The season is changing once again and on the 1st of June we officially welcomed in winter. The annual closure for brown, rainbow and brook trout, and salmon will start at the conclusion of the June long weekend on Tuesday 9 June and re-open at the start of the October long weekend. A total fishing closure is in place for all notified trout streams during this period. There are still trout dams across the State that anglers can continue to fish for trout during the closed season, many of which have been stocked as part of the NSW DPI fish stocking program. If in doubt, check the NSW DPI Fisheries website.

The CSIRO has named Port Macquarie as the best climate in Australia and who am I to disagree. Recently Bonnie and I had, what seems to be these days, the rare opportunity to go out in our tinny. We only sauntered up Stingray Creek to Queens Lake and the day was quite cloudy and it was cool on the water. Although we were plastered in SPF 50 we were very wind-burnt by the time we got home, lesson learnt, SPF doesn’t protect against the wind. As to the fishing, we caught several bream and two flatties that we sent back home to mummy and hope they learnt the lesson “there is no such thing as a free lunch”.

Being a Scot (I always claim to be an Australian by choice and not by accident of birth) it is on my bucket list to return to Scotland and catch a Scottish salmon on the fly, Covid lockdowns and a future Tatts Lotto win allowing. Nothing like Scottish salmon along with a glass of fine Scottish single malt whisky, a match made in heaven.

I stress the Scotch Whisky , no substitutes accepted. While we were in Darwin my son and distant member Craig, gifted me on my birthday a bottle of Westward American single malt whiskey and, while it was very nice, it didn’t compare to the Dalmore Highland single malt scotch whisky that he gave to Bonnie for her birthday. Sassenachs leave the whisky making to the Scots!

In this issue I will be reporting on our May outing to Darawank, Wallamba River near Forster as I won the lucky attendance prize and as you know he or she who wins does the outing report. Also in this issue for your reading pleasure my co-editor has been scouring the World Wide Web for articles that may be of interest to you, don’t miss the articles on ‘Go Fish’ and ‘To Indicate or not Indicate’ ‘Can you Fish in the Rain’ and of course our members tips along with our customary articles on our club’s activities.

I’m afraid I’m running out of local species to add to our “Know your Fish” segment and this month’s featured fish reflects that desperation. Fortunately there are a few exotic species that attract fly fishermen and these will be dealt with in future Newsletters. If anyone can think of a local fish that has been neglected please let me know.

Iain

View/download June 2021 edition