Kowmung and Hollanders

[Centrepin]

It had been too many years since I made a trip to the Kowmung and after the reports from Caddis and others of how well the Blue Mountains was fishing I was keen to see for myself. Even so I was reluctant to mount a trip. After so many years it now makes it back in to the “exploratory” category which means you go alone and at age 54 the country can be a bit daunting.

I walked along a creek to meet the Kowmung in the “Morong Deep”. The trip in was how I remembered it, took about 1 hour. The plan was to make my way upstream to the next creek junction and then make my way over a couple of ridges to the car.

The country is just inspiring. It was exactly as I remembered.

I saw a disturbing site when I made my way to the first backwater. TADPOLES. Now trout and tadpoles generally do not co-habitat (something to do with trout being bad neighbours) but this was not a good sign.

Cut a longer story short I fished for 1.5 hours with no sign of fish. Not one sighted. Not a little rainbow. The country along the river was tough. Were once it was all rock it had thick undergrowth and made access along the river difficult. Given all the above I opted for the soft option of back tracking. When I reached the car I chanced across a National Parks guy. He was down there 4 months ago and saw lots of fish, so this gave me heart that my experience was transient.

I moved to higher up on the Hollanders. This is very different water. Much smaller and often overgrown. This was 3 weight 7 foot 6 country.

I did not start fishing again till about 5.00pm and was delighted with fish moving in most runs. They are not huge. 25 – 35 cm’s but just great fun when it is sight fishing with a 3 weight in shallow water.

It was very demanding and I had a wonderful 2 hours. The evening hatch was prolific but the rise was non existent. Went to bed satisfied for the day.

The next day saw me start about 10.30 where I finished the day before. No fish showing . By 11.30 the story I was using that the day is still warming up was getting thin even to me. I cut my losses and headed over land to the car. Fished the rums downstream of where I started yesterday and the story was much the same. Lovely fish 25 – 35 C.m’s mostly browns on dry fly.

I left the Hollanders quite satisfied that my confidence in the river had been restored even if some areas are devoid of fish and others are full of fish.

Geoff

[luderick -angler]

Nice report Geoff,

I have read a lot about the Hollanders and what a great stream it is, fantastic report and lovely fish. Theres something about the markings on a brown and how unique they are to each fish. Need to have a chat with you soon as we have an upcoming Snowys trip in Feb with a mate (interested?) Also need to pick your brain on the walk to the Jenolan/Cox's junction.

Cheers

Royce

[Centrepin]

Royce,

I'll PM you about the 2 trips.

Geoff

[paul.kenny]

Geoff great fish and fantastic scenery. It is good to see that your persistence was rewarded.

[dean]

Great report Geoff. A couple of rivers I would like to fish one day. Good to see the fish recovering. Those browns are a tough fish.

[mark1]

Hey Geoff,

I hiked in to a section of the kowmung a few kilometres down stream, on the way in the water looked very fishy, got to the campsite, dumped the packs and ran straight over to the river to check it out. hiding in the vegetation beside the river i spied 2 of the biggest fish id seen in the kowmung, 2 of the biggest carp. what a dissapointment. i managed to land one on a wolly bugger. my theory is that the lower sections of the river are to warm (we did spend the afternoon swimming in it), and the trout are either further up stream or back in the dam where they can find cooler water. Id be interested to hear what you think?

mark.

[taloyoak]

Royce can you email me your info on the Hollanders please!

Cheers,

Matt

Nice report Geoff,

I have read a lot about the Hollanders and what a great stream it is, fantastic report and lovely fish. Theres something about the markings on a brown and how unique they are to each fish. Need to have a chat with you soon as we have an upcoming Snowys trip in Feb with a mate (interested?) Also need to pick your brain on the walk to the Jenolan/Cox's junction.

Cheers

Royce

[cc118]

Hey Geoff, great report and lovely country.

Flycaster is at the Eucumbene this week and is having a great time. He arrived on Monday and picked up a lovely 3.5 pound brown on the first day. So if you and Royce are heading down, you'll have a ball of a time.

Best,

Caddis

[luderick -angler]

Nanook I'll clear that with Geoff ! Geoff you all good for me to relay the info? Caddis heading down late Feb! Keep me in mind for the may june time frame!!!! I missed it last year!!!!

[OZrevhead]

Thread necro time 😄 😄 😄

My son is headed up to this part of the world camping right now so I was digging to see if I could find any information on fishing in the area, but it looks heavily restricted in the more accessible areas and quite a mission to get to fishing spots. Seems like its for the dedicated trout fisho's

Nice looking fish though, I would love to catch any trout, even to release it.

😁

 

 

[rickmarlin62]

oz  i hope you realise this thread is many years old

[Centrepin]

This is bizarre I am going in tomorrow.

4.30 am start . I haven't been in for many years and you bring this up at this moment.

 

Un real. Stay tuned

[cfish]

Bit late just having read this thread,the lower Hollanders and most of the Kowmung apart than the fire trail crossing was burnt during the fires , been dry as well I hope you caught something.

[Scratchie]

2 minutes ago, cfish said:

Bit late just having read this thread,

Just a tad! About 8 1/2 years! 🤣🤣🤣

[Centrepin]

I did a trip into the Blue Mountains.

I was looking for spawn run fish but none present (Too long after the big rains)

Normally outside of the spawn run there are only small rainbows as resident fish.

Fished further upstream than I had before into the next gorge.

Fished some deep water with mayfly nymph and glowbug rig. Caught some good rainbows ( about 2lbs), all on the mayfly nymphs.

Very pleased to see some better fish.

Only fished 2 runs in this area as I had to get back out as it is an epic to get in and out in the day.

Returned to top of mountain  and took 3 days for my legs to stop feeling the pain.

Right now not sure if the effort is worth it but after the memory of the leg pain resides I will probably reason there may be even better fishing further upstream and it is worth returning.

There is always a another river to explore. 

 

Geoff

[Ganguddy Goodoo]

Hi Geoff

Good on you for doing the walk in.

So which river did you end up fishing? I've done a reasonable amount of walking in Kanangra NP but never fished it. I recall seeing some enormous trout in some of the side creeks of the Kowmung back in the 90s. 

Has anyone fished the Kowmung recently (say the last 10 years) Would it be worth taking a rod in once the area is reopened after the fires. I've read reports that carp have taken over the lower part. Also read someone who preferred the Cox and Jenolan was putting chicken wire across the Kowmung to redirect the spawn run (maybe 10+ years ago). 

Steve