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.