SNOW covering the ridges and bitter winds blowing ensured we wouldn’t be sharing the lake with skiers and wake boarders. Arriving at the boat ramp at Lake Lyell we were protected from the icy wind on the ridges above and launched into a gloomy foggy mist.
I was with my good mate Pete Hanrahan and we had taken advantage of the cool weather to see if the trout were beginning to school up prior to spawning.
Historically, this cycle usually begins in April and continues to build right up until the season closes and the trout are left to their own devices. This cycle is dependent on rain to lift the river flow and give fish access to the river gravel runs where they scoop out their spawning nests known as redds.
The brown trout are the first to move into the streams to spawn then followed by the rainbows.
The sounder showed good numbers of fish congregating and the water temperature was around the sweet 16 C.
Picking a spot that the fish were concentrated and with a depth that the sinking fly lines would be effective we started with flies tied to imitate a Cox’s River gudgeon.
It wasn’t long before another boat trolled up towards us and pulled up for a chat. They hadn’t done any good but had passed an angler in a kayak that was getting amongst them on plastics.
After they left I rigged my Berkley Nomadic 2-4kg Travel rod and attached a green curly tail Edgegrub. First cast and the grub was belted. A few more casts for nothing, so I changed colours and cast again for another hit but no hook up.
Pete cast his fly to the same area and let the fly sink into the zone, a few strips and his fly rod loaded up with a nice 45cm, 3lb rainbow trout.
I changed colour again to a fluoro green bug and two casts later I hooked a nice 51cm rainbow.
A brace of nice rainbows from Lake Lyell.
This was basically how the rest of our day went with the plastics getting belted and losing tails and limbs to the turned on trout. While I hit many more fish on the plastics, at the end of the day Pete had landed more fish on fly.
Of our catch, two nice browns were caught and these showed signs of spawning colours and blackened bellies.
Pete Hanrahan with a nice Lake Lyell brownie.
Several trips on and fish numbers are building. We have spotted brown trout already spawning in the streams and the rainbows are fat and chunky and a few of these have made the trip back home to be transformed into beautiful smoked fillets.
Mmm… smoked trout.
My mate Eddie Savkovic and his friend Toby Jones have been checking out the back of Lake Eucumbene and although river levels had risen around Easter and fish were reported to have moved into the river to spawn, they arrived there with great expectations of further rain and more big trophy fish moving up.
Unfortunately, the forecast rain didn’t arrive and the dropping river levels had the fish holding station back in deeper waters.
Eddy and Toby still managed some great fish to over 6lbs deep drifting nymphs through the deeper pools, the biggest fish caught had already spawned as she had a well-worn tail and tummy; possibly she had taken advantage of the Easter rise!
Toby Jones (top) with a solid Eucumbene River buck brown prior to release.
Anyone wanting to fish this upper Eucumbene section are advised to acquaint themselves with the rules as special conditions apply here after the 1st of May, these also apply to the Thredbo River as well.
So as we move closer to the official start to Winter the trout action is definitely hotting up even if the weather isn’t.
For information on a trout forum on next week click HERE and more on spawning closures HERE.
