I hear the cries for not enough southern reports,so i'll start chucking some of mine in, as uninteresting as they'll probably seem.

Eucembene rose quickly before xmas ,so with the lake being low for a few years the rise came up over new regrowth,which causes an explosion of insect larvae,etc,and the trout come in too gorge. Up until 2 weeks ago they were reporting cracker sessions,even heard of one bloke landing 80 for the day on fly. So I planned to go up for the aus day weekend...unfortunatly they started dropping the lake again two weeks ago,so the crazy sessions had all come to an end, thought I'd continue with the trip anyway.

It's about an 8 hr drive from Melbourne. The drive from Corryong to Eucembene is as good as it gets as it climbs up through the alps and the Kosiosko National Park,it's also pretty tough being the steepest road in the country. It will certainly test out the cars towing capabilities, and the two cars that I have taken up there have both had a slipping transmission during the climb. The challenger did this time on the way up,but was ok coming back.

The cracker 'travelling all over the country side'


On arrival the wind was semi cylonic,had to park the car next to the tent to stop it from being blown across the lake. Flexible little thing,the thing was blowing sideways but stayed up right. Didn't bother putting the boat in and waited for the evening where i headed out to seven gates which is a reknown bankfishing spot for fly and mudeye.
It didn't take long before the first rainbow was landed on mudeye,all about 2 minutes i think.

Thought I was in for a ripper,but only got the one more,and nothing on the fly,before the wind swung around into my face reducing my fly skills to rubble,so I pulled the pin and went back to camp.


Next morning up early for a troll out on the lake. Had one gold tassie up high flatlining,and put one down at 40 feet on the downrigger. It didn't take long before the downrigger unclipped and the rod started kicking,and a nice little Brown to the boat
Toiled away until the arvo for a few Rainbows caught on the flatline. Lost a few more for some reason,could of had 7-8 for the session really.




Sunday night headed off to Yens Bay for a go with the fly. Was dead until sunset when I broke one off on green bead headed nymph. My lack of practise with the fly rod was evident with a wind knot earlier,think that's what cost me on that fish. Switched over to a mudeye pattern and missed a good fish,before landing an average Rainbow. Was good to get one on the fly again,and a nice little warm up before NZ next month. The ordinary trout fly fishing in Oz will certainly put NZ in perspective when I get there.

Next morning out for another troll,got another Brown on the downrigger straight away,then nothing til 2pm! I'm not sure why it was so dead out there,the lake was absolute glass,may have had something to do with it . Anyway,was nice being out there,probably the most relaxing type of fishing you can do trolling the high country lakes. Great scenery,a peaceful tranquility,and more importantly no snags!!

So that was it,took the 8 hour drive home ,16 hours travel for two and a bit days fishing, unsure if it was worth it? Think you need at least 4-5 days minimum from Melbourne.
It's always a good trip,love the drive back.

Couple of wild dogs,gee there feral things in the high country,cause major problems to the farmers. Smart buggers,rarely see them,but they're out there.

So much of the alpine area's and high country had dead trees making a mockery of it's former beauty pre 04 bushfires


So that will be it now til NZ probably,maybe sneak in a weekend down the Glenelg chasing the Mulloway,we'll see.

Great report jonesy, I am looking forward to hitting the trout again one day.

Keen to hear if the Glenelg produces, I caught a stack of good bream there years ago.

Looks like Victoria is about to go up in flames tho, I think they said 41C in Melbourne

_________________

Onya Jonesy top report the trout fishing and the mountain scenery is about the only thing Iv'e missed living up here, Spent alot of time fishing just about every bit of water between the Goulbourn the Swampy plains with the old man years ago.
Have you ever given Rocky and Pretty Valley Dams and the Kiewa River ago above Mt Beauty and King River and lake William Hovel above Cheshunt as they were by far my most favourite for fishing and scenery. Had some ripper spots were you wouldn't see anyone for a week dought if it would be the same now though

_________________

Fished it Xmas night Matt for Mulloway,was in the area for xmas holiday so had to slip over for a night on them. All went to plan until I lost my Livebait bucket lid just on sunset,and with it,all my livebait! Alas no Mulloway. The peaceful and tranquil estuary experienced some violent anger for a few minutes when I realised all my bait was gone and with darkness falling,no chance of getting anymore....
A few Bream the next morning on these new blade lures. I reckon they'll go alright on the barra if they make some bigger one's,if they havent already?



Yep,41 tmrow,40 thurs,40 friday,40 saturday! Can't say I've seen 4 days in a row forecast over 40 down here. Start building in land,the seas are coming!.

G'day Ernie. Funnily I've never fished the Kiewa area of the high country. Mainly the Omeo area where we do most of our trout fishing,in the Mitta,Morass,Gibbo,Buenba,etc.
I've got a Kiewa trip earmarked for early winter but,as I'm keen to check it out. Hear good things about it. Have a mate who fishes it still, and he says the same as you,don't see anyone for a week,and heaps of fish.
Was tempted to have a cast in the swampy plains yesterday, but kept driving,the arvo heat looked ripe for snakes, they terrify me

Ya should have had a flick in the Swampy its got some submarine size trout in it (that's going back 20 odd years ) god im gettin old
Also if you told most people the upper Murray is cristal clear and full of trout also they'd probably think you were mad. Nariel and Cudgewa Ck are / were also nice spots for a fish. Bl^*dy Hell im getting all nostalgic now. Sold all my fly gear when I moved up here and still hate myself for doing it as I had a heap of flies (250 odd) tied by Lance Wedlick which would be worth a motza now.

_________________

The Murray had a good flow down it,it looked really good. There were 4 cars pulled up at the bridge so guess it was copping a flogging. The Nariel had a pretty average flow going down it. And Cudgewa ck,can't say I've ever noticed it or heard of it until yesterday,it looked pretty good. Those streams are in much better state than what the one's in the Omeo area were in November,they were a sad state of affairs.
Did you ever see deer in that area Ernie? Funnily that area just before Corryong is the only place I've seen them. Dad saw two lots the other night up the back of Eildon in the delatite arm

Cant say Iv'e seen any up around that way mostly around the back of Eildon between Big Rv to Dellatite / Howqua Rivers. Have got some mates down there who do alot of shooting and it took him years to bag his first and I think that was around Big river area.The little pub at Jamieson used to be a good starting point years ago ( could have been the gravity fed beer aswell though) used to see alot of 4x4 with deer draped across the bonnets there.

_________________

Great report Jonesy, used to love a few days away at Eucembene its a lovely spot can be tricky to fish at times.

_________________

I miss my trout fly collection. I had two good lots of trout flies - one lot I tied myself, they were some of my own designs and a bit of a cross between those tarty UK salmon flies and normal trout wet flies. A bl..dy silverfish or something got in and ate them.

The second lot I accidentally put out at a lawn sale. I went away for five minutes thinking 'I'll put them away when I get back' and sure enough when I got back my wife said "hey, I sold all those old flies for you and I got $5!".

I think if I tried to tie trout flies now I'd probably bind my thumb to the vice

Also had an original Hardy Palakona split cane rod that was my dad's - a nice bit of kit, very traditional, but I haven't used enough fly rods to say if cane is the best.

_________________

Jonesy

Great to read a report about Eucumbene

Spent a lot of my teenage years in the late 70’s fishing there with me dad and school mates from Wagga .That was mainly at Providence Portal under the guidance of Lodge owners Frank and Hans and their shared wife Maria. . Frank used to reckon my fishing rod was about as usefull as a "stick on zee bank" but still caught some nice trout with it

Dad and I bought our first “boad” off em (an 11foot tinnie with a 6 hp Evinrude) for $600 that stayed in the family for almost 30 years and saw a lot of Australia from the Snowy dams, and the Bidgee to the rivers and billabongs of the Top End, survived the Katherine floods and then had a short stint in SE Qld before returning to Darwin with us in 2004.

Shortly after our return to the Territory we traded her for the Freedom Sport when we realised the crocs were twenty years older (so were we) and long gone were the days when we felt comfortable putting our 6 week old baby on a sheepskin under and umbrella on the floor of “ze boad” when fishing Yellow Waters

Great report Jonesy
makes me alittle homesick when ever we fished the Eucumbene
we went to 7 gates always done well there
coming from Batlow it did,nt take long to get there either
bit hot down that way i hear
cheers

Hey Ernie
I think i might have some of your flies from the last time i went to Khankoban ooops
cheers

Funny story about 7 gates the other night Gibbo.
You'd remember how the place is a minor nightmare to get out of in the dark with about 57 tracks zig zagging back and forth,and that was when the lake was at normal heights. Well multiply that difficulty by 100 now! The lake is that low ,that out there now you're actually fishing the frying pan arm itself proper now. Either that or go way way right down to the white rocks. Saturday night I got lost trying to get back out to the exit,that lost I ended up on the bitumen road that go's to the frying pan arm! I was 15 kilometers away from the 7 gates entrance off the main highway.....quite the detour I took,didn't even know it was possible to get that lost.

Last time i went there was with a couple of mates
the fishing was a bit slow so off to the Snow Goose we went for a couple of and a few more
in the end we spent the night in the car freezing cold could,nt find the campdrove everywhere, daylight came found that we where only about 200m from camp
the only good thing was we caught a couple of good size trout while we where away(yeah i know is totally illegal )
cheers