Four Springs, late season
Catching up on posts from the season... Ed came back to Tassie for a few days for some more fly fishing adventures with us. This was late season, on Four Springs, a lowland lake. On this day mayfly were popping off in pockets here and there and a few fish were cashing in on the opportunity. Well presented emerger mayfly patterns resulted in a number of good hookups, and keeping a cool head throughout the action, Ed had no trouble bringing the fish to the net safely.
All smiles on the Nineteen Lagoons
Catching up on posts from the season.... It was in January and Christopher and Harry enjoyed three days of very clear skies and light winds. Low flows in some cases on the central plateau required a stealthy approach and high levels of patience to get the opportunities for these wild brown trout to eat the fly. Harry is pretty happy with this beautiful wild brown trout from a lake in the Nineteen Lagoons, on Tasmania's Central Plateau Harry with a lovely wild brown from the Nineteen Lagoons region Wading one of the many [...]
Lurking in a little creek
It was late April, and armed with a 3 weight rod and a grasshopper I set off for an afternoon fish on a stream no wider than a kitchen table. This small creek winds its way through the northern midlands. Once upon a time it was known as Penny Royal Creek. Occasionally we do come across some surprisingly good specimens. This fish was caught again and released by another angler a week later.
Another day in April
Another day in early April, on the Mersey River. In the absence of any surface activity Mark worked a tungsten bead nymph under a dry fly to secure a chunky rainbow and a couple of small browns. This is a wide open riffle section of the river, not too difficult to wade, and with plenty of room for casting, even for up to two people.
Smelt Feeder
On this particular day earlier in April, it was hard to find enough mayfly on the surface or find any fish even looking for them. The tactic here was to find bust ups of small smelt spraying on the surface and the signs of charging trout. We hang in on the zone until they show again, then cast. Mark is pretty happy with this wild brown trout.
Early spring on Four Springs
In September Joe, Kayla, and MJ rugged up warm for a fun day learning to fly fish on Four Springs. The first mayflies had not started to appear yet, as the water temperature was not warm enough. So we used wet flies, imitating fish and subaquatic organisms, learning how they move. This fish responded to a rather slow retrieve, and MJ got to feel the weight, and practice controlling a good fish with the fly rod from the boat, close to the bank and other aquatic structure. MJ steering the fish to the boat, Kayla netting it. MJ with [...]
Floodwaters brownie
Late October with the Macquarie in prolonged flood through a back to back annual La Nina weather pattern, the Macquarie browns are putting on great condition with the amount of available foods, and given the right conditions, this beautiful brown trout was feeding on adult mayflies and damselflies. Talking about the right conditions... what are they? In this case, it was light winds, overcast skies, the temperature around 20 deg Celsius. Limited window, this was through the middle hours of the day. Talking about available foods... why is that? With prolonged raised water levels, grubs, spiders, worms, beetles, etc. forced [...]
Waterbug Blitz
Larva is the stage of development of an insect between egg and pupa. Instar is a stage of life of an insect between two periods of moulting. Nymph is an immature form of an insect. The shedding phases. Pupa is an insect in the stage of development between larva and imago (aka: Emerger - a word commonly used in fly fishing terms when talking about mayfly emergence). It's more involved than that, of course, but there's a quick little summary. Why are we talking about this? Because we participated in a project and were excited to find some up close. [...]
River Leven Tasmania
River Leven TasmaniaThe River Leven is a wild trout fishery in Tasmania's north west. A bubbly, boisterous river, it is long, with much of it in deep forest and gorge terrain. A river of classic runs, riffles, glides, and pools etc. The head waters start not far from Cradle Mountain and enters the sea at Ulverstone.Great trout fishing can be found on the River Leven late season, boasting beautiful coloured wild browns a month or so away from spawning. Cool water temperatures, clean tannin water, and the fish still willing to take dry flies.It's a diverse fishery, and this is [...]
South Esk River Tasmania
SOUTH ESK RIVER The South Esk River is Tasmania's longest river, rising to the east of Ben Lomond and flowing east then south to Fingal where it then turns to the south west and follows the Esk Main Road toward Conara, then turns North West where the Macquarie River flows into it at Longford, flowing on through Hadspen to the Trevallyn Dam in Launceston, the final leg courses through the Cataract Gorge into the Tamar River estuary. We love the South Esk, there are so many great access points to generally clear water, many tributaries joining it along the [...]