Paul Garrett

@paulgar.bsky.social

Retired public policy nerd. Defrocked ecologist. Keen fly fisher, esp. for feral species. Conservationist, reader, science geek, Australian, boomer. #Australian #FlyFishing #FlyTying #trout #ecology #rivers #entomology

The fishing (possibly the fisher) has been total shyte. Which lead me to ponder the phenomenon of wombat poo. Yes, it is cube-ish, but just as strange is that, for an animal whose arse is so close to the ground, they go to a lot of effort to poo on top of protruding rocks. #flyfishing #Australia

Three black cubes of wombats feces on a rock.

Decided to give the river another 12hrs to retreat, so I fished the confluence with the Tumut Rriver tailrace about 20km downstream. Bad decision. I immediately lost three streamers to new snags then snapped my best carbon fibre rod mid section. 😮‍💨

The river rose further overnight, reaching more than a meter higher than yesterday with a flow of near 4,000 GL/day. This is the highest level reached this calendar year. It has started to fall but more rain is predicted for this week. Interestingly, the temperature fell from 24C to around 16C.

A graph of river discharge rates for the Goobarragandra River from January 2024 to the present.  There are eight incidents of flow above 2000 GL/day with today's being the highest.

I considered giving fishing a miss this morning, but the weather was pleasant with some cloud cover. Happily, I hooked (but didn't land) three small trout while swinging wet flies through the broken water. A chubby little skink - around 15cm long - sat and watched me for a while.

A skin lizard on a rock. Maybe a female with eggs from the size of the abdomen.Looking downstream from the middle of the river. A fly rod in the foreground and white water in the mid-ground where it splashes over stones.

Despite unfavourable conditions, I was unable to resist some "casting practice" this morning. I did see a platypus that has taken up residence in this pool since I was here in early Spring. That's three I know of in this 1.5 kilometre stretch of river. #FlyFishing #river

A glassy surfaced river pool with smooth rocks and two fly fishing rods in the foreground.

24 hours into a 2 week stay on the river and I find the spring fishing season has departed early this year. The river LOOKS great but the flow is relatively low and, at 24C, the temperature is above the tolerance level of trout. I haven't seen a fish in three fishing sessions. #FlyFishing #trout

Looking upstream at a small rocky stream (the Goobarragandra River) with a hand holding a digital thermometer in the foreground.  The thermometer reads "24.0 C"