▲TopLake Jindabyne Trout Fishing Report

APRIL 2007 by Steve Williamson

▲TopLake Jindabyne Trout Fishing Adventures

0408 024436
Shop – (02) 64561551

▲TopNEWS

Last week we saw a couple of cold fronts and a little dusting of snow on the mountain peaks. Unfortunately very little rain to talk about but with Easter coming up we may have another slight change by Thursday but the Easter weekend looks like being fine at the time of this report.

At the moment we are in typical Autumn conditions with sunny days and cool to cold nights. Great for trout fishing and traditionally Easter is a great time to catch trout as the water is cooling down enough to get a few more fish off the surface and the bait fishing improves as well.

▲TopSHOP NEWS

Steve Williamson’s Tackle Shop will have its Easter Sale from Good Friday to Easter Monday. Most items have great discounts with some at cost price. We have an extra special of buy 5 Tasmanian Devil lures for $22.50 and get a tackle box with a value of $22 absolutely FREE. (limited numbers). Severe price cuts on all fly fishing combos with some starting at only $60. PLEASE NOTE

The one day downrigging course on Saturday the 28th April is booked out so there will be another course on the Sunday 29th. The cost of the course is $100. We will be using the Walker Strikevision Downrigger with underwater camera, so we can see lures working and maybe even film a fish being caught. It should be an exciting day but you will need to book early by phoning my shop. Looks like good news for coming weeks and with some great fishing as well.

▲TopLake Jindabyne’s water level

The water level last week remained reasonably stable and the level is now still about 47%. Whether or not the lake goes down any more will be a result of Morris Iemma’s promise to immediately increase the flow of the Snowy River should he win the state election, which he did! We will wait and see! Snowy Hydro say that the lake will be at Minimum Operational Level (MOL) by mid April and will be kept that way if we get rain. If we don’t get rain the lake will go lower due to evaporation. (or Morris Iemma’s promise of more water down the lower Snowy)

The water temperature has dropped a little to about 18 degrees C which is still higher than normal for this time in March but with cooler nights should drop further this week ahead. Let’s have a look at what the fishing is going to be like over the next few weeks.

▲TopTrolling

The trolling continued to be good last week due to the cooler conditions and it was cool with that little bit of snow falling the other day. There are more fish on the surface but I wouldn’t say they were feeding off the surface as there has been very little insect activity.

We are still catching a few rainbows later in the morning on downriggers to 30 feet. You need to make sure the lures are about 1 to 2 metres above where the fish are holding out and some days we have had to use 20 to 30 metre drop backs from the downrigger bomb and speed up to 4 kph.

Try surface for a while then put down a lead core line using two to three colours (20 to 30 metres of line out will get your lure down an extra 2 to 3 metres). The best lure over the last week has been the Steve Williamson lime green yellow wing Tasmanian Devil and number 82 is also worth a try. The number 48 or Y48 has been good on the downrigger and the brown trout are starting to take jointed Rapala’s off the downrigger and lead line at 3 colours. Pink lures did work well on the cold days last week. Attractors will also help on the slower days with ‘Dodgers’ and ‘Cowbells’ a must at times. Worms trolled slowly behind attractors has again produced some good trout to 2kg.

East Jindabyne islands, Hayshed Bay, Lion and Cub Islands and the South arm have been fishing very well.

Lake Bait Fishing (Primarily most rivers and streams in the Snowy Mountains Region are fly and lure only, We recommend that you first check with the Department of Primary Industries (NSW Fishing rules) as to which rivers in the area you can legally bait fish in. IF IN DOUBT DON’T BAITFISH IN RIVERS!)

Supplies of mudeyes have all but dried up for the season so bait now turns to bardi grubs, worms and of course the ever popular Berleys Powerbait.

Tiger worms under a float have been doing very well for rainbows and small Atlantic salmon. Powerbait in rainbow paste or sherbet are the best for rainbow trout at the moment. Burley has been helping. Fish with worms off the bottom and a power bait dropper will be the best middle of the day for the brown trout. The big secret at the moment is to fish with bail arm open and make sure you grease the line to make sure you keep it out of the slime on the bottom of the lake.

Best areas for bait fishing at the moment have been, ‘The Haven’, ‘Hatchery Bay’ (deeper water because there isn’t any water in the creek any more), ‘Curiosity Rocks bay on the northern side’, The Snowy Arm and East Jindabyne pumping station. I also fished off the township side of Cub island the other day and the bait fishing was very good just at the edge of the weed bed in about 10 feet of water. Baits suspended under a float are a more productive method early and late in the day.

▲TopLake Spinning

Curiosity Rocks area is one place that has been fishing well on lures. Plenty of snags about for the fish to hide in. I also suspect that the fish are chasing recently released trout fingerlings that can be seen cruising the edges so rainbow trout and brown trout Rapala’s are well worth a try. Any trout pattern lure should be worth a try. Yabby pattern lures have also been good as the real live yabbies have had to retreat from their homes as the lake water level drops. If you know where the yabby beds are you can always find small yabbies by turning over small rocks.

Spin close around rocky outcrops for best results later on in the day in the day and use smaller lures like ‘Celtas’ or ‘Gillies Spinners’ around the shallow bays after dark. Don’t stay in one place too long and only put in a couple of casts in each area. Island Bend and Guthega Dams haven’t fished as well over the last week due to water levels.

▲TopRiver spinning

More fish are being seen now in the Thredbo River after last weeks cold and wet conditions which must have stirred the early spawners up a little but the water is still low and clear and the fish hard to catch. A few fish are being caught again on Celtas mainly in gold or red and gold.

Floating minnow lures were still the best in the pools and the brown trout and rainbow trout pattern Rapala’s are best. Call into my shop and we can show you some other great floating lures to use in the river and we can tell you the best way to use them.

▲TopFly Fishing Lake

As reported earlier there are also small schools of recently released trout cruising around the edges of some of the bays and so bigger flies like ‘Woolley Buggers’ at Wollondibby (very muddy) and Widows creeks area are worth a try. Williamson’s Gold fish fly was again a winner last week.

The deeper drop offs at the Snowy River Arm has been producing a few good brown trout in the early mornings on green nymphs.

Black Woolley Buggers and Craigs Night time have been two flies well worth using at dawn and dusk.

▲TopRiver and stream Fly Fishing

The Thredbo River fished a little slower last week with the cooler conditions with most fish that were caught on wet flies. At the moment we are using small green or black nymphs in the faster runs to get fish. The Mowambah is still a little quite and the higher Alpine streams have been too windy or wet to fish.

I would suspect that with a return to warmer weather this week we might see a little more dry fly but we will have to wait and see. The river valleys are getting cold and frosty over night now.

For visitors to the Snowy’s we have a full range of fishing tackle for hire at my shop and fishing tours are now available.

For more information on the latest fishing conditions, please call into - STEVE WILLIAMSON’S TACKLE SHOP
Shop 1 Snowline Centre, Kosciuszko Road Jindabyne 2627
Fishing Charters – Bait and Tackle Supplies- Marine Supplies
P.M.B. 5 Jindabyne NSW 2627
E-mail
www.swtroutfishing.com.au (www.swtroutfishing.com.au)
Shop – (02) 6456 1551
Fax – (02) 6456 1342