Illawarra Flyfishers Club
October 2004
Kalkite, Lake Jindabyne
Leo, our brother Peter and I, together with our families, had a fantastic week's stay at Kalkite on Lake Jindabyne. As well as sons and daughters doing well on other forms of fishing, the fly fishing was a standout success. The weather was great with cool to mild temperatures which were above the norm for that area and in that time of year. Every afternoon produced fish on the fly.
Leo in particular caught fish on every evening of the week. Some evenings he caught anything up to 6 fish - he caught 20 fish overall to 53cm (over 3lb). Peter caught his first fish on fly - a 5 pounder on a 4wt rod - his third attempt at fly fishing with a little help and a few tips from Leo. In between helping the little ones catch fish, and that's another big fish story, I caught 10 fish overall on the fly with one brown tipping the scales at 6lb (66cm) - my largest trout ever! Very pleased indeed! I caught him on an intermediate line fished with a bead head woolly bugger. Photo attached taken by my son James.
There were lots more rainbows around this time of varying sizes (up to 3lb) with last year's release, according to Steve Williamson, already growing to an average of 30cm. Some rainbows had not long returned from spawning in the local streams. Leo and I each released a few fish knowing there were enough around for the dinner table. On inspecting the stomach contents of some rainbows, we noticed that there were plenty of water flea in them which is perhaps what they were rising to. There was the odd midge and caddis fluttering around but not many. Subsequently I tried the Hamills Killer and was successful with two rainbows.
The browns had plenty of yabbies in them as usual and they would hunt quite close to the bank at times. Leo found a nice brown in very close late one night (on the way home) which only took one cast to find him! The standout fly was the black and olive bead head woolly bugger (or variants of) followed by the non bead head woolly bugger. I experimented with other flies but always came back to the woolly bugger especially when the bite got hot just before dusk and into the dark.
I believe the prevailing wind during the early afternoon
played a significant part in producing the bite at that time. If the
wind blows in a certain direction along a bank for some time during the
afternoon, fish the
lee side of a point according to that direction. All the food will
gather in one area and it's not long before the fish rise and it's only
a matter of time before you get hooked up on a rainbow or even a brown.