WooHoo! Just booked my second ever trip to New Zealand! Will try to get three guided days out of Christchurch before heading south on my own. #flyfishing

Australia's river trout season starts on 4 October this year. I thought one of the Bluesky fly fishers might be interested in spending a season or two guiding downunder with my favourite outfitters. One of the few float fishing specialists here #flyfishing www.tomsoutdoors.com.au/pages/career...?

I am on a reconnaissance mission to the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. This is the Fish River near the town of Bathurst. A fingerling trout was jumping at hovering midges in the shallows. I will return. #flyfishing #rivers #Australia

Back home until next time and had a chance to compare notes with the local #flyfishing crowd. All have been blanking in low, clear #rivers except for those who have gone higher and found running water. Not easy when south east #Australia is so dry.

My final morning on the Goobarragandra River (for this trip, anyway). Having exhausted my dry and dry/dropper skills for no reward, I fished this run with tight-line nymphing gear for exactly the same result. Clear and low, but a lovely morning. #flyfishing #rivers #Australia

This is the pool I fished this morning. Long harvey-style leader with a small dry/dropper rig. Long, delicate casts into bubble lines and deeper holes near the far bank and behind boulders. Nada. Nothing. Nil. I am cursed. #flyfishing #rivers #Australia I hate Mondays.

The local outfitters and fly shop assures me that fish are being caught not far upstream from where I am fishing. I am still blanking out. Luckily, the scenery is so inviting. ##flyfishing #rivers #Australia

Back on the river tomorrow after a few days at home. I'm determined to fish better - longer leaders and greater stealth to cope with the low, clear water. May even get a guide to audit my presentations - or just do a day on a drift boat from Tumut to break my bad run. #Flyfishing #Australia #rivers

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

You would think this tailout would hold a few trout. But not this morning. I have been staring so intently into the water that I am now hallucinating fish. But that's #flyfishing, I guess. #rivers #Australia

Nymphed this run for two hours this morning for no result. It's usually productive for me, and I reckon my casting and drifts were not too bad. I'm getting a bit disheartened to be honest. #flyfishhing #rivers #Australia

A crisp autumn morning on the river. Saw a platypus feeding in the shaĺlows. An echidna nearly walked into me while I was fishing last evening and a (rare) Murray crayfish walked onto my boot while I was wading. #flyfishing #rivers #Australia

Skulked, but a pleasant time was had. #flyfishing #Australia #river

Back on "my" river for a week. First time fishing since Christmas. Water is low and it has been a hot, dry, and long summer, but a bit of rain in the past week has freshened things up and dropped the temperature. #Flyfishing #rivers #trout #Australia

Went to the lake at dawn for some casting practice. #flyfishing #Canberra

Happy Festivus to all who celebrate. I have dusted of our aluminium (prone. aluminum) pole for the holiday. Aluminum has a very high strength to weight ratio.

No fish or platypus today, but this guy was taking a walk as I left the river. There were also plenty of wombats. #echidna

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.

As expected, it continued to rain and the river rose. Just 40mm of rain in the catchment over 18 hours was enough the increase flow by a factor of 10. This is prime River Red Gum habitat as they need the cycle of flood and drought. #river #trout #FlyFishing

Still raining across eastern Australia. We received around 20mm overnight and I'm expecting a surge of fresh locally later today. Hopefully, the fishing improves.

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.

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

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

I love rivers, big and small. I can't fully explain it. There is a strong emotional connection as well as an intellectual one. There is nothing more satisfying than fishing (catch and release, with a fly rod) alone on a wild, healthy river.

I have today deactivated my Twitter (X) account as part of my effort to decrease the amount of toxic pseudo news, commentary and crap commercialism in my life. My post-US-election resolution is to spend more time fishing and to further lower my expectations of humanity.