Return to Alpine Arnica #1 - January 25-28 2018

Our favourite accommodation in Harrietville was available again after 2 years and we were very happy to use it. The weather was perfect, low 30s with a few thunderstorms over the evenings. River height was 1.29 which is perfect for fishing and about 9 cm deeper than the normal Summer flows I have experienced previous years. Arrived Wednesday afternoon and took a walk up through Grannies to School Bridge. Took 9 trout on a range of flies including a red tag beetle and a Glenn Innes hopper. I was surprised by the size and condition of the fish. Most were 30-35 cm and really eager to take the fly. Thursday morning I fished Frosty corner. Took a small rainbow in the first section up to the corner. Don't know why i can't get a fish out of that section , it looks really good. Made many fly changes and as I moved around the bend i was running out of options. Put on an Adams #12 and then the fun began. I took 25 trout in the next section. All rainbows and most were 30 plus with 4 in the 35-38 zone. I dropped the 2 best fish in successive casts and both did the same thing after being hooked. Leapt straight out of the water made a big splash and threw the hook. I wasn't happy. I returned each day to the second half of Frosty Corner and cleaned up each day. I took another 17 the following morning and all fish were very large in comparison to previous years. Tumblegum was quite reasonable with fish the same quality. The Howards bridge wade has really deteriorated over the last sea on or two. Not much definition in the river and theres a lot of walking between great places to fish, although their are a dozen massive trout in the Theatre Pool. I could see them all swimming about on the first day as I walked through. The next walk in from Grannies was promising until i got to the Theatre Pool. !2 people swimming in the water, just kept walking and will try for one of those trout next trip. All up, this was the best fishing Ive encountered up here. Plenty of fish as always, but the quality was magnificent. Hardly took a small trout, most above 32 cm with the largest , a brown trout at 40.5 cm from below the little logjam in the photo below. I took about 73 fish over the 4 days, an amazing trip.