Evan and I had this weekend booked in for a good month or so, since we both couldn’t fish opening weekend the plan was to make up for it by fishing the Tumut River as we were attending an event at the Brewery. But with the water flow at 9000ML and rising (my mate fishing Blowering mentioned the water level there dropped 1 meter overnight!), we decided to leave it and fish some smaller streams in the area, perfect for a 2-3wt setup.
A few fish were landed and some new access points and streams were found, so not all was wasted! Fishing these smaller streams meant the fish were extra spooky, so it’s motivation to work on my streamcraft and fly presentation a lot more.
Checkout Evans Chinese 7ft 3wt glass rod. Doing the job to this rising brown. For the price, I’m definitely going to pick one up…
I bit the bullet and bought a drone when it came up on special a few weeks ago. Now I’m getting more confident in flying it, I’m having a crack at some photography which i’ll start to share.
For a fairly cheap drone (DJI Spark), the quality of the images are great. I can’t wait to get out on the river with this and get a different perspective on everything.
A quick trip over the mountain to take advantage of the good weather. Fished both the river arm and the flats with a handful of small flathead around 30-35cm. Had most success on the outgoing tide in 1-2m of water on white/tan or all white clousers. Also picked a couple up on a squimp pattern in the river.
I’ve only fished Pejar once before where the water clarity was terrible and I managed to find the weeds on every retrieve. Sadly it was a similar experience this time around, and to add to the occasion, I was met with strong winds which I couldn’t really escape from.
I decided to call it after a few hours with the only fish sighted being this monster bass (40cm+) that was washed up on the bank. One day I’ll work Pejar out, possibly by kayak..
Written for the Canberra Anglers Association ‘Burley Line’ June 2018 edition.
Gear
Cortland Competition Nymphing Rod 3wt 10’6″
Leader (Martin Droz Recipe)
Jig nymphs with 3, 3.5 tungsten beads
After not being able to make the CAA Tumut Outing, it was decided that Nathan, Evan, Mark and myself would take advantage of the ACT long weekend and head down to fish the Tumut river ourselves for the day and try our luck.
After a quick stop for breakfast and coffee, we geared up and hit the water to find the flow running much higher than anticipated. A check found it to be around 1500ML/day, while not un-fishable, it certainly made access and crossing more difficult.
With the 4 of us on the river, it didn’t take long for us to cover a substantial amount of water. I was lucky enough to land 1 small rainbow right where we parked, and another 4 further upstream. While Nathan managed to get 2 fish to the net.
It was decided to move to another stretch of the river, to only find a couple of other anglers on the water, so we had to drive to another area with public access.
Mark managed to pick up a rainbow upstream, while Evan came into his own by landing 2 well conditioned fish on his 12ft Tenkara rod. I was lucky enough to land another rainbow at the car but ended up slipping over and soaking myself head to toe in the process.
After a break for lunch (and time to dry myself off) we headed back to the stretch of river we first fished in the morning.
Splitting off into pairs, Nathan and I headed upstream and managed to find a suitable place to cross the river where we were able to fish some slower flowing water.
We were both rewarded with Nathan landing 2 more fish and dropping a few more. While I was lucky enough to land 3 more fish including my best for the day which measured 43cm.
It wasn’t too long until we were radioed by Mark and Evan to let us know they had landed a couple of more rainbows and that they were heading back to the car.
Nathan and I decided to call it a day and head back as well. Shortly after this, Nathan took a page out of my book and managed to gracefully take a spill in the river on the way out. Not to miss out on the action, I somehow managed to get my net caught on the electric fence on the walk out and was ‘shocked’ to find it was active.
With over a dozen fish landed between the 4 of us, we decided to end the day with a couple of beers at the Tumut River Brewing Co. A highly recommended stop if you’re in the area.
Checkout Evans Chinese 7ft 3wt glass rod. Doing the job to this rising brown. For the price, I’m definitely going to pick one up…
