Eildon, First Aviva Fishing Trip

Day 1, Friday

This weekend I came good on my word and delivered a fishing trip I've been promising to my work mates for the last year. We left work at 5:00pm on Friday, but few errands had to be run before we would make our way up the Hume Highway. A detour to Northern Angler was needed to stock up on bait and purchase fishing licenses for the sport's newcomers. After all six newbies were ordained with a license to fish, we made our way to Coles. Unfamiliar with "if you are comfortable, it's not camping" theory, my friends decided to stock up on all the finest food Coles had to offer. I didn't mind, as I was promised I wouldn't have to do any cooking and the esky was already stocked with Tasmania and Mexico's finest (Boag's and Corona). One more stop at Charcoal Chicken and by 8 o'clock we were on our way. Heavy rain all along our two hour trip had me worried about the fishing, but either way I knew it was going to be a memorable trip. We arrived at our destination around 10pm. After full week's work everyone was keen to unwind with a game of poker and few drinks. I had my most successful game so far having made the final only to lose to Layboy. Seeing that our drinking pace was lagging we swapped poker with drinking games. This went on well into the night wiping out any possibility of a morning fishing session.

Day 2, Saturday

Morning started with a bacon and sausages breakfast prepared by the resident chef Allan Lay. Even though he failed to hook a fish for the entire trip, he earned his spot for all future trips due to his culinary skills. Around 11am we headed out for our first fishing session. Lower Pondage around the wall was our destination. On arrival, I could see few fish moving just within casting distance, the signs looked promising... but as it's often the case, looks can be deceptive. After 3 hours with seven rods in the water and not a single nibble it was obvious that it wasn't our day. We decided to take a break and explore the town of Eildon. It was a wise move as we stumbled across an award winning bakery with pies that had us going for seconds, and some of us for thirds. After refueling it was time to catch a fish. We drove to Gilmoure's bridge on the Goulburn River, the very spot I landed my first trout on a fly. Once again the Goulburn did not disappoint and it wasn't long before someone broke the drought. Yuri hooked and landed his first fish ever, a beautiful rainbow trout of about 2 pounds. Well done mate. Unfortunately the action went off soon after and it was time for a well cooked meal. Allan's skills were called upon once more as he cooked up a feast with trout for desert. Once again the night was made complete with a game of poker and emptying the fridge of any alcoholic drink left.

Day 3, Sunday

As they say, all good things must come to an end. It seemed that no one wanted this trip to finish, so after checking out at 10am we had just enough time for one more visit to the pie shop and one more fishing session. We drove to Eildon National Park, scene of many previous camping and fishing trips, for our final session.
The sun found its way through the clouds and it was a beautiful day to end our trip on. One more fishing novice caught his first fish to top it all off. Well done Chris, with the effort and ambition you put in for the whole trip you really deserved it mate. After few more happy snaps it was time to pack it in and head back towards Melbourne.
Monday, discussions about next possible destination have already started. To be continued with Aviva Fishing Trip v2.0

Allan's Photo Album

Rubicon River Gold

Fished the Rubicon River on Sunday 2nd of November. The plan was to fish the Goulburn, but decided to drive past it as it was near impossible to even get a car park at Gilmoure's bridge. As it turned out it was the right move. I parked at the picnic area just outside Thornton on the Rubicon, and fished some great looking water just above the bridge with initially very little success. As there was no surface activity, I fished two small nymphs with an indicator about a meter above. An hour into the session persistence paid off. My indicator raced towards the far bank and with a quick lift of the rod I was in a battle with a Ruby resident. It was a beautiful brown trout of about a pound. Next two runs produced similar results with two more fish landed, all taking my pheasant tail nymph. Decided to call it quits quite early due to some work needed to be done at home, but nonetheless a great little session on a great little river.

Adaminaby, NSW season opening

First weekend in October... it's a bit like Christmas, only better. Just like the year before, I left Melbourne around 7pm with a 6.5 hour drive ahead of me. Battling through thick fog around Cabramurra I arrived at Kiandra around 3am on Saturday. Covo was already there, greeting me with a glass of Tullamore Dew as promised. We discovered early in our fishing years that whiskey is a great way to warm up during bitter cold Snowy Mountains mornings. We were on the water fishing with the first break of light. It didn't take long for me to land the first fish of the season and to christen my new Redington CPS 6wt. It was a dark, but well conditioned rainbow. In the next few hours four more fish were landed, with a 3lb brown being a surprise for the day. Covo contributed to a great start of the season by landing six. Weekend's total tally was 40 fish between us, all caught in Eucembene River and creeks around Kiandra. Of course most fish were released, both of us kept one fish each. All in all, another sensational weekend in the Snowies. The only downer was Storm losing the grand final.

Goulburn River, first trip of 08/09 season

Today I found some free time to drive up to the Goulburn River. This was my first trip to the Goulburn this season, it got a miss on the opening weekend due to overcrowding. Had my alarm set for 5am, but after hitting the snooze button one too many times, I finally left Melbourne at 7. Started fishing at 9am, about 500m downstream from the Gilmore's Bridge. The water looked good, flowing at 2000 megs and quite clear. Despite great conditions and even my casting working effortlessly (Peter Hayes casting clinic paying itself off), the fish were not very cooperative. After fishing 5hrs strait I only landed one little rainbow and a better brown that came close to a pound. After a close encounter with the first snake for the season, it was time to regroup and have lunch. Decided to try the water upstream from the bridge as the bait fishermen had left and the grass seemed shorter... Polaroided a nice rainbow in slower water, but after it saw my offering (and possibly me) it decided to leave in a hurry.
Persisted with no success till about 4pm and then it was time to leave. Wonder whether evening rise would have been worth waiting for... probably yes...

P.S. Also had a first encounter with the fisheries. To my surprise they were not checking licenses but doing a survey on fishing habits and opinions. I gladly sacrificed 20mins of fishing time to answer the survey.