Freshwater Trout Fishing: Eucumbene Lake & River - Day 4

The Gear: Day 4

Tackle House Bitstream Jointed
Tackle House Elfin Fish

Intro

Obviously there was only one thing to do after Day 3, stalk the old man and copy everything he did the previous day and in the exact same location along the Eucumbene River (new link above).

To the Bridge & Beyond

After eyeing off the lure the old man had used the day before, I put together a small kit of suitable lures and we hit the road to make our way slightly north of the bridge along the Snowy Mountains Highway. Anyone familiar with the area would know the vehicle bridge I’m referring to, a common stop for day travelers chasing a quick cast without being too adventurous. It looks extremely fishy to the eye, with an awesome backdrop consisting of rolling grassy mountains, stony outcrops, and even the odd brumby. I’d definitely recommend everyone tries this form of fishing at least once. There is definitely something magical about fishing clear water high mountain streams for wild trout. 

Pool Hopping & Casting for Trout

The plan was to make my way a couple of kilometres downstream quite quickly, whilst having the odd flick to extablish areas of interest for the slow walk and flick back upstream. Some will say you have to walk upstream for various reasons (e.g. natural presentation / in order to not spook trout) but in all honesty I've caught trout walking both ways and casting everywhere.

To begin with the fishing was actually a little slow for the first time of the trip. Early on we found multiple pools with active fish but just couldn’t get them to eat with any intent, no matter what we tried. Even the trusty bait breath worm received small taps but nothing resembling a quality bite.

The Trials & Tribulations of Trout Fishing

I was mainly switching between the Tackle House Jointed Bitstream, the Tackle House Elfin Fish in gold (to emulate the old man from the following day), and Little Jack Forma Cutes in both kibinago and shrimp, but knowing there's decent trout in the river I was pretty intent on catching something on the Bitstream. The Bitstream had proven successful in the Goulburn for me only a few weeks earlier when landing a PB Rainbow Trout. It has a slow-medium very lifelike high quality Japanese built action, but it does dive to over a metre so in a lot of these streams you need to keep the rod tip basically vertical. Personally I don’t mind tapping the bottom, it can prove quite successful, but grinding the bottom will only lead to lost lures and has generally led to less fish.

After about an hour I finally hooked up to a rainbow trout (estimate just under 2lb) that came flying out of the water and covered at least 1m horizontally, but within an instant it spat the bitstream back at me. The video is on my insta but wasn't worth a referral haha

I tend to find once you disturb a pool it's time to move on, and time was slipping by so I made the change to the Elfin Fish to again emulate the old man. It's a lot smaller than the Bitstream too, so I knew an increased strike rate was likely. We kept quietly moving upstream to each pool casting upstream, downstream and sideways to cover the entire pool (including into the rapids) then out of nowhere I finally received a solid eat by a Brown Trout of approx 2lb. He was hiding close to the bank straight across the pool from where I was standing and the heavy hit ensured the hooks were set.

Fishing Lure Commitment/Trust + Effort = Reward

After finally landing a fish that I considered a pass I made my way back toward the car, but there's no way I could leave yet, you just don't get to fish places like this every day and I had to give the Bitstream another go. Everyone else jumped in the car whilst I decided to walk further upstream to see if I could find one of these larger varieties. I reached a decent pool and worked it centrally to no avail, then made my way up the upstream end where the river thinned and shallowed down to light pebbly rapids, so with little confidence I landed the bitstream blindly approx 2m into these rapids and I couldn't believe it, a very solid Brown Trout smashed the lure soon after the drop. Straight away I knew I’d hooked a better fish as it was taking line and also taking me for a little ride around the pool. Fortunately, I landed this fella estimated at 4lb, and got to admire his amazing colours prior to release, whilst also locking away a PB brown. This meant in the space of a few weeks I’d broken my PB brown and rainbow trout with the same bitstream lure!

Video footage of this Brown Trout Cast & Capture

Jake

For prior days try the following links:

Day 1 - Trout Fishing Made Easy
Day 2 - Trolling up a Trout Storm
Day 3 - Trout & River Adventures