Previous seasons - Summary
2006 season	2005 > 2006

2006 was a strange season for many of us. It started with the lake below top level and just as all the necessary rain came in, so did a cold snap which meant that rather than having a good core temperature, the lake started off quote cold.

Faced with a cold, slow start to the season, it was quite surprising to see the amount of insect life that came out early in the year. The fear nowadays is always that as they seem to start earlier and earlier, the buzzers will start to tail off into June and July just as the fish start to get really active.

We didn't have anything to worry about - I haven't seen such prolific sedge, damsel and buzzer activity for a good number of years now but this all came to a peak as temperatures soared and the lake started to lower again.

What would have produced a series of brilliant evening rises years ago did nothing and for the first time we were all talking about this being a lean season.

Three good things did seem to happen this year. For the first, there was a period of around five weeks between June and August when we were producing fish from the top 18 inches of the water using traditional-style methods (although we were using crunchers and diawl bachs); for the second we commented how pleasant it was to find fish around the Top End for the first few weeks and back end of the season and thirdly at no time through the season did really large numbers of big pike or jacks make themselves known.

2006 was odd and there's been a lot of discussion around what caused it. You can't deny that fish numbers were down, the fish appeared to be incredibly tightly podded up and they didn't seem too inclined to get on the feed at any time. All I can say is that with the lake on top water since late January and with milder weather coming through, it looks like a typical start to the year.