Fly fishing

Wakao and Yuki, having never held a fishing rod, enjoyed some fly fishing lessons as well as lure fishing. In tough bright, calm conditions they landed fish. Here, Wakao enjoys this gorgeous early summer day on the Macquarie.

By late November the weed in Four Springs Lake was getting very thick, yet we found a few corridors in the weed where fish were working out in the open. David timed the lift on this fine brown taking his royal hairwing coachman fly and managed to apply enough side strain regularly to steer the fish away from the thick weed beds.

Jack and I went fishing at Four Springs on Wednesday hoping for some mayfly action in what seemed like almost ideal conditions - overcast, almost muggy, with light to moderate winds. However mayfly hatches are unpredictable and the hoped for hatch didn't occur. We love a challenge though and this fine brown took a mudeye (dragon fly lava) imitation suspended below a dry fly.

We headed to the Meander River, in northern Tasmania, not far from Deloraine. Quite a bright day, light winds, around 17 degrees - a typical spring day. Visiting from Victoria, Mal brought with him some fly gear that had been handed down through his family, and he had always wanted to learn how to use it. We spent a couple of hours thoroughly covering casting, along with practice and other key things about understanding fly fishing. We worked a section of the Meander River with a dry fly used as an indicator and a weighted nymph suspended a couple of [...]

Four Springs in September with the onset of the first few duns hatching. Bright calm spells brought the spinner out and we polaroided and chased weighty browns around the margins. This one sipped down Ron's red spinner softly on the edge of a small windlane.

Penstock Lagoon, the jewel of the highlands, was enjoyable for Julian, who was out from the UK to sample Tasmania's wild trout with his Dad, Mike. Here's Julian with one of several that were taking emerging duns on a light ripple.

With a scattering of beetles and a number of inspections by the sharks of Great Lake, it was a tough session with the fish proving difficult to hook. Mark was certainly happy when his persistence paid off and he landed this strong fighting 3lb brown, which took a hopper pattern.

On a blue sky day, Scott, a newcomer to fly fishing, quickly learned how to use polaroids to see trout cruising the Western Lakes. Scott's dry fly presentation was sipped down by this nice brownie.

Remote Western Lakes, in cloudy conditions with patches of blue, Steve manages a determined cast into a fairly stiff breeze to this polaroided mayfly feeder. A leisurely sip, a good pause before lifting the rod and the hook is set!

Early season on the flooded Macquarie didn't stop the trout from showing well around the shallow margins. Coming up to take the beetle patterns, these litlte beauties had been feeding on worms and grubs and were in great condition, putting big smiles on the faces of Arkie and Kim, who braved the drizzly conditions and had loads of fun.