The 26th annual Diplomatic Fishing Tournament held at Lake Eucumbene last weekend was a great success. More than 100 people from 13 missions and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade took part, weighing in 76 fish with an average weight of 957 grams. Trolling was the most successful technique, with 59 fish caught this way.
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The Embassy of Poland won the teams event for the second year running, with DFAT second and the US Embassy third. Jim Blyton, fishing for the EU delegation, was grand champion with a nice 2.1kg brown taken on a size-18 midge ball in a bay opposite Buckenderra.
The adult division was won by David Keenan from DFAT who also had a 2.1kg brown, taken on a trolled Kwikfish. Jack Furlan from the Embassy of Spain won the junior division with a fish of 700 grams taken on a trolled Tasmanian Devil. Sue Blyton from the EU delegation won the women's division with a 1.9kg brown taken on a size-18 midge pattern.
There has been a distinct improvement in fishing in the mountain trout lakes in the past few weeks.
In Jindabyne and Eucumbene lots of small 25-30cm rainbows are showing right through the day and early evening. They are feeding strongly on midges and caddis and are even trying at times to swallow large bogong moths. They can be caught on Power Bait but long leaders are required because of significant growth of algae in the shallows which otherwise fouls the line.
A lot of browns are showing in Eucumbene and Jindabyne, especially for trollers. Best lures have been Tasmanian Devils and small minnow patterns and many of the fish taken have been around 2kg.
Fly fishers also are starting to get some nice browns, on Pheasant Tail nymph and midge balls.
Goldens upstream at Burrinjuck
Golden perch have spread from the Main Basin to the extremities of the three feeder rivers in recent weeks. Good fish have been caught on spinnerbaits, deep divers and bait in the Goodradigbee Arm above Wade Island, in the Yass Arm to Devil's Pass and around Bloomfields and Good Hope in the Murrumbidgee Arm.
Best deep divers have been Golden Child and Burrinjuck Specials in various colours. Noxious was the preferred spinnerbait. Bait fishers caught good fish on scrub worms, yabbies and shrimps. Soft plastics bobbed slowly on flooded trees produced a few fish and most were caught in shallow water.
Beaches and estuaries worthwhile
I spent time on beaches around Bermagui last week and had no problem finding fish. There were good bream and salmon on striped tuna baits fished with light tackle on the run-in tide and some nice rock blackfish at the ends of the beaches.
Wallaga Lake is still open to the sea and produced plenty of flathead on soft plastics and green and brown Burrinjuck Specials. Gulp 13cm Jerkshads were the best of the soft plastics.
I had a good session also with local guide Darren Redman in the Bermagui River. We pumped a few nippers and fished to rock shelves and weed beds with ultralight tackle for about 40 bream and blackfish plus a couple of trevally, keeping about a dozen for the table.
Nathan Walker fished the river at Tomakin with soft plastics and striped tuna baits, landing several nice flathead and bream.
Offshore anglers report plenty of flathead are showing in 35-45m, together with some nice gummy sharks. Jackass morwong are in reasonable numbers on the inshore reefs but snapper seem to have moved out to deeper water. Fresh striped tuna or pilchard baits dropped into 55-65m should yield a few fish.
Prawners who fished the dark last weekend reported plenty of prawns around but most were too small to take. They should be a lot larger and big enough to eat on the next dark, in one month's time.
Bryan Pratt is a Canberra ecologist.
