Early Season Madness — Craig Rist

EARLY SEASON MADNESS

Craig Rist goes for a paddle, ride and walk to find some good fishing .....

You know what it’s like, you get a crazy adventurous idea in your head and it’s all you can think about. Over the years I’ve had a few mountain bike trips into the Nineteen Lagoons before when the gate is closed to cars, beyond the Lake Augusta Dam. I’ve always loved the idea of being among the first few to get back into this part of the Western Lakes early in the season. A mountain bike can really cut down on the walking time along this road, giving me a bit more time to hike out beyond these lakes and lagoons that are easily accessible by road.

On this occasion, I decided to set my sights on an early mountain bike assault into the Julian Lakes.

Planning

There was no way I was going talk anyone of my fishing mates into such an ambitious plan such as this. Even if one of them did say yes I just couldn’t do it to them. With that in mind I decided to do a solo run first just to see if it was worthwhile. I also had serious concerns about my ‘*mart special’ mountain bike even surviving the trip.

Lake Augusta is usually flooded early in the season so to access the Julian Lakes track I would have to get my mountain bike across the lake first. I planned to paddle my kayak 2.3 km across the Lake with my bike strapped to the back of it, then ride / push my bike 9.2 km to the lower Julians Lake, camp over night and then return the next day. It sounded like an achievable plan in theory, how hard could it be?

The Doing

When I arrived at Lake Augusta Dam conditions were picture perfect, it was a blue-sky day, snow covered the higher peaks in the distance and the shoreline was covered in ice. A cold southwesterly wind blew into my face as I paddled my heavily laden kayak into the waves across to the other side of the lake.

My kayak finally broke the ice where the submerged Julians track leaves the Lake. I dragged the kayak ashore and threw the pack onto my shoulders to start the second leg of this mission by bike.

The reality of the task ahead soon became painfully obvious with the large rocks on the track making it impossible to ride the whole track with the additional weight of my camping gear. I was forced to push the bike for much of the way, only getting back on to ride the downhill and flat sections of the track. I was really pushing the capabilities of my economy class mountain bike with one of the pedals finally breaking from the abuse and load I was submitting this bike to.

Through perseverance, I eventually made it to the southern end of the Julian Lakes. I quickly set up my tent and eagerly assembled my rod and reel.

As expected there were no other anglers this far back so early in the season, I had the whole place to myself to explore at my own pace.

By now it was mid afternoon, the ice had already melted in the shallows so I decided to fish the western shore of the lower Julian Lake in search of tailing fish in the flooded margins or for one that might be holding motionless, ready to ambush a passing Galaxia (baitfish).

Off in the distance, in a flooded backwater I could see a subtle disturbance on the water. I quickly moved closer and watched and waited for another sign to see if it was a fish or a platypus. A fin suddenly appeared and then vanished just as quick, confirming its identity. This didn’t give me much to work with but I decided to make the cast anyway. My size 14 Red Tag landing about a metre to the left and up wind of its last know location. I watched the fly slowly float down wind and just when I thought the fish had gone, a dark snout broke the surface and ate my fly. I paused and then lifted into a lively fish of around two pounds. It thrashed around in the shallows for a while and then came in quietly, rolling on its side as I guided it into a shallow inlet to remove the fly.

I have found a small Red Tag like this often gets eaten early in the season. One possible reason for its ongoing success is trout may identify this fly as a floating snail. I have watched trout refuse streamer style flies many times when they are feeding hard on the bottom and it’s often a small Red Tag that will get a result. It doesn’t work all the time, but when it does, it’s always good to get some early season dry fly action on the board.

I continued along the western, shore spooking two fish from the shallows that were hidden by the reflection of the cloud on the water. I didn’t see any more fish until I reached the four-wheel drive track that pasted the small backwater between upper and lower Julians Lakes. From the track I could see two fish tailing in this back water, one near the track and one on the other side. I covered the first fish with the Red Tag three times but it didn’t see it or didn’t recognize it as the food it was foraging for. It was time for a different approach so I tied on a size 16 black beetle ( wet fly ) to a 20 cm length of 4 pound line and tied the other end straight to the bend of the hook on the Red Tag as a dropper. My fish was still happily tailing away in front of me so I quickly presented the fly ahead of the fish and waited. The fish stopped tailing and then showed itself again with the slightest disturbance at the surface right under the floating Red Tag. The floating fly immediately started to move as this fish had obviously found and eaten the small black beetle. I lifted my rod and it bent over from the solid hook up. The trout reacted by making a sudden dash for freedom towards the narrow channel connecting the main Lake. I quickly lowered the rod and let the fly line slip through my fingers so this fish wouldn’t break me off. It only took a few meters of line before slowing down and it was safe to start pulling back on the rod to play the fish out. In no time at all, another typical 2-1/2 pound Julians fish was landed and released. The other fish on the other side of the backwater was long gone, so I returned back to camp before the sun disappeared below the horizon.

I woke up the next morning, to a heavy frost and the shallows were once again, covered in thick ice. I knew there wasn’t going to be many, if any fish in the shallows with that much ice, so I decided to have a quick bite to eat and use this time to hike further back to the chain of lakes above the Julian Lakes, in the hope of finding a larger fish.

Two hours later I was making my way around a lake that I had fished many times before and it had produced quite a few fish from 2 to 6 pounds. The morning had developed into another perfect blue-sky day with just a hint of high wispy white clouds off in the distance. With no cloud reflection on the water I had very good vision into the water allowing me to see a long way out into this lake. Keen or mad?

By now I had covered a lot of water and I was very surprised of the lack of fish close to shore. I quickened my pace to cover more water in the hope to find a fish before I had to return to camp. I had become a bit complacent, spooking a good fish at my feet as I had just jumped up onto a high rock without first checking what my lying beneath it. This is always a painful lesson to relearn and was enough to slow my pace down again and search the water properly. It was now 11am and my time was quickly running out.

I didn’t really want to have to paddle my kayak back across Lake Augusta in the dark if I could avoid it. Finally I found what I was looking for, as I caught a glimpse of a big brown slowly swimming away from me hard in against the rocky shore. I took a wide path ahead of this fish and found a suitable spot to intercept it with my fly. I took the size 12 black and green Wooly Worm between my finger tips and pulled on the leader to load up the rod ready for a short bow and arrow cast.

I was safely concealed alongside a large rock when the fish swum into view. I released the fly and the leader and fly rolled out onto the water, landing a meter in front of the fish. The fish responded instantly and slowly made its way over to the inert sinking fly. I watched its mouth open and then close, without hesitation I lifted the rod and the startled fish jumped clear of the water, again I lowered the rod and let this fish have some line straight from the reel on a light drag. This was a much better fish of somewhere in the 5 pound mark. It had taken half the fly line from the reel before it finally slowed and allowed me to start working it back. Another jump and two more runs had this fish exhausted. I slipped the fish into my net, took a couple of happy shots and let him swim away.

I spent the rest of the afternoon packing up camp, then riding/pushing the bike back out to Lake Augusta. I paddled across the lake just before dark as planned giving me plenty of time to reflect on my madness.

The reward for madness.

Conclusion

Would I do it again, no way, not with a mountain bike anyway?

Was it the right decision not to take anyone else on mission such as this, absolutely, I would never have heard the end of it.

If I were to do it again I would still paddle across Lake Augusta if it was full, but next time I would simply walk with an overnight pack. A day trip in and out with no heavy pack and a much more expensive mountain bike than mine would be possible. But I think I will leave that to the other crazies out there. Craig Rist