Weekly Hatch Chart
19 Lagoons (Western lakes): Possum emmergers, Black spinners Red Tags and Gum beetles.
South Esk River: Large royal wolf, dear hair stimulators, flashback nymphs in sizes 10 to 18 and small black beetle patterns.
Macquarie River & Brumbies: Black and Orange Spinners and small unweighted brown and black nymphs in sizes 14 - 18.
Blackmans Lagoon & Big Waterhouse Lake: Variety of mud eye flies, orange spinners and Large stick caddis.
Hot Spots
Penstock lagoon boiling.
The fish are well and truly looking up with plenty of mayflies up and about, especially along the edges. Reports state, that the best hatches are from 1pm onwards, although as the weather warms the hatches will start earlier and earlier each day. The quality of fish is next to none at the moment, with good condition fish of 2.5lb and bigger being caught regularly. Flies doing the damage at the moment include; Shaving brush patterns (dear hair and possum varieties) with claret or light tan/brown bodies, orange spinners in spent and posted varieties, along with a variety of unweighted brown and black nymphs in sizes 10 to 14 fished just below surface on a dropper.
Lake leak and Tooms lake producing the goods.
Lake leak water levels have been at an all-time high for the past few weeks, creating plenty of good feeding grounds for the fish and good habitats for the insect life. Mayflies are becoming thicker and thicker as the weather warms up. Caddis are also hatching very thick along the shores in the late afternoon/evenings. Reports state that most fish are stuffed full of stick caddis. Tooms lake is fishing similar to lake leak, with some very good conditioned fish hitting the nets taken on large nymphs suspended under larger style dry flies. Good numbers of fish are found in about 2 to 5 ft of water in both of these lakes. Drifting or wading parallel to the shores is a great way to access this water margin effectively. With good fish working beats on the edges of windlanes, especially coming off foamy points etc. Great fly choices for these lakes include; shaving brush patterns, sedgehog flies and large stick caddis imitations. Also, when the weather is a bit rougher, there has still been good reports of people stripping wets, such as shreks and magoos.
Keeping dries afloat can be a real issue sometimes, especially in the wind lanes on lakes. High N Dry liquid spray floatant is a quick and easily applied product, that is highly rated in the dry fly fishing world. To get the best result out if it, spray it on your flies before you intend using it, giving it time to dry and stick to the materials, and it will float like no tomorrow.