Dusk at Lake Hawdon

I've had a good day :-)

One thing I learned is you don't have to fish crack of dawn in the high country, particularly at this time of the year. Often it's cold and the fish aren't interested/awake/trying to keep warm.

I was woken early by a high powered hissing sound. I decided I should investigate and found something in the water system had burst (no frost so wasn't frozen) and there was water jetting everywhere from the main point of supply to the house and external fire hose.

This caused a bit of excitement. We turned the water off at the mains and dealt with it after breakfast. Dad would be proud of the solution I offered :-)

We fished 3-4 hours at Lake Pearson, the top end being less discoloured than the lower end. It took a while to figure out what would tempt the fish from my box of goodies. The brown trout were most active for me.

I had an interesting experience I'd heard of but never seen. I'd wound my lure in and had about 20cm of line still in the water, enough to flick the bail arm of the reel and re-cast. As I lifted the rod tip from the water, a good sized brown trout grabbed the lure.

For several stunned seconds I had the amazing experience akin to a wild life documentary of staring into the eyes of a fish and straight down it's mouth. With no line to play it, the fish flicked the hook and was gone.

Back at the house we lunched and had a Nana nap before trying late afternoon fishing at Lake Hawdon. If you think of Purple Hill as the peak behind Lake Pearson, Lake Hawdon is on the other side of Purple Hill.

It was beautiful and so peaceful. We spotted cruising trout and I watched a fish follow my lure in as I retrieved it. I hooked a Rainbow Trout but it was a dancer on the surface, the best method of flicking the hook out.

The light and setting was beautiful as we started our walk back up and over the hill (not Purple Hill) and back to the car. I am indeed fortunate to live just over 1.5 hours from this.

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