Tumut Trip - June 2007

I flew down to Canberra to fish the Tumut River in NSW with some friends from the Flylife Forum. I was hoping for a shot at my first Aussie river trout. Two friends from the Forum, The Warnes (Jnr and Snr) picked me up at Canberra airport and then we drove over to Tumut where we met up with the other forumites the Swadlings (swaddo and fatso) and with Nigel (coarsefisher).

Water levels were very low and the fish were obviously not too active as a consequence, but there was some surface activity and I managed to catch fish mainly working the faster riffles with a bit more flow. I had a really great weekend, very relaxing, great company, and managed to catch a few fish too, nothing huge, even though I did spook one up near the dam that left a wake worthy of a wakeboarder.

It was good to finally catch some Aussie river trout, mainly rainbows but a few browns thrown in, and it was on a good mix of nymphs and dry flies.

The most memorable moment of the whole weekend though was Dave Warnes actually declining to accept a fly I had tied specifically just for him - which is a shame for I managed to catch a few fish with it the next day, unlike someone who shall not be mentioned that actually blanked . The NABF nymph works

Anyway, thanks to all the guys for the hospitality, it was well worth the trip down, must do it again next season. Weather was lovely too, even though the river was very low, so I was told.

Some pics:



Proof that the NABF nymph did work:


And "that" t-shirt again