Trout Territory features in Left Off The Map!
Left Off The Map is a gorgeous show about Tasmania and Tasmanians! Hosted by Master Chef's Ben Milbourne and co-hosts Rhys Hannan and Holly Bowden, this show introduces you to interesting Tasmanians and great Tassie food... where to find it, and how to cook it. Chef Rhys Hannan was keen to learn fly fishing because he wanted to catch a wild brown trout and take it to the top of Ben Lomond National Park to cook! And to help make this possible Trout Territory's Gary and Fiona were excited to host Rhys on the South Esk River at Clarendon, in [...]
Lucky anglers can win $5,000
We're excited! The Inland Fisheries Service 2024-25 Tagged Trout Promotion kicks off today with 16 specially tagged brown trout, each worth $5,000, released across 9 Tasmanian lakes. But it's not all down to luck, we think skill comes into it too. And if you need help with your fishing skills, consider hiring Trout Territory as your guide. We'll help you with the skills you need that could possibly help you land a lucky $5,000 trout. Check out our rates for more info on a guided trout fishing tour. All the info and details, terms and conditions about the IFS Tagged [...]
From the clear waters of the Mersey River
Below Lees Paddocks on the clear waters of the Mersey River, these fish lie in wait in shady pockets and near undercut banks for the occasional grasshopper as they gather condition for the rigors of spawning that are not far away. With light wind conditions out come the four weight fly rods. The fly is a hopper pattern. Image: Gary France, Trout Territory
Grasshoppers on the Leven River
Grasshopper time on the Leven River, bright warm conditions, late season. Extremely good conditions for polaroiding when the sun is directly overhead. Find the fish, figure out an effective presentation, tread very carefully to minimise sound and vibration transfer. Felt soles work really well here. Find the fish? Face upstream with sun coming from behind, scan the water looking for fish movement or rises. You may see a tail or shadow. We know fish are territorial and will station there, so once you see them there's no need to cast all over the place. Image by Gary France
Shallow weedy bottoms
Blue sky days, the best of the best of polaroiding with minimal glare over shallow sandy and weedy bottom lagoons. Ada, in the Nineteen Lagoons of Tasmania. With lots of weed here, we take the approach of being stationary, scanning, and waiting for fish to pass by, rather than the contrast of long sandy flats where we might move rather swiftly. Image by Gary France
Lying in wait
In a northern midlands river, a wild trout lies in wait on a narrow flowing channel. A single bow and arrow cast with a grasshopper landed with a splat resulted in a solid hookup. An 8lb tippet was used to get the fish in quickly and released without harm. When water temperatures are above 20 deg Celsius it's really important to give these fish a good chance of survival, so minimal time out of the water. Image by Gary France
Three lakes and an estuary
Across four days fly fishing with Gary in Tasmania, Christopher and Brian enjoyed a number of lakes and the Tamar estuary. On Arthurs Lake we found activity and success to surface pulled flies around the Hydro Bay islands, where we also found some decent froth lines, drawing up typical Arthurs browns to grasshopper patterns. Little Pine Lagoon in good overcast conditions with a light to moderate breeze from the north fished rather well, with numbers of fish landed and the best action in the middle of the afternoon to a few waves of duns hatching. Early overcast conditions on Penstock [...]
Family experience
As beginners to fly fishing, Vikki, Eric, and Zane were stars from the word go. The family are seasoned fishos and their aim in Tasmania was to tick fly fishing for trout off their bucket list. We headed to yingina/Great Lake in cool, yet bright conditions, with a few slicks in the light northerly winds, and just enough beetles to get a few fish showing. All did well on the water getting used to fly fishing methods. Vikki secured this nice wild brown trout on a twitched grasshopper. “Hi Gary and Fiona, We wanted to say thank you so much [...]
Spinner pattern on the South Esk
South Esk, the river running a little high and discoloured, but with the winds coming off the eastern bank we found a number of fish sporadically feeding on mayfly spinner through the calmer spells. Mark, fishing with us in January, caught wild trout using a spinner pattern, and in the fast water glides there was interest to a small bead head nymph.
Damselfly diet
By mid December mayfly hatches were thinning out but a few were still present along with damselfies. Rising trout sporadic from time to time and this one took a possum emerger. We kept this one for dinner and discovered the stomach was full of damselfly adults. On this particular day there was a great sky giving some good cloud cover and some bright spells, mixed with moderate winds, mid 20s temperature... doesn't get more pleasant for a day on the water. Gary is happy with this wild brown trout The stomach contents of the brown trout [...]