This weekend’s group flew in from all corners of the country; deserving perhaps of a bit of spring weather for their travels. Instead, wintery conditions prevailed for the umpteenth trip in a row, although on the plus side, it seems the insects have finally lost patience and have decided to get busy anyway! Midges emerged in numbers on evening as usual, but there was also a decent midday hatch at Cabin Lake on Sunday, with the swallows and the trout equally active. The other remarkable thing was a genuine dun hatch on the lower elevation lakes on both Saturday and Sunday. This is the first time we’ve had a proper dun hatch in September for years. Who knows what that means for the coming mayfly season, but we’ll take it!
 
For our interstate visitors, there were a few individual firsts despite the cold, most notably, Lissie’s biggest ever trout – a 6½lb brown on a Milly Midge, and Louise’s first ever trout on fly – a 5lb brown on a red superglue buzzer. Now that our guests have departed, it appears that the start of October will finally see some mild weather, and we’re all looking forward to seeing what that brings!         

​This bi-annual gathering of flyfishing friends began with a settled Friday evening and a fair midge hatch. Then Saturday really turned it on with a mild, sunny, light wind day. The polaroiding was spectacular with dozens of good trout sighted on each lake fished. In the bright, flat conditions, it wasn’t always easy to get the trout to eat, but with lots of shots, there were still many nice fish landed, including Steve’s 7 pound rainbow which we watched bolt two metres to eat a tiny Hares Ear Nymph. Fish of the day was Cam’s 8 pounder caught fishing blind, although he wasn’t complaining about the excitement factor, given the fish took him 40 metres into the backing! The near-perfect day finished with excellent midge hatches on all lakes visited, plus some big tailers!

Sunday was supposed to be nice too, however someone forgot to tell the weather! Until mid-afternoon, it was cold, windy and cloudy, with the odd shower thrown in. After seeing all those fish the previous day, it was frustrating to search the same bays and shores with hardly a touch. But then, at about 3 pm the wind dropped out and the action started; slowly at first with the odd midge rise and tailer, ramping up to a phenomenal midge hatch towards sunset – and more tailers in the shallows. While violent thunderstorms stopped play a few minutes early, it was hard to be too disappointed given over an hour of about the best sight fishing you could hope for.
 
A mixed weekend for sure, but with enough good sessions to give it a solid pass mark.       

​Have we mentioned the weather lately? Apparently it’s supposed to be spring, but cold fronts have kept coming straight up from Antarctica and winter has lingered – cold, wet and windy. We’re happy with the continuing rain, but could we have a little less of the cold and wind please?
 
Into these unrelenting conditions came the stoic crew from Southern Fly fishers. In fact, more than stoic – the crew were keen to get out into whatever nature could throw. Fortunately, trout are a cold water species and no matter how bad the weather, they can be caught. Thanks to their willingness to brave the elements, every one of the five fishers caught trout, and there were even a couple of significant captures. Ian caught his largest-ever trout, an 8 pound rainbow caught fishing deep and slow on a flashback nymph. Meanwhile, Rob caught his very first trout on fly while searching the flooded flats with a bead-head nymph. Apparently, he’d spent many months pre Millbrook trying to break the duck, so this fish was a most significant achievement.   
 
All up, the boys landed about a dozen, an even mix of browns and rainbows. There was even some twilight midge action when the wind died to a mere gale.
 
Over the next week or so, it looks like spring will make a welcome return. However when the inevitable ‘bracing’ weather returns, the Southern Fly Fishers visit will be another reminder that trout can still be caught.     

​Trevor and friends joined us for the final day of winter, and the start of spring. The weather was suitably unpredictable from gales, to blue sky, to calm evenings, and finished with a bang (literally) with a Sunday afternoon thunderstorm.  
 
The two highlights of the weekend were evening midge hatches, and polaroiding. To midges first, and we’re starting to see the benefits of all that grass being flooded a few months ago. Midge numbers are booming, and come evening, any patch of glassy or lightly-rippled water is likely to be broken by the classic tail-wagging ‘rises’ of trout gorging on chironomid pupa. In fact, Mark rates the rise on Cabin Lake last night as the biggest midge rise he’s seen at Millbrook – and after 25 years fishing and guiding here, that’s saying something!  
 
As for the polaroiding, despite all the rain and runoff, some lakes are beautifully clear and given half-decent light, we’re polaroiding trout cruising the bays and edges. They’re typically fussy early season fish, but some are absolute beauties and worth putting in the effort to fool.
 
Beetles – both aquatic and terrestrial – are also beginning to feature. All up, spring is off to a good start.