (ref. Report 5 years ago on the capture of the great King Kong), and ace Newcastle fisho John Stanning.

The Snowy lakes were mainly of interest for a swim (Lake Jindabyne, at the bottom of the garden of our headquarters at Birken Lodge). Whilst John S. Managed to extricate a few rainbows up to 2 pounds from Eucumbene, Lake Jindy once again proved “dead” for all of us – except Yours Truly, who had a solid take on dusk one evening at Hatchery Bay. After some excitement, the deceptee was reeled in and came into view – an EIGHT INCH CARP!! Briefly looked at, brutally dispatched, and a new record low point in the Jindy lake fishery was set.

What we had come for was the legendary dry fly fishing that can be had on the Thredbo River this time of year. 2010 was no disappointment. The river was low and crystal clear, a reflection of the surrounding countryside which was as dry as I have ever seen it. Wollondibby Creek had completely dried up, which I have never experienced over the last 30 years fishing down there. However the fish were in the Thredbo in good numbers. Not so much in the lower parts above the Gaden Hatchery – down there, even by mid morning, the water felt rather tepid, and the trout were scarce. Had probably mostly retreated to the lake.

The middle and upper sections (down to beyond Dead Cow Pool, up into Thredbo Village) proved much more productive, with the water there noticeably cooler all day. But even there, the fish were most active in the morning, and became more difficult to tempt as the day wore on. After about 3 pm they seemed to have mostly retreated to the shade of overhanging bushes, or to the cooler currents at the heads of the pools, and had largely stopped feeding. Time to head back to home base for a swim in the lake!

But every day, from early on, we had exciting dry fly action, either casting to rising or cruising fish, or into promising ripples and bubble-lines. Choice of fly seemed secondary, as we used assorted grasshoppers, cicadas, and Royal Wulffs, all to good effect. The most confident takes and hook-ups came on anything with rubber legs – unfortunately, the High Country Outfitters in Jindabyne had run out of supplies of their most lethal rubber-leg hoppers. So, no replacements available for the precious lethal flies we lost in the shrubbery.

Even so, and with a few fishless days to contend with, we caught around 40 fish between us in the river, all on the dry. Mostly browns, a few rainbows, with the latter proving to be particulary hard fighters. Nothing of spectacular size, several of about 2 ½ pounds being the biggest fish landed. There were certainly bigger fish present – in the stretch between Bullocks Hut and Thredbo Diggings, I saw several browns that looked 4-6 pounds, slowly cruising their home pools. Regrettably, none of them looked up for my dry fly...

Cheers, Gerhard.