Chunky river brown
This chunky river brown trout took a number of presentations to notice the fly was even there. Once landed the fly in the right place with the right drift, my black spinner fly was noticed, and taken. The black spinner is a go to fly in Tasmania's mayfly season for any river or lake. Image by Gary France, Trout Territory
Fly fishing coaching for groups
Guide, Gary France, teaching a small group the basics of fly casting. We start on the grass, with demonstration, coaching, and then it’s time to move your new skills onto the water! We have a very high success rate with the basics leading to graduation and the grouping of various skills. Stepping stones to trout and fly fishing success. We offer workshops or fully guided tours for beginners.
Grasshopper
Here's a grasshopper fly. Into the warmest months of Tasmania's summer, grasshoppers are a feature on rivers and lakes. This is a foam bodied hopper that will float all day, and imparted with the right sort of movement, twitch twitch, bringing it to life, is a highly effective dry fly technique.
Just going fishing
A lovely breeze ripple on a very bright day over clear, relatively shallow water, not too much casting, drifting with the breeze, and keeping in touch with a dry fly, and/or a nymph under. This is a loch style technique we commonly use on Tasmanian Lakes.
Wild wind and trout
Isn’t it summer? Despite some wild wind, James and dad Roger enjoyed a couple of days in the Central Highlands. Here’s James with one of his brown trout caught on the fly. Image credit: Nick May
Blue sky and bubble lines
In Tasmania, we don't have to travel too far to find beautiful rivers, streams, and lakes. Here on a blue sky day we can see the fish with polaroid sunglasses. Also take note of the shade created by the overhanging tea trees where there are beetles falling and trout feeding. Look closely to see the slow main current seam passing the tip of the shady area. This is known as a bubble line and that's where trout food is concentrated. In these very calm conditions, find the trout feeding first and only then make a presentation with your fly. A [...]
Feisty lowland river brown trout
In Tasmania, feisty lowland river brown trout, when showing interest in hovering damsel flies - a moving target - are hard to tempt. With this beautiful trout, a well presented black spinner, size 12, did the trick. A drag free drift is paramount in any dry fly presentation. Image: Gary France, Trout Territory #traumreel
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 [...]
Learning to fly fish
Fly Fishing workshops start off with a chat about trout foods such as fish, snails, and insects etc., that are part of the trout's diet, and the flies we use to imitate them. We show you how to make those imitations move on or in the water. Participants get an overview of fly fishing gear, how to use it, how to present a fly. For beginners, casting instruction and practice starts on the grass, and then we add water! Our workshops are ideal for beginners, as well as those who would like to hone their existing skills. If learning to [...]