Author Archives: bill

June 2021 Burley Line (Newsletter Issue 168)

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The Tumut trip report that missed the schedule for May Burley Line has arrived – wow! Some excellent photos – don’t you love the bokeh (selective focus on the fish and not the angler :-).  Seemed quite a success despite the high flows and will be a must-do event next year.

Was very exciting to have JQ down here from Cairns and available within his busy schedule to get out for one day chasing our speckled friends up in the Brindies.  This was a recce for a planned club trip next year being championed by our man in London (soon to be back home) Greg W.

I’ve put some thoughts to the committee on trips that I’d like to conduct next season.  Put your hand up folks – the program is in development and all the trips ought not have to fall upon the ‘usual suspects’.

Similarly, the stories here are a bit thin – aren’t you fishing?  We’d all love to hear what you’ve been up to with the close of stream season almost upon us.

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Fly Tying 26 May 2021 – Woolly Bugger

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Some variations on the Wooly Bugger. Both with and without the traditional palmered hackle.

These images come from our leader, Claude. He remarked “If I ever tie a dodgy fly, I normally use them as a starting fly in a particularly snaggy spot where loosing it wont break my heart 😊. As JQ said, you can trim the tail if you keep having tail strikes.”

keyword wetfly streamerfly

Blood Knot

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For anyone who has struggled to keep control while doing this knot, I recently found a video explaining a very nifty trick … toothpick required.

There was also a similar one using your haemostat, handy as we are generally carrying one of these, but it looked a bit clumsy.

Providence Portal Works Completed

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Received from MAS. Good news but also a concerning issue

I am pleased to report that the bank stabilisation works at Providence Portal have now been completed.  A small amount of water has flowed down the system ( too small for fish to move up) and this small flow has remained clean.  The Monaro Acclimatisation Society has been in negotiation with Snowy Hydro over the commissioning date for the project and we have asked Snowy Hydro to delay any significant flow until after the close of the trout season (June long weekend), to avoid unnecessary impact on angling.

However, I have received a number of complaints about many anglers driving across the river and this is causing the water downstream of random river crossings becoming turbid, disturbing spawning trout and potentially destroying already laid eggs.  Anglers should note that Snowy Hydro has delayed commissioning of the works and have made a commitment that on commissioning the flow will be regulated to avoid turbidity in the water – but on the other hand anglers see fit to drive across the river, potentially damaging spawning redds, laid eggs and causing unnecessary turbidity in the river.

The MAS will be speaking with Snowy Hydro and NSW Fisheries in the near future to decide how to approach and deal with this issue, but the MAS is committed to ensuring that our trout are protected as are their eggs.  Anglers can assist by not driving across the river, the walk downstream will do you good.

Steve Samuels

President

Monaro Acclimatisation Society Inc

 

May 2021 Burley Line (Newsletter Issue 167)

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After getting Peter’s brown incorrect last month, my penance is that he’s photo of the month this month. Actually the image is there to tempt folk into considering the June Chill event – big fish will be around.
CAA went up to Tumut last weekend. The flow was huge, impacting on the fishing no doubt. Unfortunately it seems both John and Claude are busy at work so we’ll have to wait to next month for a report.
Greg S has been sending in weblinks to some interesting video clips and articles. Well spotted mate and keep them coming. I wonder if he (or anyone else) might like to take on the role of stand in editor – now that JQ has moved to Cairns Burley Line is missing this essential portion of the machinery. With COVID possibly easing a bit (New Zealand bubble at minimum), you can expect me to be looking to travel with consequences for newsletter production … think about it folks, it isn’t that hard.
Some funnies from Mike to lighten the spirits, also I’ve ‘discovered’ a particularly good YouTube channel with excellent video quality (I just love closeups of the fish taking the fly) but also instructional commentary along the way.
A couple of important items from Monaro Acclimatisation Society, plus highlights of NSW CFA and RFA of NSW newsletters.

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Yearling Trout Stocked into Snowy Lakes

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Got this from Monaro Acclimatisation Society

Dear Supporters

On Tuesday 27th April 2021 a band of some 16 boat skippers and crew descended on Buckenderra Holiday Village to assist with the first mass stocking of 10,000 Gaden Hatchery raised yearling rainbow trout into Lake Eucumbene.

Responding to a call for assistance by the Monaro Acclimatisation Society and the Alpine Angler Store, the volunteers arrived in the heavy fog to assist the Gaden Hatchery staff unload and bag the trout.  Once bagged the trout were ferried to all reaches of the lake by boat and were safely delivered into deeper waters where they have a very good chance of avoiding predation from the numerous pelicans and cormorants that call the lake home.

Most boats made two trips and the stocking of the 10,000 yearlings took about two hours.

Feedback from the Gaden Hatchery staff and DPI personnel was that the stocking was fatality free and went on with military precision.

On behalf of the Monaro Acclimatisation Society and the general public who will ultimately benefit from this event I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the volunteers who freely donated their time, effort and resources to accomplish the stocking.

A similar stocking event was held today (Wednesday) on Lake Jindabyne which was coordinated by the MAS Sub Branch, the Jindabyne Fishing Club.

I would also like to thank the staff at Gaden who have worked hard over this season to on-grow these yearlings, and their work indicates that when the MAS initiative of the Trout Grow Out Facility at Gaden is completed we will be able to look forward to similar events on a larger scale.

Steve Samuels

President

Monaro Acclimatisation Society Inc

Fly Tying – 28 Apr 2021 – Hare and Copper

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From Lyall:

The fly to be tied from 7:30 on the evening of Wednesday 28 April via Zoom will be the Hare and Copper.  This is such an extremely easy fly to tie that it almost ties itself!!!  The idea is that you just use materials you already have rather than me being prescriptive, for all materials with the possible exception of the hare’s mask dubbing.  We might have tied these previously but I was asked to tie a sure bet fly for Tumut.

Hook – size 12 or 14, 1 X short nymph hook eg. Gamakatsu S12 (or any size 12 or 14 straight shank, eye down hook)

Thread – 8/0 black UNI thread (or brown or tan)

Bead head – 7/64 black, tungsten bead head (or gold bead head)

Lead ten thou or twenty thou lead wife (optional)

Tail – dark, speckled Coq De Leon (or pheasant tail or brown hackle)

Body – hare’s mask dubbing

Wire – medium UNI French copper wire (or gold coloured)

keyword wetfly nymphfly

Some Changes to Our Website/Blog

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Maybe you haven’t already read the instructions on how to use our blog, including the idea of replying to posts or registering to receive emailed alerts when new things are uploaded.  Anyway, our latest innovation is to provide a link to our new search page … it only searches the blog but that’s still pretty useful for those (like me) who can’t remember when a useful snippet was posted.

Excellent Tutorials on Trout Fishing Streamcraft on YouTube

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I’ve been providing some informal mentoring to our new member Stephen and have pointed him to Jensen Fly Fishing (on YouTube and their website).  Their videography and commentary are excellent.  You might consider subscribing to their YouTube channel plus their free email newsletters/videos.

I initially pointed him to two specific videos:

Nymphing Rainbow Trout in Ultra-Low & Gin-Clear Water (Fly Fishing) of Pre-Runoff at https://youtu.be/s1fx5nMUTP4

And Fly Fishing HUGE BROWN TROUT in tiny water. The art of hunting brown trout EPIC at

I offered some observations, especially for the latter:

  • Watch how you can often see the shadow better than the fish itself
  • Looking for their white mouth is often a key sighting technique
  • The refractive effects of water make them look much skinnier than they are … see how wide (but shallow and short) they look when they swim directly away or towards the camera
  • Some of these takes were of the nymph below rather than the indicator fly – watch both (maybe have to rewind)
  • Again the refractive index means the fish are further away than you think. When he says his fly is right above the fish the fly looks too far away.
  • When the fish takes the dry, see the pause till the fish closes his mouth … but then again maybe he misses one strike by being too slow
  • Watch them working the fish to and fro
  • Take care, some of this is slomo … sometimes hard to tell.  I was taught to strike at the same speed that the trout takes the fly.  Traditionally you sing the single line “God Save the Queen” then strike
  • The very last fish filming is particularly good.
  • Three flies are not permitted in our streams
  • I’m not sure if they do this in these two videos, but in their streamer angling, they like to give the fly a series of little jiggles as they lift back for next cast

Some really good streamcraft lessons to be seen here.

I should also put some of the stuff that Ian has been hammering into me over the years too.  If you have a nice drift down (eg when you have cast somewhat across the stream) let the fly continue down (maybe a mend is needed) and take real care at the end of the drift when a nymph would rise to the surface as this can induce a strike (how many Mataura fish have I missed with this!).  Don’t false cast any more than is necessary (the Jensens emphasise this too).

My NZ guide also has encouraged me to be prepared to cast directly across the current to rising fish – their attention is often on looking forward and they won’t be so attentive watching for me coming from the side – means that the fly has less chance of being dragged – aim for just a rod length at most ahead of the fish.

Interpreting rise forms, especially understanding that fish might be taking just below the surface (bulge), is a topic covered elsewhere here.