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Fishing in the Snowy region is often tough at this time of the year but if you put the time in and fish well you will find fish

My suggestion for Tantangara is to concentrate your efforts loch style fly fishing the Tantangara hot spots.

For Eucumbene polaroiding the rocky and timbered shores and back waters is a good option and if loch style fly fishing is you go fish into structure and accept that a few lost flies on snags will be a small price to pay for a brown or two.

On my door step loch style and shore based prospecting in Lake Jindabyne has been tough and the bait fishers have been struggling too. Trolling has fared a little better and there are a few fish mainly rainbows being taken by trollers at around 8 meters. These fish are probably daphnia feeders. For fly fishers fortunately there are a few fish to target (with the aid of polaroid sun glasses) close to structure on shores. These browns are patrolling and actively feeding around shore structure and in my view these are the fish you should target.

I guess we are lucky to have some fly fishing options ... the consensus of reports that I am getting indicate that fishing in Tasmania and right up the eastern seaboard has been tough over recent times. I think that probably somewhat comes down to changing weather conditions. Terrestrial insects like hoppers and beetles as well insects that spend part of their life cycle in the water such as midge, mudeyes, mayflies and damsels could all be forgiven for being unsure of what season they are in. It seems these days that every time we have a run of a few warm days and insects start to appear nature chucks a wobbly and give us harsh weather that either turn off or kills the insects.

Water management in the Snowy region is one of the keys to the quality of local fishing. The lake water levels are not determined by Snowy Hydro but they do play an important role and I am confident that they do their job well within the parameters that are set for them.

Just to set the records straight here is some additional information taken from the Snowy Hydro web site that describes their role.

“Snowy Hydro Limited is a business providing a complex array of financial hedge and insurance products to participants in the National Electricity Market (NEM). We are the leading provider of peak, renewable electricity to the National Electricity Market and a fully integrated Australian energy business with an excellent track record in financial performance, engineering innovation, workplace culture and business practices.
Some important facts about Snowy Hydro are:
• Snowy Hydro does not own the water it releases in the course of electricity generation, the NSW Government does;
• Snowy Hydro does not own or control the release of water to the irrigators. Release is controlled by the NSW Government and by the Murray Darling Basin Commission;
• Snowy Hydro can not store water. The Company has to release a prescribed amount of water each year and this is determined by its Water Licence issued by the NSW Government;
• Snowy Hydro is not a State Owned Corporation, even though it is owned by the three Governments. Since corporatisation in 2002 it operates as a Corporations Act company. Its borrowings are not guaranteed by Governments and it has no access to additional equity other than from the Government owners;
• Snowy Hydro is less a generator of electricity and more a provider of price risk financial hedge contracts to the electricity industry.”

Currently it seems to me that it's the NSW, ACT and Victorian governments determine water flows based on hydro generation requirements, irrigation requirements and environmental flow requirements. If we could get them to give greater consideration the effect of water levels have on fishing and in turn the effect recreational fishing has on tourism in the Snowy region and the wider economic viability of local communities I find myself wondering how much better off our fisheries would be.

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Be on the lookout for Tilapia, an introduced pest fish that is widespread throughout coastal Queensland and parts of northern NSW. The Murray Darling Basin and further coastal areas of NSW are at threat of Tilapia invasion. Once established in a waterway, Tilapia are almost impossible to eradicate so preventing their spread and early detection of new incursions is critical.

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FISH is the official newsletter of the Fisheries Research & Development Corporation and is now available online.

FISH is published quarterly in March, June, September and December. To obtain a copy of FISH mazagine by mail, please fill in your details on the Subscription page.

Download the FRDC FISH Magazine in PDF format.

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Crown roads to some of your favorite fishing locations may well be under threat.

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Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner has announced the launch of a new online service to make consultation over the closure and sale of Crown roads easier. Mr Stoner said this was a big step forward for stakeholders, with users being able to view all advertised road closure notices online for the first time.

“The online service makes all current road closure notices easily accessible,” Mr Stoner said.

“The roads notices will be searchable by date, locality and local government area. This search facility is a big step forward in customer service and has been developed by NSW Trade & Investment, Crown Lands. The information will remain online for the full 28 day submission period for each proposed road closure, making it easier for affected parties to access the information.

“I assure those who have lodged applications to close and purchase roads that their privacy will be protected.

“The maps contain information to clearly identify which roads are being offered for sale and closure, without revealing the identity of landholders or applicants.

“The online service was developed following feedback from recreational user groups as a way to help them more easily find the location of proposed road closures.”

The website is at www.lpma.nsw.gov.au/crown_lands/roads

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We should never be surprised when our fishing expectations are dashed because after all it's called "fishing" not "catching". What I am getting at here is that as the season on both lakes progressed it became increasingly patchy and whilst there were individual days with reasonable catches by in large the common thread on both lakes were very hard fishing.

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In Jindabyne and Eucumbene that trend continued and whereas the midge/damsel fishing season which is generally a highlight of our November and December fishing was fantastic in 2011 it was almost non existent leading up to Christmas 2012.

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It's been a fantastic start to the polaroiding season on Jindy with us regularly spotting big browns either cruising or just sitting doggo watching the world go by ... Evening fishing has also been very good in Jindabyne and I recommend you fish just a little up from the back of any of the drowned inlets ... loch style sessions on Lake Eucumbene last week and both resulted in double figure numbers for both my boat partner and myself. The catch was about 6:1 browns as opposed to bows and some of the browns were corkers.

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Well its been one of those seasons where it looked like it was going to be a better than average summer. In the local lakes Rainbows and Browns started off feeding fairly freely both around the edges and of course in the shallow bays with plenty of drowned vegetation producing plenty of midge and great fishing. In one December week I had 3 days where I boated 42, 51 and 36 rainbows all over 40cm. The rivers started strong also and plenty of both Rainbows and Browns took up residence in the normal hot spots.

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