It’s Snowy Mountains Trout Festival time, with the week of fishing fun from November 3-9. For all the latest news on the competition go to www.troutfestival.com.

After the Lake Jindabyne dam water release in September, we saw the lake rise again due to snowmelt in October so things are pretty much back to normal now and the fishing has been fantastic.

As we get further into November, the water will warm and we will see more insects about so expect some more surface action. This will be great for the fly guys on the river but also for surface trolling lures on the lake.

When I was at the AFTA Trade Show on the Gold Coast I managed to grab a pocketful of new lures to try out and now that my test team and I have had a chance to swim a few of these, I can give you some of the results on the Jindabyne trout.

For the lure anglers there were a number of new colour releases of Wigstons Lures’ Tasmanian Devils. While I am still in the testing stage of many of these, and preferred colours change as the season progresses, for the moment anyway best results have come from new colours 112, 115 and 111 (Willy’s Special). Of course Willy’s Special is a colour I have developed and tried over the past few years and that has been a smashing success in the Snowy Mountains in particular.

Although I haven’t done a lot of trolling with the new Gillies Naturals Vibration, I have had good success off the bank and have found this lure to be very good on the brown trout. Colours NV03 and NV14 have been best for me and at 6g, they are easy to get a bit of distance out of.

Another new lure in the Gillies Naturals range is the spoon and when you want a little extra distance on the lake or when throwing into the wind, at 10g these are easy to cast. With a slow retrieve seem to work well on all species in Lake Jindabyne. My favourite colours are NS09 and NS04.

There were some exciting new models and colours in the Rapala lures and because the trout were around the edges of the lake, it gave me a chance to try out the Ultra Light range. The best colour to date has been the MFR-3 brown trout.

In deeper water I have been using the new deep Ultra Light Crank, with the rainbow trout my favourite pattern for some reason.

A couple of new Rapala colours to try are the GALB Golden Alburnus and the slightly different and brighter rainbow trout colour BJRT.

I have been testing another new lure range, the Salmo series, for a while now. They are made in Poland and are huge overseas and I will have more to say about the minnow series next month.

In the blade lures a new colour that has been very good is the Rayza 40 brown trout. It’s a bit brighter with a little more flash that seems to be working for some of my test team.

I have been talking about the Blue Fox Trout Quivers for a while now and with a couple of extra colours in the range, I was excited to give these a flick out on a particularly windy day. By throwing the slightly heavier 16g lure you get the distance into the wind – and the trout.

Although the rivers have net been open for all that long, we did start testing a few lures around the lake edges earlier and so far a few lures well worth adding to your tackle box are the newer range of glow Blue Fox spinners. Charged up with a UV torch and used in the dark, we have been amazed how good these lures are.

Last season Gillies released the 5g Tail Walkers and although they have been slow to take off, these have been fantastic for us in the rivers.

For the boaties who like to troll attractors and bait, I have found the Ecogear Bream Prawns look very much like a mudeye and I think these will be great behind fenders or cowbells. The brown mud prawn pattern should be great.

I still have lots of others to test and I look forward to sharing with you some of my other results next month. Now let’s see what should be working this month.

Surface trolling lures at 2m and lead-core lines will be the best methods to get a trout at the moment.

It is also definitely worth trolling some minnow lures early in the morning off the lead-core lines. StumpJumper have some great colours in their 3.5” model now and along with Tassie Devils and Rapalas, you are sure to catch a few fish.

Lake bait fishing has been good, in fact it was the best Winter season I can remember and the fishing has still been great, with worms and artificial baits the best.

By now Rapala should have their new artificial trout bait in the shops and I can tell you that we have been one of the test teams trialling this putty bait for the past few months, and with good results. Call in and I will give you a bit to try for yourself.

Put two hooks on the line and combine a worm and artificial bait to double your chances of a trout.

If you want a big brown trout then try bardi grubs, which we have in stock at my shop.

Best areas for bait fishing have been Waste Point, the Claypits and at East Jindabyne near Rushes Creek.

Spinning has been good early and late in the day and should continue that way for a while yet. There are trout about and the best fishing early is in the shallows and deep water later in the middle of the day.

Cast minnows like floating Rapalas, StumpJumpers and others in natural rainbow trout and brown trout patterns or gold to represent the Jindabyne goldfish that the trout love to eat.

Don’t forget the new Aussie Spotted Dog Rapala; the 7cm original floater is best.

Blades like the Strike Pro Cyber Vibe 35and the TT Switchblade 1/8oz in sunset gold (or any gold) are also very good at the moment.

Don’t stay in one place too long and put in only a couple of casts in each area.

The fly fishing on the lake is still OK and should improve a little more as the water very slowly starts to rise and temperatures slowly increase.

The more insect hatches there are, the better the fishing will become.

The small bays and inlets will produce very early and late in the day if you’re careful not to spook the trout. Woolly Buggers, Craig’s Nighttime and Williamson’s Goldfish have been best flies at dawn and dusk.

The shallow bays are worth a try before the sun rises but after that you had better be fishing deep.

Call in to my shop next to the Shell Servo in West Jindabyne or call 02 6456 1551 for the latest updates.