While recent reports indicated that the trout weren't really biting at Thommo's we decided to push on with the trip to see for ourselves what this fabled 'Trophy Trout Dam' had to offer. There were only two up to the expedition, Bob Beamish and myself. Neither of us had visited Thommo's before, but it's stories of big trout had us curious enough to make the trip.
Departing the Central Coast around 2pm we made our way through the north western suburbs of Sydney and onto the Bell's Line Road. The weather was fine and a light breeze had sprung up as we reached Lithgow around 5pm. After a quick bite to eat at Big Bob's favourite restaurant we headed out past Wallerawang and down the gravel road towards Thomsons Creek Dam.
It was a quiet afternoon at the dam with only four other vehicles parked at the gates, one kilometre from the dam wall. The lack of numbers indicated to us that the fishing was not going to be easy this afternoon. Fires visible on the distance hills had left a pall of smoke hovering over the dam and the nearby Blue Mountains escarpment was but a dark shadow through the smoky haze. Donning our jackets and pulling on our waders we soon headed up along the road which would lead us to the eastern end of the kilometre-long dam wall.
With information gleaned from recent trips here by others we decided to go with the original plan and fish the western end of the wall near the spillway. This was the deeper part of the wall and trout had been taken here lately on black woolly buggers and similar flies. By now the breeze had risen and casting was tricky, but we persevered for and hour and a half trying numerous locations around the wall and spillway. But luck was not with us and there were no takes or rises
With the light falling we decided to head back to the eastern end of the wall. This was in the lee of a hill and should afford some wind-free fishing in the darkening conditions.
As we trudged back along the dam wall we noticed that a Christmas Beetle hatch had begun and we couldn't take three steps without being hit by the large and noisy insects. Hopefully the trout would be attracted by the hatch.
And they were. No sooner had the waters calmed in the lee of the hills than we saw rises and heard the familiar 'plop' of a surface take in the half light. While I fished the wall where I could see the rises, Bob moved around to the end of the wall 100m away and fished the small bay.
Despite our best attempts the trout were not even looking at our flies. I guess the hatch was keeping them occupied and we had nothing to match the beetles with their light brown wing cases, black heads and bright orange-red abdomens. By 8.30pm we had cast everything in our fly boxes to no avail. We gained a little comfort from the fact that other fly fishermen we spoke to were having similar dificulties. It was time to admit defeat and retreat back to the car.
While I did not collect a beetle as a specimen, the image of it was clear in my mind as I arrived home at 2am and I could not resist but to sit down at my fly tying table and tie myself a Thomson's Creek Dam Christmas Beetle for next year when I return to Thommos. |
