GVFFC

Current River Levels, Temps and Info

Date: Friday January 27, 2012
Lake Eildon Storage:   94.4%
Lake Eildon River Inflows:   400 Megalitres/Day MLD What does this number mean? 
Goulburn River Level: 3500 Megalitres/Day  
Goulburn Water temp:  12.9 degrees Celsius
Goulburn Dissolved oxygen:   6.4 parts per million
Eildon Pondage Level:        41% Subject to change 
Rainfall past 24 hours:  0.0mm

Purchase your fishing licence online here

Phone:  03 5770 8128 for the latest info on Goulburn River levels. Message updated daily at 9am.
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UPCOMING TRIPS

• NZ 2012  i.e. now      BOOKED OUT  
• MONTANA July-Aug 2012       BOOKED OUT  
• BRITISH COLUMBIA August 2012     2 spots left  
• PATAGONIA January 2013    Taking expressions of interest now 
• NZ 2013     Taking expressions of interest now 
• MONTANA July 2013   Taking expressions of interest now 

Sing out if interested in any of these trips. Email us at info@theflyshop.com.au with the subject as 'XXXXX Trip' and include your name, preferred email address and contact numbers in the body of the email. We will then contact you when we have more information.

All the best.
Antony

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A few more pics from last week filtering through

Great afternoon on the water

Just a very quick one as I have an early start tomorrow. This afternoon I got to float with former GVFFC guide James Galloway and his younger cousin who is only just starting out in fly fishing. Cuz has had a great introduction with fish on attractors in the hills yesterday, then Rubicon fish this morning followed by the willow grubber in the pic above.

Then to top it off I was given the chance to fish to a fish that I have seen caught twice and hooked and dropped many times this season. The most amazing thing is that this fish was dropped by Rob only three days ago. This fish generally refuses green grubs and takes the yellows and this is what happened when Rob and I floated the Goulburn this past week. On that occasion a 4-5 minute fight played out before the tippet broke. Heartbreaking for both guide and angler although Rob took the loss better than most.

Today the fish refused the yellow on the first cast and then took a cut down green on the second one. After another battle it was brought to the net and guess what? The yellow grub from 3 days ago was nestled no more than a centimetre from today's green one! See the pics.

This is the same fish as can be seen in this former blog post and is a classic illustration of how catch and release works.

Great afternoon on the water and I can only hope for many more during the rest of the season.

Nite.
Antony.

Ten minute report

I have but little time to spare and so this report will be in the style of Six Minute Sopranos

• the goulburn has been at 4000 MLD for a long time now and the fish are well and truly settled into their positions

• superb backwater fishing with trout eating grubs and beetles from the surface and snails and backswimmers underwater

• fishing the most likely spots blind with dries has brought us lots of success even on days when the fish are not actively rising

• some awesome willow grub fishing in parts both from the bank and boats

• weak pale olive dun hatch going all day long. Only visible to the most observant and most noticeable from the raft as you are only 2 feet above the water all day

• hopper fishing has started and is going well on all rivers. Smaller rivers in particular

• fish to 4lb caught and released in recent days

• lots of people in the area but not many fishing. We saw less than 3 people each while drift boating yesterday. It has been this way all summer.

• look to the smaller rivers for the best of the evening rise. If on the Goulburn try the Breakaway despite the often windy conditions. Duns and caddis with good spinner falls as well

• Overall excellent conditions with success determined by the skill of the angler. Listen to our advice if you stop by as we are guiding on it every day and have done so for 17 years now. As such we are on first name basis with many of the fish from the Pondage down to Alexandra.

Hope this helps. Brief and to the point to minimise time but also has the benefit of keeping me out of trouble because when I waffle I rant and there is little I hold back on!

Great to see the river running at consistent levels so far this season. I have yet to see a year where the river has been kept at the one level for as long as this. Great for the fish.

It's wonderful to have the lake full once more. Having all this cold clear water really is a nice change and takes us back to the years before the drought interrupted things.

Get out if you can although watch out for flag waving occas as they are rampant! If you do happen to get into a discussion about OSTRALIA with one of these flag waving chumps and wish to see some bemused faces, ask them about how Federation came about or for their insights into the Billy Hughes Conscription debacle or for an overview on the Whitlam Dismissal.

Their answers - federation is a square in Melbourne, conscription is a prescription for constipation medication and as for the Whitlam dismissal that was more than likely a case of caught Marsh bowled Lillee!

No comments necessary. I am a mean bastard and I know it. But that is only because the alternative isn't nearly as much fun.

Cheers
Antony

Goulburn Valley Fly Fishing Centre

Ph: 1800 458 111 or (03) 5773 2513
Web: www.gvffc.com
Email: info@theflyshop.com.au

NZ Week 2

A big thanks to Nella for sending me some higher res images to play with. Give me @ least 16 million colours and more than the usual 660x500 pixels and I am as happy as a pig in poo. Even these images that started out at 1200 pixels wide look so much better than last weeks ones.

Don't forget to lodge an expression of interest for NZ 2013 @ our website if these trips take your fancy. We are a small business that is in the process of plateauing out rather than growing exponentially. As such we are likely to do less weeks in the future as opposed to more. As a result we advise you to lodge an expression of interest even if the chances of attending are small so that you are at least in the mix.

Our trips are for all ages and all skill levels. Either bring a friend/group or book on your own and leave it to us to find you a suitable fishing partner. This year we had more father and son teams than ever before with 5 weeks containing a father son combination. Unfortunately there were no father/daughter groups in 2012! :-(

All the best to you all. Enjoy the pics. The drought has made things tougher than in other years but you just to have to know where to look.

Cheers
Antony

Goulburn Valley Fly Fishing Centre

Ph: 1800 458 111 or (03) 5773 2513
Web: www.gvffc.com
Email: info@theflyshop.com.au

This afternoon.....

I never managed to make it out in the end as the phone just never stopped ringing. It was hectic and even though I had already filled my camelback with iced water, cleaned my lens/filters and was ready to walk out the door; fate intervened once more and I missed a great opportunity to get some pics.

That being said I did hear what was going on thanks to those that stopped by and from the guides as they came in off the river. The fishing today wasn't bad. Geoff floated and I think they ended up landing 4 and dropping a really nice fish. I know that they only managed one on willow grubs but my suspicions about geoff's character were only confirmed as I saw him walk into the shop and take about 60 x size 16 flashback pheasant tail nymphs. He may as well be using maggots and berley.

Guys stalking the edges stuck to the well treed areas and did well. I saw a great pic of 4.5 lb hook jawed brown today. The fish took a willow grub after refusing the very pattern he took at least 8x. Willow grubbing fish are mofos.

I took my border collies for a run tonight and crossed the river here just before dark only to get a mouthful of caddis for my troubles. There was one Flyfisher downstream of the bridge but he wasn't doing much as I passed by. Same thing after I picked up the guys from their float trip. Two cars at Gilmore's for 2x fly fishers in stalking gear walking back across the bridge and one other fella that appeared to be casting to a rising fish. The river looked stunning.

One thing worth mentioning is the very stable flows we have experienced thus far this season. It's stayed at about 2000 for nearly 2 months and no it has been 3500 for quite a long time. No wonder the fish are so comfortable in the edges.

I won't go on and on as it is late and the tennis is pretty interesting tonight. Just wanted to let people know that things look good with some terrific weather lining up throughout the next 5-6 days. Hopefully the fishing continues to be good. There are a lot of options at the moment from backwater sight fishing to boulder hopping the mountain streams (sorry I refuse to say twigging as I am a grown man).

Have a good one wherever you end up. Good luck to the guys fishing with us in New Zealand this week. 8lb is the number to beat!

Cheers
Antony