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The Snowy Mountains Trout Festival for 2009 has been and gone and from all entrant accounts it was a superb event that rivalled previous years. 600+ adults submitted entries and fished the waters of Lake Jindabyne, Lake Eucembene and the river surrounds. With higher water levels that last years festival some found the going a little tougher than they hoped, what was working so well last year either failed this year or only tempted their prey late in the week.
Thats not entirely true but from a trolling perspective using the kayak as a stealth machine I struggled to land many fish on day one. The jointed Rapala J5’s and J7’s run shallow early mornings snared miniscule size Rainbows, no matter what colours were deployed. Predatek Min Mins were slow too until I tied on the Perch pattern and lost it to a bruiser (Knot failed, a first in a long time).
Rebel Crawdads and Big Craws got a run, Rebel Crickhoppers and smaller jointed lures also deployed in the bays. The high water levels had perhaps risen too fast this year as the weed beds hadn’t really moved up the banks, this was evident from the lack of usual dynamite Powerbait action when resting from trolling or fishing overnight. With myself, Craig, Jason and mates armed with kayaks and boats between us we should have had a horde worthy of contention.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom as KFA members did weigh in some corker fish, infact Jason ‘Squidder’ Price almost got the fish of the comp. A 3kg gilled and gutted Brown came out to play and being on netting duties I was nervous. This fish had power to boot and kept us on our toes for a good 10 – 15 minutes, with rocks around and snags the light line luckily stood the test of time and was dispatched for weigh in.
We weren’t sure how others had gone on day one but when Jason weighed in it took out the biggest Brown of the day at our nominated weigh station and earned him a set of respected Trout Fest glasses (A sentimental prize if anything). Craig had also weighed in a Brown that while only 4cm smaller, weighed almost a kilo lighter. Fishing as part of the FangACT fishing team was great fun and once again (Same as last year) we dominated the team’s efforts from our kayaks.
Once again this is not really true but it’s not a lie either, I only weighed in the one Rainbow on Saturday and one on Sunday. I got some advice from one of our teams Trout guns on Tasmanian Devil styled lures and colour selection (Thanks Lynnie) which got me on the board on day two, along with a few mates. I had been looking forward to this trip all year and was disappointed with the fishing on opening weekend as I had to return home to work during the week. Apparently it picked up later in the week with many team members from Fang securing Trout Fest glasses.
On Saturday when Jason, myself and Craig were fishing the ABT Hobie Kayak Fishing Series at Narrabeen Lakes Jason got a phone call. The Fang team captain and committee attended the presentation on Friday and they had called Squidder to let him know they had picked up the major trolling prize for the competition on his behalf. Jason had won the Basser Millyard prize pack consisting of a Scotty Downrigger, lures and trolling attractors and a massive tacklebox.
Jason was humbled and modest at the same time, I think he was as surprised as I was that he won. It was a freak of a fish that was easily his personal best Brown Trout and was the second biggest fish of the entire tournament. To think there are even bigger fish in Lake Jindabyne and Eucembene just waiting to be caught, still it was hard to imagine anything bigger than the behemoth shown below:
Thats not entirely true but from a trolling perspective using the kayak as a stealth machine I struggled to land many fish on day one. The jointed Rapala J5’s and J7’s run shallow early mornings snared miniscule size Rainbows, no matter what colours were deployed. Predatek Min Mins were slow too until I tied on the Perch pattern and lost it to a bruiser (Knot failed, a first in a long time).
Rebel Crawdads and Big Craws got a run, Rebel Crickhoppers and smaller jointed lures also deployed in the bays. The high water levels had perhaps risen too fast this year as the weed beds hadn’t really moved up the banks, this was evident from the lack of usual dynamite Powerbait action when resting from trolling or fishing overnight. With myself, Craig, Jason and mates armed with kayaks and boats between us we should have had a horde worthy of contention.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom as KFA members did weigh in some corker fish, infact Jason ‘Squidder’ Price almost got the fish of the comp. A 3kg gilled and gutted Brown came out to play and being on netting duties I was nervous. This fish had power to boot and kept us on our toes for a good 10 – 15 minutes, with rocks around and snags the light line luckily stood the test of time and was dispatched for weigh in.
We weren’t sure how others had gone on day one but when Jason weighed in it took out the biggest Brown of the day at our nominated weigh station and earned him a set of respected Trout Fest glasses (A sentimental prize if anything). Craig had also weighed in a Brown that while only 4cm smaller, weighed almost a kilo lighter. Fishing as part of the FangACT fishing team was great fun and once again (Same as last year) we dominated the team’s efforts from our kayaks.
Once again this is not really true but it’s not a lie either, I only weighed in the one Rainbow on Saturday and one on Sunday. I got some advice from one of our teams Trout guns on Tasmanian Devil styled lures and colour selection (Thanks Lynnie) which got me on the board on day two, along with a few mates. I had been looking forward to this trip all year and was disappointed with the fishing on opening weekend as I had to return home to work during the week. Apparently it picked up later in the week with many team members from Fang securing Trout Fest glasses.
On Saturday when Jason, myself and Craig were fishing the ABT Hobie Kayak Fishing Series at Narrabeen Lakes Jason got a phone call. The Fang team captain and committee attended the presentation on Friday and they had called Squidder to let him know they had picked up the major trolling prize for the competition on his behalf. Jason had won the Basser Millyard prize pack consisting of a Scotty Downrigger, lures and trolling attractors and a massive tacklebox.
Jason was humbled and modest at the same time, I think he was as surprised as I was that he won. It was a freak of a fish that was easily his personal best Brown Trout and was the second biggest fish of the entire tournament. To think there are even bigger fish in Lake Jindabyne and Eucembene just waiting to be caught, still it was hard to imagine anything bigger than the behemoth shown below:
For full festival and tournament results, please visit the following link below:
