I managed a few days in the Snowy Mountains last week. After a long winter, the area was at last snowy in name only, the top of the Main Range the final bastion of white. Mid 20s maximums and sunshine prevailed on Lake Eucumbene and the rivers, providing more than a taste of dry fly action.
In typical early season fashion, stonefly were the predominant insect on the rivers at first, bring a few excited rises as they fluttered too close to the water (although stonefly nymphs are aquatic, adult stonefly emerge on land.) However toward the end of my trip, mayfly duns began to appear, and the dry fly fishing lifted accordingly. My mate Steve, who stayed on after I headed home, gleefully informed me that the hatches have only got better.
On Lake Eucumbene, a combination of ground not flooded since 2006 and the first really warm weather of the season, created the kind of fishing you’d expect. We normally arrived from the rivers late afternoon to find sporadic rises in any shallow bay we chose. Usually these increased (twice, spectacularly, to termites) as the sun sank lower, and continued on into the night as the trout found midges, craneflies and who knows what else.
Many of the trout were rainbows of a kilo or so – typically strong silvery Eucumbene fish that were a battle to keep out of the thistles. Seven pound tippet was a must! Mixed in was the odd brown and rainbow twice that size; all of these I caught came well after sunset.
All up the area is in great condition and as all that flooded vegetation rots, it’s hard not to see the midge fishing equaling or surpassing 2008. As for mudeye and hopper potential, I think I’ll have to schedule a return trip in a month or two.
Thredbo River
Lake Eucumbene
