Tasmania Report - Early Autumn 2014

The Big Five (Arthurs, Great Lake, Penstock, Little Pine and Woods) have all fished well without producing any exceptional fishing. Great Lake has certainly been the pick of the lakes when the weather has suited. Good mayfly hatches have continued on all of these venues (including Great Lake - that's not a misprint!) However the fish everywhere have seemed reluctant to eat the adult fly consistently.

Nymph fishing is always productive but a lot of time has been spent looking for fish that could be sight cast to. As is always the case, some beautiful fish have been landed and everything seems to be in good condition.

Success nymphing deep when the sun was out.

We have had the luxury of traveling further afield and found wonderful fishing at Lake King William and Lake St Clair. Even further down the Derwent system, fish have been happy to come up to the dry fly in all weather conditions.

Lake King William

The Nineteen Lagoons continue to fish well and although there is not much water out there, it is looking healthier than this time last year. Even further away, fish up to six or seven pounds have been common enough but those over ten have needed precise presentation and have eluded many. Justin (see photo) caught this lovely trout almost under his rod tip after multiple presentations were seemingly ignored. It was more than twice as big as his previous largest fish and fought for long enough for me to make a cup of coffee for three people, get out the cakes for morning tea and follow him around for another twenty minutes! It’s orange/gold belly made it one of the better looking fish I had seen in quite a while.

Mayfly hatches are starting to become less common in the highlands although smaller duns (size 14) are still coming off in ideal conditions. Beetles still abound when the temperature suits them but the cold of autumn is being felt now and again.

Jenny and Darcy had a great time fishing some lesser known waters.

Midges still bring fish to the surface but once again, the wind has foiled many plans to get out early and enjoy this style of fishing.

The river fishing has been excellent. Grasshoppers were around for a few weeks and caenids kept fish rising for hours after first light on the flatter rivers. These fish have been tough to catch but a great deal of fun.  The afternoon sun has contributed to the easier fishing on almost all days spent on the rivers.

Although river levels have been low, grasshoppers have provided great fishing on warm days.

Getting the flies to the right depth has been more difficult now that the sun is lower in the sky. Being able to see the depth of these deeper pockets is very important but the willingness of most trout to come up and eat a non descript dry fly has increased our bags.

Arthurs Lake is still high, providing good fishing over submerged kerosene bushes. Euan Leckie holds a good fish.

Quite a few fish are now being caught which contain large quantities of eggs. If we get some wet weather in the coming weeks I would expect most fish to get ready to spawn. The good news however is that we have seen large numbers of jassids on the windscreen lately. It was always thought that the presence of these little leaf hoppers was a ‘once in seven years’ event but that could not be further from the truth. We have had reasonable jassid falls for the last few years now and this year is shaping up well. We're hoping the warmth stays to help them get active and onto the water.