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

submitted 70 days ago • 0 comments

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

submitted 90 days ago • 0 comments

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. 😮‍💨

submitted 92 days ago • 3 comments

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.

submitted 93 days ago • 1 comment

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

submitted 93 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 94 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 100 days ago • 0 comments

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

submitted 101 days ago • 0 comments

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

submitted 101 days ago • 3 comments

submitted 107 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 107 days ago • 0 comments

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.

submitted 110 days ago • 1 comment