Lake Lyell Trout
October 13 - 15 2017
by David Witham
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| Nicely Pinned |
This was going to be a bit of a first for the club as it had been a long time since we stayed at Lyell and given it a good shake. A bit of planning had gone into the weekend and then a bit of an emergency in the Browne family looked like it may have derailed the weekend. Anyway, without all the details we managed to sort something out that allowed the Browne boys to fish and see their mother in Orange hospital so all boxes were ticked.
We had booked a cabin for this trip to see what they were like and to avoid us carrying half the house on a camping trip....... still think we went close to half the house anyway, but it was good to experience the cabin albeit we were separated a bit from the rest of the guys. That said we were grateful when the rain set in and the conditions got a tad chilly on Saturday.
Brownie and I left home about lunchtime on Friday with the trusty hornet in tow. We were pretty keen to fish Lyell from the boat as all previous sessions had been shore based and some of the really good looking water was impossible to access. We were to meet Shayne at the cabin mid to late afternoon.
We had a good run up and got to the cabins about 3 and started setting things up. Shayne had been delayed by work so Brownie and I had a bite to eat and headed into Lithgow to get some firewood etc for that evening. By the time Shayne arrived we had the cabin and the boat ready to go so we headed out for a last arvo session.
I used the sounder to try and locate fish amongst the timber off the rocky points to no avail. The weed was really thick along the edges which made it hard to get a decent cast in, so we moved across to a more open bay with better defined weed edges.
The sun was starting to set and the wind had dropped of and we started to see fish working the weedbanks. Now I was unable to fly fish as I had dislocated my shoulder the day before we left so I had to throw the devil stick while the Browne boys threw the long wand. Brownie was first to hook up but lost the fish mid fight, which I am sure the guys back at the camp ground would have heard. There was a lot of surface activity and Shayne changed to a parachute adams but wasn't rewarded. The only fish for the session was a redfin on the devil stick..... yes redfin in the lake and it was about 25 cm so my guess is they are breeding.
Back to the cabin for a feed and off to bed with plans to hit the water early and head up the creek.
Up pre-sparrows and it was raining a freezing. A quick cup of tea and down to the ramp to launch. Got to love being so close to the water and the ramp! We headed up the creek a fair way and started fishing the edges of the weedbeds in amongst the timber. Quiet, despite the awesome looking territory.
We kept moving along and Shayne took control of the devil stick for a while and managed a nice brown..... This was good to see as we knew we were in the right area. Brownie then managed to get a nice brown on a Craig's Nighttime which made our morning. Shayne then hooked up again with a smaller brown and then, as if a switch had been flicked it went dead. Just as well I thought to myself cos I could no longer feel my fingers!
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| Warning: may contain traces of lure |
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| Brownie with a solid brown caught off the edges. |
Back to the cabin for a well earned breakfast of bacon, Eggs and Chorizo sausage wraps and nice hot tea and coffee! We talked baout plans for the rest of the day and given the weather we decided we'd all go to Orange. So we packed up the boat and put the cover on and off we went to Orange. I dropped the boys at the hospital and I did the tackle shop crawl. Always interesting to see what they have in these places. We were back on the road to Lithgow about 2:30 and it was wierd...... We got to Bathhurst and Orange and the sun was out and the temp was a nice 22 degrees..... as we drove back it was like a big black cloud hung over Lithgow and no sooner had we passed the Wallerawang turn off, than the rain started again. Temp a balmy 13 degrees. At least we know that the Browne boys and I aren't the club weather jinx.
We hit the water after having a quick cuppa and tried the bay just down from the cabin as it was the least wind affected. We saw fish rising almost immediately and I was getting some good arches on the sounder. I hooked up on something with the jackall but pulled the hooks and we continued to drift the edges. As the sun started to fade (what sun?)... o.k. as it got darker I pulled a small bass, followed shortly by Brownie getting skunked again by a wily trout. SHayne then got the fish of the trip a ripper of a brown on one of his fur flies / donnies. A quick snap and as the flash went the fish jumped out of his hands and over the side of the boat..... Brownie and I were in stitches.... Shanye not so much.
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| Crackin' brown on a fur fly |
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| First Lyell Bass I have seen |
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| Brownie's fightin rainbow |
It was almost dark when Brownie connects again and this fish went ape. A couple of good runs and a bit of line taking..... Shayne and I of course asked Roy if this was an all day fish.... you know the one that takes forever to bring in. Anyway... eventually I net the fish and it's a lovely rainbow, which was the first for the trip - so that's one of every species in that dam. That was it for the fish as we decided to sleep in Sunday when we heard the wind and rain lol. A cracking trip though and I believe just about everyone managed something, which is a pretty good effort given past trout outings! Thanks to Stickerman for organising the trip and to Col, Jeff, Richard, Matt, Steve B, Mick and Richie from coming along.
