News from waters through west is that they have ‘gone hot’ with fish heading into deep water to reach cooler temperatures. Fishing seems to be OK still, in the east, probably thanks to all the cold easterlies we have had this year. Every cloud, eh?
This was another day of cracking conditions. Mel Mitchell and I made the mistake of fishing the wrong shoreline all morning. We started at the dam and worked the south shore all the way along. Mel did hook a fish, which came adrift. He had a couple of other chances. I didn’t have an offer the whole way, despite trying a variety of methods. Turns-out, we should have fished the north shore! We eventually gave up on the south by the time we got to the dog-leg. All the boats that had gone to the top end had come back down, so that told us there was nothing doing up there. So, with quite a few boats now fishing the north shore, we went up to the dam. When we got to the dam it was a different world. Head of the wind, odd fish rising. I picked up the rod with the dries, which by now was on a team of 3 hogs on fluoro, so I could mix it up static with F-of-8-ing them, and giving them a “pull under and pop-back through”. Well, bingo! We were in amongst fish in the area around the valve tower. The wind was giving us a diagonal drift from the north east corner out across towards the south shore. We were finding fish from the start, out to about half-way across, and the nearer we went to the south shore, the less there was doing. Doh! If only we had known that in the morning! Mel had his first on an orange snatcher, before switching to dries. I got them coming to the hogs with all 3 presentations – static, moving, and popping. Lots of splashy playing and missing, with the odd one sticking. I was getting more offers in the calmer water at the head of the wind, but they were more inclined to splash and miss, whilst once we were out in the good ripple, I was getting less offers, but with a better conversion rate. So, I put up the 9 foot 5-weight with a couple of wee dries to switch to, just when we were in the quiet water, but that ended up being a waste of time. I was drawing nothing to them, and there was nothing to cover. So, back to the hogs and just accepting the poor conversion rate… Still, we had plenty sport throughout the afternoon, finishing with 13 fish to the boat for what was in effect a half session.
Keith Logan adds…
Bob and I headed down to the far end to start. It’s always a challenge at the narrow end to gauge the wind direction and set the boat to drift, since it’s liable to swirl around the hills and constantly change. We saw little in terms of feeding fish on our motor up but the conditions were really promising and we set up with what we thought would be an ideal first drift. We both decided to start on a floater, me with a washing line approach and Bob with a team of his trusty dries. There really was little to excite, with no evidence of rising fish to try and cover and action was very slow to non-existent. I netted one to a FAB and unusually for Bob there was little interest in his dries. We saw little insect activity to bring on the trout. We decided to cut our losses and head back up towards the dam. On route, we came across a pod of actively feeding fish in one of the little bays on the North Shore. Initially, we thought this was a pod of small brownies but interspersed and out into the open water there were clearly some good rainbows among them. We were unsure what they were feeding on, but there were clearly some decent-sized beetles falling from the bankside foliage along with a few sedges. Bob started to get some interest to his dries with a small Adams hopper finding regular success, and I quickly switched to dries and started to pick up the odd good fish, particularly to a black hopper and black half-hog. We then had a number of long drifts right along the North Shore, starting up almost as far as the dam. We enjoyed some great sport, with lots of lost opportunities and some cracking fish. Bob landed one superb brownie around the 3lb mark and there were a number of acrobatic blues that were difficult to hold onto. We had an eventful session and ended with 22 fish to the boat.
Dougie Skedd adds…
I was unsure about what to do on the day and since in the flat calm I had seen nothing rise I started with a washing line rig. Boat partner, Fraser Gault started on dries, fishing two F-flies. We started at the valve tower and began to drift along the north shore. Fraser was in action almost immediately with a very acrobatic blue and another a few minutes later. I felt I was on the wrong stuff by now but didn’t want to change too suddenly. A fish splashed against the shore on Fraser’s side if the boat. He was fankled and invited me to have a shot. The point fly bounced off the rocks and a large brownie engulfed it. Thanks Fraser! As we drifted down the shore, we seemed to be running out of fish so we returned to the valve tower. I changed to dries on the way back up the breeze. Now I was catching fish steadily, although I couldn’t buy an offer on my point fly. Everything was coming to the Klinkhamer on the dropper. Very odd. Fraser was catching too, on his F-flies, but we were both beginning to be plagued by false takes. In the end we finished with 14 to the boat. A decent day, spoiled only by a burst of heavy rain with half an hour to go. A car full of soggy kit is always such a joy to deal with after a long day. On a side note, I was able to return a CD I had borrowed from Fraser the last time I saw him… two years ago! Thanks again, Fraser.
