Author Archives: bill

Update – Trout Stocking Experiment at Oberon Dam

Received this encouraging message from the ever energetic Steve Samuels. Members might wish to be a part of this experiment – it involves catching trout folks!

We’ve now learnt that fish were over 20cm when stocked.  The tag is the same as the yellow tags we’ve seen on ex-brood stock released into Jindabyne so will be easy to identify.  Don’t forget to phone in the number to receive the promised lure.  Hopefully anglers will carefully release any caught to continue the experiment.  While they are under legal size, they ought to be big enough to compete against redfin predation.

This is shaping up to be a very useful experiment.  I will keenly await advice on the results if I can’t get up there myself. (Shame that Oberon is outside NSW CFA Region 3 and 4 so any trout we caught would be ineligible for a CAA trophy … unless we have an official event there – now that’s an idea we can discuss 😁).

Dear Supporters

As you may know, as President of the Monaro Acclimatisation Society Inc, I have been campaigning for a better approach to fixing our problems with many of our trout dams in NSW.  Most of you will be aware that redfin have become a serious pest, and where they have colonised in trout waters, the rainbow trout have virtually disappeared.  Earlier this year I was successful in gaining support for the development of a NSW Trout Strategy to try and get better trout fishing in the dams that now have redfin.

Yesterday (Monday 17th July) a small but significant experiment was launched at Oberon Dam.  NSW Fisheries have released 500 tagged yearling trout into the dam and the hope is that anglers will fish for them over the next season and report their captures.  One of the significant approaches will be to see that if stocking bigger rainbows will allow them to survive the redfin.

Below is a short statement from Cameron Westaway on this stocking and I hope that all of you who fish here will support the experiment as it will inform us for future stockings.

We have a long way to go to bring back many of our once famous trout lakes, but it seems that this first small step signals a new approach to support our trout fisheries.

Regards

Steve Samuels

President

Monaro Acclimatisation Society Inc

 

 

Dear Trout strategy working group members.

As a dummy run for a possible trout strategy action we are stocking 500 tagged yearling rainbow trout from the Dutton Trout Hatchery at the “reef” in Oberon dam (which has been the subject of redfin degradation) next Monday at 11:30am  with the Member for Bathurst and Minister for Lands & Forestry the Hon.  Paul Toole.

People who ring in details of recaptured tagged fish will be sent a free little ripper oar gee lure.

 

Cameron Westaway,

Senior Fisheries Manager Inland 

August 2017 Burley Line (Newsletter Issue 124)

Thanks go to Jason Q for filling in for me last month.  Much appreciate his help here, especially given he’s now a very busy father.  I’ll be taking another sabbatical later this year and am looking for a volunteer to try their hand for one edition.  It is a lot of fun (especially with generous members providing material) so jump in.

A huge issue this month, especially thanks to the efforts of our members.  Take a bow folks.  Great to see that, even with the closure of stream fishing for trout, CAA can find excuses to get out and about:

  • JM provides us with extensive notes on our annual event down the coast – recall that this the event that determined the Saltwater Trophy for 2017/18.
  • Luke C and Evan tried a trout site outside our normal range.
  • ‘International traveller extraordinaire’ Lyall introduces us to the Pacific NorthWest – and aren’t we all envious!
  • Claude has extracted from some carefully selected advisors comprehensive advice on the ‘go to’ flies for this region and has kindly shared the results with us all.
  • Our local man representing our fishing concerns in so many forums, Steve Samuels, has made a number of important announcements to ‘his list’ and I’ve repeated them here for those not on it. There are some significant items of news impacting on the local fishery.

This issue will be a hard act to follow.

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A Suggested List of Flies for our Region

Claude is a relatively new member, but very much engaged – witness his previous contributions to Burley Line.  In the lead up to 2017 winter, he made some enquiries about files he should be tying over winter.  He sought advice from some notable fly tiers (and one not very notable at all – ie Bill). Readers might want to consider the final assembled list and contribute comments (I’m sure Peter will add ‘iron blue dun’ to the dry list).

Howdy Bill, Evan, Lyall and Nathan,

So my original intent was to find ‘5 flies of each type’ that I could tie over winter. As I’m fast learning, there is no simple answer … especially when trying to search what some of the recommended flies look like and you get multiple versions! I may have to get that Aussie Trout flies book I’ve been trying to avoid buying. I have added some links to some of the flies (not to buy, just to see what they look like). Below is a summary of the feedback I have received.

Thanks again for your advice 😊.

Dry:

  • Some kind of muddler (marabou or minnow) for the lake. Interesting, Bill looks here for “something that floats and puts out a good wake when retrieved whereas Peter has always argued that one should retrieve slowly if at all.  I suppose it all depends on what the fish think it is at the time

Most agreed with #14 or #16 for trout, but reminded Claude to consider some oversized dries to suspend nymphs and down to #18 for finicky eaters.

Emergers:

Nymphs:

Don’t forget to tie a variety using weighted/unweighted, bead head or not (copper or tungsten)

Wets:

Carp Flies: Evan provided some specific carp advice and added that “A lot of trout flies double as great patterns for Carp and Redfin, the following would be my ultimate Carp box in various weights, sizes and being creative with colours ie. nymphs don’t always need to be natural 😉

  • Spork size 6-10
  • Unnamed jig Fly of mine that looks like a carrot…
  • Buggers with and without hot spots, rubber legs, flash
  • trout nymphs with and without hot spots, rubber legs, flash
  • damsel nymph 
  • parachute Adams size 10
  • glo bugs

 

I suspect Claude was anticipating only a few fly patterns to concentrate on, but this is what happens when you ask 4 or more people for fishing advice J  I really appreciate his sharing this journey with us, also to the other contributors for their knowledge.  We’d welcome any additional thoughts from you too.

News from MAS – Improvements to Boat Launching Tantangara Dam

Message from Steve Samuels, Pres MAS

Dear Supporters

 

Please find the attached photo and advice from Charles Litchfield from Snowy Hydro and the work being done at Tantangara Dam launching site.  I hope those of you who fish here will enjoy the improvement.

 

Steve Samuels

President

Monaro Acclimatisation Society Inc

 

Hi Steve

Below is a photo of the boat launch area at Tantangara (stage 1) after work this week. You will see that it has been graded and more turning area provided and will allow people to launch while we are carrying out work at Tantangara. 

There is an area further along which we are using for the project. Once the project is finished, that area too will be available for launching (stage 2). We think this is already a reasonable improvement and should be further improved once the work is done, 

 

Meeting 5 of the Recreational Fishing NSW Advisory Council

Our colleague (amongst many other hats, Vice President for our region on the NSW CFA) Steve Samuels has disseminated the minutes.

 

The minutes from the Advisory Council has been popped up on our blog.  Some of the more interesting points are:

  • The Trout Strategy is being progressed and the working group is awaiting the appointment of a scientist – great to hear some real science is coming to this effort.
  • Recall that Jason M has spoken about the concept of a ‘social licence’ – ie public acceptance of an activity. The council is in the process of pursuing of a social licence strategy.
  • The council is seeking advice from Snowy Hydro on the potential for reopening these waters for water activities including fishing.
  • The potential issue of redfin translocation coming out of Snowy Hydro 2.0. The Chair will seek NSW Govt to raise the issue with the Commonwealth.
  • Council concerns about the Travelling Stock Reserves review will be taken to the Minister

 

RFNSW_outcomes_meeting_5_2nd_June_2017

Fly Tying 26 Jul – Marabou Muddler

Please be patient with Bill with his first time out front.  He has jumped in here to fill a void – JQ was horrified to hear that recently he’s only been tying simple nymphs – especially as Bill hasn’t tied this one in years!

To follow on from Lyall’s lesson introducing us to use of deer hair (via the Elk Hair Caddis we tied in May) Bill will help people take the next step of spinning deer hair heads.

Materials:

Hook size can vary but let’s start with #6 – longish please

Deer Hair for head and top wing – Bill likes black

Marabou for tail and inner wing – purple used to be a hot colour.  Bill suggests Spotlight or Lincraft sourced dyed turkey feathers provide a cheaper alternative

Chenille or dubbing for body – your choice but size it to suit your hook size.

keyword wetfly streamerfly dryfly

July 2017 Burley Line (Newsletter Issue 123)

JQ has done a sterling effort here in the absence of his co-editor. The photo of Ash is a pearler and inside there are some great shots from Geoff covering his second trip to Slovenia – some huge fish there, thank goodness he has caught them out of regional consideration for CAA trophies!  Also included are some images of our next generation along with information on forthcoming events – essential reading folks.

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Carp Herpes Virus challenge

Matt Beitzl (who we know from ACT government native fish stocking) and National Carp Control Plan coordinator, Matt Barwick, have been interviewed here by the ABC. They discuss the challenge of a possible blackwater event following the release of the virus. This is a major topic in the research being undertaken now.

NSW Trout Strategy proposal

Got the following from Steve Samuels.

Dear  Supporters

As many of you know I am a member of the Recreational Fishing NSW Advisory Council (RFNSW), the aim of which is to advise the Minister on matters relating to fishing in NSW.  At the March 2017 meeting, I proposed that a NSW Trout Strategy be devised and implemented to address the declining trout fisheries across NSW.  I am pleased to announce that the Minister has agreed to this and that NSW Fisheries will now be sitting down with anglers to devise and implement a strategy that addresses the declining trout fisheries in NSW.

The most important item on the agenda will be dealing with redfin perch.  As most of you know, many of our once great trout fisheries have declined to nothing once redfin got into the system.  Sadly, there does not seem the possibility of developing a biological control for redfin.  Where carp are distinctly different to any of our native fish, redfin are quite closely related to our perch in evolutionary terms.  This means that any disease control for redfin will likely impact our native species.

But all is not lost.  We have looked closely at the Victorian model of stocking larger trout in redfin areas and they have had a measure of success.

It is important to remember that we will be focussing on all of our trout fisheries and not just the redfin infected ones.

I Have included my paper first paper on the issue that I submitted to the 2015 Trout Allocation Committee.  Now that I am on the RFNSW I have been able to push the issue and we now have a result that is heading in the right direction.  I hope this paper informs you. 

As the strategy unfolds I will endeavour to keep you all informed, but in the mean-time if you have any ideas that I can take forward to build a good trout strategy I would be happy to receive them and put them forward during discussions.

Good fishing to you all and let’s hope for a brighter trout fishing future.

 

Steve Samuels

President

Monaro Acclimatisation Society Inc

 trout_stocking_samuels

Saltwater Weed Flies – Flytying 28 Jun 2017

Evan hosted fly tying on 28 June tying the salt water Weed Flies in advance of the July salt water weekend.

Materials you will need:

– a tube (like a pen with the middle out)
– size 10-8 extra strong grub hooks ( TMC 105, black magic G8)
– tiewell ice dub in olive or bright green
– super glue
– 140d or 6/0 thread olive or chartreuse

keyword wetfly