A few days up the hill with Reid and JQ for NSW trout opening weekend. While few fish were landed it was perfect for a bit of a scouting mission to see the condition of the rivers and to checkout some new access.

A quick trip up for the afternoon to fish some of my favourite water. While only weighing in a 1.5lbs, this chunky rainbow put a nice bend in the rod. I ended up landing 3 around a similar size, all off the top on small midge patterns. A good day out to mark the start of winter and the end of the NSW Trout season for me.
I enjoy fishing the river at this level and it’s certainly the best fishing water in our region at the moment. Lots of great runs for nymphing. While we didn’t fish it too hard, we got plenty of fish to the net. Evan managed to land a nice rainbow around 50cm on the most ratty looking fly i’ve ever seen which goes to show that trout aren’t that fussy.
Night fishing off the bank. Midge hatch for 5-10 mins, then a caddis hatch for 10 mins, a few fish rising but then it was dead. Then around midnight, the browns came on in the shallows for about a 20min window and that was it. Repeated the exact same the following night at the exact same times.
Posting these up as I seem to forget/misplace the recipes and have found these 2 work well for me and the water I fish.
Both recipes end with a tippet ring where I’ll then tie on length of tippet to suit the depth and drift. All sections joined by blood knots. I’ve been specifically using the Hanak bi-colour mono in listed diameters as well as the Sunline fine float in 10lb.
Martin Droz Recipe
4 metres of .25mm bi-colour/hi-viz
.5 metre of .22mm clear mono
.5 metre of .20mm bicolour/hi-viz
tippet ring
Tom Jarman Recipe
10ft of .20mm bi-colour/hi-viz
50cm of .18mm clear mono
40cm of .18mm bi-colour/hi-viz
tippet ring
note – easy way to remember this is rod length/50/40