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 [...]
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 [...]
A rainbow and a brownie
Water temperatures early in December were surprisingly still under 20 degrees Celsius and the weed hadn't really become a major problem. We headed to some clear water anyway, and Charlie hooked up with this splendid rainbow. Using the net Joel helped his dad to get the first fish on board. Shortly after lunch Joel hooked into a nice brown trout which proceeded to run through the weeds and snags, but with some perseverance Joel still managed to bring the fish to the boat and land it. Joel with his wild brown trout Charlie and Joel with [...]
Trailing a mudeye
It was a tough day on the mayflies so trailing a mudeye just sub-surface behind an emerger, cast close to the moving reeds, enabled Cindy to bring this strong brown trout to the boat. Cindy and Mike came fishing in Tassie in November. Image Credit: Gary France
Northern shores of Arthurs Lake
The road less trodden along the northern shores of Arthurs Lake, with rich weed beds and extensive shallow margins, harbours some very good specimens like this 53cm brown trout, which came up from the bottom in a foot of water to take an emerging mayfly imitation. Image: Gary France
Kelso Flathead
On a recent trip to the Kelso sandflats on the Tamar River, north of Launceston, this Flathead was caught in around a foot of water on a runout tide. Measuring 55cm, these fish go really well on light tackle. On this day we also managed to secure a number of Whiting on the same sand patch.
Two fly rig fools nice browns
Here's one of a couple of good browns caught through the middle of the day that took a stick caddis underneath or the spinner on the surface of a two fly rig. Image: Gary France
Uncooperative weather doesn’t stop us!
Trevor and Vorn planned their trip to coincide with usual stable river heights and focus on their river fishing skills and techniques. The weather gods didn't get the memo! With rivers once again in flood, and rising, the best we could do was to focus on wild browns moving up with the flood waters into side waters and lagoons. That was the first day, which also included some torrential rain. We did find a few swirlers and tails. The first two photos are from the second and third days where we reverted to loch style dry fly techniques on still [...]
Late spring on Four Springs
After some particularly warm to hot, clear bright days the number of mayfly hatching and spinners returning to lay eggs have dropped off on Four Springs Lake. However there were enough insects showing in small pockets to get a few fish picking off these mayfly. Pictured is one nice brownie at 48 cm. Part way through the fight the hook became dislodged and caught the adipose fin leading to a long and drawn out dramatic battle. We enjoyed homemade fish and chips for dinner. The fly I used was a possum fur emerger. Image: Gary France
Brothers in arms
Gary and his brother Colin spent some time on Four Springs one day during October. Bright blue sky and very calm, flat conditions with very few duns hatching, but spinner scattered over the water laying their eggs. Very exciting fishing, tracking these quality fish that move around and are hard to predict. Good mayfly spinner imitations and accurate fly placement will undo these fish. The black spinner fly pictured emphasises the long tails, sparse quill body, and minimal hackle. The hook is a size 12, and strong enough wire to handle these wild browns around the 2kg mark. The wing [...]