Amsterdan

If you are fishing trout, especially lake trout that can see you better than you see them, your best bet is when they are feeding, I have seen a few taken outside those times, but if you are there on on and after sunset you will usually get one or someone near you will. Middle of the day on THompsons is a lot of frustration, you will see them doing laps, right past your lure or fly. They may take a look but thats about it. Just aim for one or the other and you may be good. The back of the dam fishes even better but its a good treck around it. don't forget you have a roughly 2km hike from the car park as it is

Every dam is different. After being up there this weekend past, avoid lake lyall its full of blue green algae at the moment. Thompsons is still fishing well, but best tactic I can give you there is pic a spot with a little structure and fish it before sunrise and up until sunset the fish just do laps in there and generally just feed at those times. Tassies or spinners work well or fly fishing if thats your go. You can't use any baits in there.

Hi all, Have to be in Bowral Thursday next week for a meeting, figured whilst I am down there I might hit up some local area see if I can get some late season trout from any of the rivers, streams or even hit a lake or two. Just wondering if anyone has any advice or locations up that way for me to head into? Cheers Dan

great to hear someone getting into the obsession of fishing too. I always learned from very young, my dad comes from London so he did a lot of freshwater and canal fishing growing up, he therefore taught us to fish first using small quill floats, its a really good way to hone your skills because its both visual and textile. You can catch a lot of fish on a simple rig with a float, small hook and a split-shot to keep your float upright. With that said, I find it hard to get good floats in Australia so have them shipped over, the idea here is that a fish will come up and bump your bait or peck at it, which will make the float bobble, once a fish takes more of it the float will be pulled under the water and thats when you can gently strike and set the hook, I have been teaching my 5 year old son like this is salt water lakes and lagoons. The main trick here is making sure you have quality line and the float set right, you want to keep as much tension on the line as possible, slack and curled line means you will miss more fish than you will get, keeping the line not tight but not super slack means the fish will mostly set the hook themselves, its a really rewarding way to fish and easy to teach kids, catching a carp that way is super fun. The second way I learned to fish was lure fishing, my Dad and I would go to NZ a lot and all over NSW search for trout with lures, the key here is learning to cast correctly, My dad taught me this on trips to NZ we would stop at a park or big open space and he would just tie a ball sinker on the end of the line and have me cast it out onto the grass and retrieve it, simple and hassle free way to practice. Bait fishing with a standard sinker, hook swivel setup was what we used for boat or beach fishing, not a lot to it, put your bait on, cast it and wait. One thing I would stress here and something that bugs me beyond belief is people being taught to hold the rod in their left hand when they are right handed. The real is a crank and lever, meaning that it does not require your strength, the ratio of the reel is usually printed on the box, one crank turns it around 5 or more times, you definitely need to learn to fight a fish with the rod and not the reel. The rod is designed to be an extension of your arm, the reel is there to help you retrieve the line. Holding your rod in your strong arm helps you with casting as well as easily transitioning from cast to retrieval and fishing without having to change hands. It also helps with casting as you will cast with your stronger hand like throwing a ball. You do most things better with your preferred arm and that applies here, so first thing I do when. buy them is switch over the reel handle........... /rant

They go absolutely feral for them, if you can get them past the smaller ones there are usually bigger ones underneath. Just use a quill float, split shot and small hook, it is hard to not catch them around the pads at the wall

Hi legends, Have a weekend without my kids coming up and wanted to get out and try and hunt down some late season trout. I haven't fished the above but want to give it a go with my dad, in his 70's but fit enough for some bushwhacking. I was hopping someone could give me some advice on somewhere nearby I could start park up and be within say a 30 - 60 minute trek to one of the above that is still fishable. At the moment I am either looking at breakfast creek and hiking down to the coxs or parking a hartley village and treking to the jenolan or Letts, then looking to just follow the river for the day and trek back out. Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts or advice on where to start our trip, we are looking at trying to get there before day break and trek in to be fishing on sunrise and would love any advice, ideas or starting points Cheers Daniel

The Dam fishes well depending on the weather. On a warm overcast day in mid or late summer just about any surface popper will get you fish. Fat body crank baits are a winner too. I usually lure fish and wade in summer and pick up mostly bass and a few redfin all small size, I have caught a few really nice sized bass in there too but they all seem to be small school size unless you can get down deep. If you want to bait fish for nice bass, throw an earth worm in, they barely touch the water before getting eaten particularly near the wall in the lillypads. Corn, cheese and bread all work well for carp and there are some big boys in there, just try and get away from where people and dogs are.