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Report: The Eucumbene River for trout virgins

WITH May being traditional brown trout spawning run time, I planned my annual trip to the Eucumbene River for straight after Round 5 of the Southern Bream Series at Mallacoota.

With the SBS Tournament trailer in tow I headed off early last Monday morning and drove out through Nimetabel and Bombala up into Cooma and then out to Adaminaby, where I unhitched the trailer at “Claremont” – accommodation HQ for the next four nights.

Prior to my trip I’d thrown out an open invitation to anyone who might want to come along and experience the splendour of the Eucumbene River and in particular, the brown trout spawning run. The invitation was for both experienced or novice anglers, but more importantly, anyone who wanted to enjoy a few days of solid fishing in a way that they weren’t accustomed too.

By the time I had my plans completed, accommodation booked and my crew of “trout virgins”, arranged, the anticipation from all of them was like a bunch of kids awaiting Christmas – I knew this crew of guys and a gal were going to have an awesome time.

The Monday afternoon session saw us head down the river from the old bridge towards the lake were we caught a couple of smaller fish and I hooked a very nice one estimated around 4kg. After a decent battle I had it held up in the rapids and about to be netted when the net man feel off the bank on top of the fish and gifting it its freedom … which made me comment that he needn’t worry, “there will be others” … it set the stage for plenty of friendly stirring over the next few days.

Tuesday saw a very cold start but extremely bright blue skies. Line was freezing in our runners every few casts, which made fishing the open runs of the river very quiet as the fish were shy, so it turned into a sightseeing afternoon out to Delaney’s Hut for lunch, then onto Sawyers Hill and a look around some of the higher lying areas, but again the trout were hiding.

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Nathan Thornwaite with a distinctly marked male brown.

I decided another plan of attack was needed for Wednesday, so I took everyone to the barrier at Little Alpine Creek and we headed up for the hike to the Gauging Station. From there some of us traversed our way back down the river, fishing the numerous pools and runs while some stayed up at the gauging station. It proved to be a good move with both groups doing exceptionally well with lots of good fish landed and lost on both drift spin and fly outfits using Glo-bug nymph rigs – the smiles on the trout virgins’ faces said it all!

For those of us that chose to continue down river it turned out to be fishing and hiking to the extreme through some real mountain goat country that I hadn’t experienced for many years. It was a pleasant surprise to be doing it again with the aid of my “new” knee; the terrain had me commando crawling under big fallen trees and scaling large rocky outcrops, in between landing some great brown trout.

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Darren Webb with a nice fish taken from the pool in the background.

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Mel Marlborough looking particularly pleased about landing one of her first Eucumbene trout.

Thursday morning arrived and a number of us decided that the previous day’s activities had been enough so we headed down the river again to “Big E’s corner”, where we CPR (caught photographed released) and lost more trout than we could have imagined.

This was one of the most enjoyable trips I have ever done to the Eucumbene River, as the company was great and to see the expression and smiles on my companions’ faces and hear them recounting stories of how they caught their fish was priceless. Knowing I had something to do with it was incredibly rewarding, and the fishing was fantastic.

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Murray Hill with another solid male brown with distinctive hookjaw.

For anyone heading up for the last week of the spawn run this June long weekend and needing advice on where to go, call into Adaminaby Angler and speak to Col Sinclair who has more knowledge and experience with the Eucumbene than anyone.

One last thing – please use some river etiquette and don’t just move in on other anglers who are fishing a run. Asking permission first shows consideration towards others and alleviates any bankside angst between anglers – think before you cast.

Good luck and tight lines!

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