May 10, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
587 
Trout Fishing in New South Wales 
By H. K. ANDERSON 
A ustralia is now at the end of the 
1912-13 trout fishing season, which ex¬ 
tends from Nov. i to April 30, and while 
loth to do so, have to admit that it has been on 
the whole disappointing as regards the number 
and size of the trout caught. 
Several of our rivers literally teem with 
rainbow trout, of the famous Shasta River stock, 
imported some twenty-five years ago, and it is 
truly marvelous to note the manner in which 
they have adapted themselves to our climate. 
In iMonaro the climate is cool, frosty nights 
occurring right up to Christmas, which condi¬ 
tions seem to suit the rainbow trout admirably. 
In winter frosts in this part are very severe, 
and in the higher altitudes the thermometer gets 
well down below zero. This will be news to 
many who look on Australia as a ‘‘hot country.” 
Among the rivers which are very heavily 
stocked may be mentioned the Snowy’ Murruni- 
bidgee, Goodradigbee, Jounama and a number of 
smaller streams. These appear to be particu¬ 
larly adapted to the requirements of the fish, as 
they have increased enormously, and it is in 
many places possible when rising three flies to 
catch a fish on each at one cast many times dur¬ 
ing a day’s fishing. 
The result of this over-stocking is that the 
trout have deteriorated in size, and where five 
years ago four to six-pounders were common, 
one is lucky now to secure a trout of one to 
one and a half pounds in weight. This is of 
course due to a great extent to the depleted 
food supply. The native minnows, which were 
the only fish in some of the streams before the 
trout were introduced, have all been devoured. 
The fresh water crayfish, shrimps, beetles and 
aquatic insects have been so reduced in numbers 
as to have become an almost negligible quantity, 
far from sufficient to feed the great numbers of 
trout which have a continual fight for existence, 
hence grow long for their weight and not too 
long at that. 
There are one or two streams where this 
great multiplication has not taken place, which 
are still only (comparatively speaking) lightly 
stocked. The Badja River for instance, which is 
well fished year after year, but contains and will 
always contain large trout. It is very weedy, 
the weed beds teem with natural food, and as 
there are many deep pools, ample harbor is avail¬ 
able for big fish. 
Another such river is the Upper Queanbeyan, 
sluggish, weedy and full of sunken snags. Some 
of the pools are twenty feet deep, fringed right 
round with weeds over which it is necessary to 
cast the fly in order to catch a trout. Having 
hooked him he must be played in the small patch 
of open water and landed or lost according to 
the skill (and luck) of the angler. 
It was on this stream that the writer and 
friend, W. Bollard, of Captains Flat, N. S. W., 
spent their week’s holiday in March last, of 
which trip the following is a brief outline; 
Leaving Sydney on March 8 at 8:25 p. m. 
with the thermometer registering something in 
the eighties, it was refreshing to step on the 
platform at Bungendore, 180 miles away, at 3:30 
next morning and find the temperature some¬ 
where about freezing point, at an altitude of only 
2,292 feet. An early start was made by coach 
for Captains Flat, whence a further twenty miles 
drive brought the party to the Upper Waters of 
the Queanbeyan River, a distance of forty-eight 
miles by road, up hill most of the way, and 
about 5,000 feet above sea level. 
Drizzling rain and sleet set in just as the 
wagonette drew up at the camp (which had 
been previously occupied on several occasions), 
but tents were speedily rigged and all made snug. 
On that night, INlarch 8, the memorable storm 
which inundated many parts of Sydney and the 
suburbs and wrought a deal of damage, passed 
over the camp. Fortunately it was sheltered by 
a bluff from the force of the storm. The wind 
roared down the valley, leveling everything be¬ 
fore it. Trees were crashing down in all direc¬ 
tions for a,space of half an hour by which time 
the storm, in that locality at all events, had ex¬ 
pended its devastating power. Rain fell all night 
and all day Sunday, but after midnight the 
clouds broke a little, and by 4 a. m. on Monday 
there was not a cloud in the sky. 
At daylight the ground was white with 
frost. Although so much rain had fallen, the 
river only rose about a foot, and was almost 
clear, as it flows through granite country and 
nothing short of a flood will make it muddy. 
The anglers proceeded up stream, Mr. Bol¬ 
lard taking the right bank, the writer the left, 
and on reaching the first pool, Mr. Bollard 
hooked a big fish which put up a game fight, 
rushed into the weeds, out again, leaped a dozen 
times into the air, and finally came to the gaff, 
a glittering 8-pound indents, perfect in shape 
and coloring, and in the pink of condition. A 
little further up stream the writer rose a fish, 
but missed him. At the next cast he came again 
and the hook went home—a wild rush up stream, 
down again, out of the water time after time, 
then down he went and remained with his head 
on the bottom, his tail perpendicularly above, de¬ 
fying the best efforts of the angler to move him 
for quite three minutes. With a rush he came 
to the surface and dashed round the pool with 
a series of leaps. Changing his tactics, he came 
straight for a bed of weeds some ten feet across, 
reaching from the angler’s feet outward, and 
penetrated some distance into them. This proved 
his undoing, as he was getting tired, and after 
holding him in the dense weeds for about ten 
minutes, a track was broken through them with 
a sapling, and the almost dead fish led to the 
bank. He weighed eight and a half pounds. 
jMr. Bollard, who had watched the battle 
from the opposite bank, moved a little way fur¬ 
ther up stream, and at first cast struck a splen¬ 
did fish, which tore off a great deal of line, but 
fortunately kept out in the open. Bj’ skillful 
handling, she was brought back, and played to 
a finish, and on receiving the gaff registered 
nine and a quarter pounds, the best fish of the 
trip, a 1‘ovely hen fish, fat, and with rich salmon 
colored flesh. 
Finding a crossing place, the anglers who 
had a long way to go decided to bury the fish 
in a rabbit burrow, so collected a lot of green 
ti-tree bushes to line the burrow, placed the 
three big fish in it, and covered them with ti- 
tree, placing a log over the entrance to keep 
out any stray fo.x which might come along, as 
reynard is partial to trout. 
It was some distance to the next pool, and 
on reaching it a nip and a smoke were' indulged 
in, watching the water the while to see if any 
trout were moving. Not a rise was seen, but 
this is frequently the case, and the angler must 
provide temptation in these waters; not wait for 
the trout to take the initiative. There is no cur- 
. rent, but one soon learns to know where to ex¬ 
pect a fish, and a naturally worked artificial fly 
will very often “draw” a good fish that is lying 
in his holt surrounded by natural food. 
By the end of the day, eight very fine trout 
weighing gY^, SY2, 7]/2, 7, 6Y2 pounds and three 
others over 4 pounds were caught besides which 
quite a number of heavy fish were lost in the 
snags and weed beds. 
On the following days six trout, largest 
eight and a half pounds, by Mr. Bollard, were 
caught. This magnificent fish put up the best 
fight either of the anglers had ever seen. It 
was in an extremely difficult place, and the fish 
was a lively one, but Mr. Bollard, who is a very 
clever angler, after allowing the trout one run 
of perhaps twenty yards, brought him back and 
kept him swimming round and round in a circle 
of open water not more than twenty feet in 
diameter, thwarting rush after rush, and actually 
fighting the fish at the rod point. A dozen times 
it attempted to rush into the weeds, and as often 
was turned, only to repeat the charge in another 
direction. It was the finest piece of work the 
writer, with thirty years’ experience among fish 
of all kinds had ever seen, as the trout was very 
strong, and the fly, a cochy-bondhu on No. 4 
hook, had only a light hold in its jaw. The 
writer’s bag was one seven-pound and one six 
and a half-pound rainbow. 
The next day was bleak and cold, and only 
one fish was so much as moved. He came to 
a coachman on the writer’s first cast and weighed 
about six pounds. Not another rise was seen 
during the whole day. 
The last two days’ fishing found the anglers 
with heavy baskets, both securing some large 
fish, from four to eight pounds. During the 
trip one half-pound fish and one one and a half- 
pound fish were caught and returned to the 
water. There were two three-pound fish and all 
the rest were over four pounds in weight. Sev¬ 
eral four to five-pounders, big with spawn, were 
promptly liberated. 
The flies used were the cochy-bondhu. which 
accounted for 50 per cent, of the fish, claret and 
teal, teal and red, zulu fished deep, and in the 
evening the coachman near the surface. The 
total number of trout for five and one-half days 
was thirty-five, and the average weight five and 
a quarter pounds (live weight). 
Over a hundredweight of cleaned rainbow 
trout were taken into Captains Flat on the re¬ 
turn journey. Such a fine lot had never been 
seen there before, and the writer brought to 
Sydney about eighty pounds of trout which 
were distributed among friends and neighbors 
in perfect condition, as they were sprinkled with 
salt, and the weather was deliciously cool. 
