Watercolour Painting - Brown Trout

This is a watercolour painting of a 52 cm brown trout caught in Lake Jindabyne in October 2012.

My First Fly-Fishing Adventure

   

I have recently taken up fly-fishing. The nature of fly-fishing appealed to me because of the skill required to capture a creature who is very sensitive to it's surroundings, and so will baulk at anything that does not appear to be natural in it’s environment. The stalking and deception required to capture these creatures truly brings out the primeval instinct of the hunter.

The nature of the areas we fish are also truly beautiful and for a person who loves the Australian bush and has mostly fish the oceans shores, this type of fishing has added a whole new dimension to the adventure of angling.

My first fly-fishing adventure was to the Snowy Mountains in October at the beginning of the trout season. It had been a good snow season and the fields were still open although the snow was melting quickly and the Thredbo River was rising centimetres by the day. Our first day saw a number of trout but we were unsuccessful. The second day on the River I caught my first trout, a rainbow on fly. It was a small trout of around 40 cm but a capture that will be etched in my memory for the rest of my life.

                                                           Fishing the Thredbo River   

                                                Small rainbow trout caught and released

That afternoon we changed our fishing location to Lake Jindabyne and fished the few hours before sunset. A truly magnificent evening with a mirror lake surface and late afternoon diffused colours, set the scene.

Fishing a sinking streamer with a quick jerking retrieve had me hooking and after an impressive fight with several jumps landing a beautiful 52 cm brown trout.

                                                A late afternoon brown Lake Jindabyne 

                                                   Beautiful brown trout before release

My first fly-fishing experience was truly memorable for I had fished in beautiful surroundings with friends that had a love for this type of angling and had caught and released two species of trout on a single day. The experience has inspired my desire to use my art to capture the essence of this type of adventure.