Leven River, Tasmania
The upper reaches of the River Leven, not far from Cradle Mountain, rise through sink holes just like the Vale River and they are both on opposite sides of the range. The water of the Leven is very light tannin, and the Leven is one of the only rivers in Tasmania with no dams on it. It also has the highest values for macro invertebrate counts. There are good numbers of Mayfly and this is used as a scientific indicator to show the quality of a river system. There is Anglers Access at Loongana, a section which is open from [...]
Windlanes on Arthurs Lake
In sultry conditions with a thunderstorm on the forecast, these windlanes can carry decent volumes of trout foods, and in this case, flying ants are swarming and ending up on the surface. As the clouds approach and the light level drops the wild browns in Arthurs love ants and some of these dry fly fishing sessions can go for hours. I find that when the fish are really up, using a mayfly emerger around size 14, which is a little bigger than the high volume of small ants, often results in a take.
Is fly fishing on your list?
Is fly fishing on your list of things to try? On our guided tours we'll teach you the basics of fly casting, fly selection, how to find the trout, how to make your fly behave so it looks good enough to eat (to a trout!) and much more! At the end of the day you'll have some new skills and quite possibly a new passion. Any time of year is a good time to learn! Peter and Kristine came this past January to learn fly fishing, and while there were some challenging conditions in Tassie’s highlands, they didn't let the [...]
Mersey River Tasmania
MERSEY RIVER The Mersey River is a very clear-water stream, has a long journey from the mountains to the sea, and is well served with Anglers Access information and infrastructure. There are bright open sections with plenty of shaded areas, fast water runs and riffles, as well as extended flat pools. On bright sunny days, late season, Mersey trout can be found sipping small mayfly from the surface. Felt soles are ideal on the rocky river sub-straight for good grip and a silent approach. Oxley Falls, above Lake Rowallan, which is open until the end of May. The fish [...]
South Esk hoppers
Reminiscing fishing days.... Back in February on the South Esk River grasshoppers were sought after by the feisty brown trout. Shaun's well presented grasshopper pattern brought a few fish to take his offering.
Local creeks
Reminiscing fun fishing days now the season has closed. Large fish will enter small tributaries when the food supply is more abundant than the main stream. In this particular case grasshoppers were abundant enough at this spot for them to be at the top of the main menu. We know this this fish. I caught it around a year ago very close to the same spot. The water level was a little bit lower this time and the fish was six feet away from its usual lie.
Ballistic Rainbow
Bev and Mike's 3 day April fly fishing tour included the last weekend of the season and we spent their final day on Lake Leake. In the absence of any real surface activity apart from a couple of fins poking up here and there in this calm area, and not much food on the surface, we changed to a small wet fly just under the surface for this beautiful 58cm ballistic rainbow trout.
End of season brownie
As the brown trout season came to a close in April, this smelt feeder was attacking baitfish late in he day in a calm quiet corner on Four Springs Lake. This was Mike's first wild brown trout on a fly.
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 [...]