THE unseasonal spring-like weather experienced in NSW last week unfortunately didn’t hang around. The change that blew through the state last Friday brought with it plummeting overnight temperatures and snow at higher altitudes.
Someone who got a taste of the return to winter was Fisho writer Greg Finney who had headed up to the popular trout fishing destination of Thompsons Creek Dam in the central tablelands.
Finney, joined by son Andrew, brother Mark and future son-in-law Ryan Biret, told Fisho it was snowing late on Friday as they drove from Katoomba through to Lithgow to stay overnight. After a chilly below zero night the group drove to Thompsons Creek Dam where the car park was sporting a healthy dusting of white snow.
Take us to the trout – Andrew and Mark Finney at Thompsons Creek Dam at the weekend.
Finney told Fisho that despite spotting quite a number of trout moving in the dam, the fish were fairly difficult to entice with their flies. He says many of the rainbows his group saw appeared to be displaying spawning behaviour and colours, despite the impoundment’s absence of spawning streams.
He reports the group fished from early morning to late afternoon for “a hit each” and, eventually, an around 2kg buck rainbow for Greg which fell for a #14 pheasant tail nymph.
Finney says the group fished again the next day till around 2pm before calling it stumps with unfortunately no more trout added to their single fish tally. He says though some other fishos had fared better with one fly fisher reportedly accounting for “six or seven” trout. Lure fishers have apparently been finding the going fairly tough though.
The fish of 1000 casts – Greg Finney releasing his nice rainbow that took a pheasant tail nymph.
