This is what all the fuss is about, an awesome spring creek resident (and yes, those colours are real).
Coming soon, part three of the spring creek series will cover what I call the seepage springs; the springs that carve their way through the bogs and moors of the Western Lakes. The trout are large and the creeks are skinny.
Limestone…just the word puts a smile on the dial, but then that’s nothing new. Look at the ole’ boys of fly fishing, and the streams of their stories─chalkstreams such as the Test and Itchen. Yes, limestone streams have a timeless appeal, and abundant hatches, clear flows and fat trout no doubt perpetuate their timeless appeal.
Tasmania has a small number of excellent limestone spring creeks, often appearing in the middle of paddocks, only to disappear down the gullet of a sinkhole a hundred or so metres away. In terms of geology, the most prolific area of limestone in Tasmania is found between Western Creek and Sheffield, which is the general focus area of any search for limestoners. Mole Creek is the geological epicenter, with the area said to have more than 400 limestone caves and sinkholes. The trick is finding creeks that contain fish, which is harder than it sounds owing to the semi-permanent and subterranean nature of many of these streams─this is also the part of the fishing I’ll leave to you.
Limestone geology is spread from Deloraine in northern Tasmania, across to the West Coast. With this in mind, smaller outcrops and associated creeks are found along the West Tamar (think Beaconsfield area), as well as in the far south (below Hobart).
Happy hunting, and may the minerals you find be brown and speckled.
Question: Ever wondered how many springs make up a small stream? At my last exploration, the South Georges River starts with 14 rainforest-born springs splurging out of the hillside, eventually collecting into one lovely sandy stream.
Lets face it, everyone loves a spring creek. The gin-clear waters, lower temperature variations and abundant hatches create dry fly fishing hotspots, but it is because of these reasons that their locations are often closely guarded secrets.
To the east of Launceston sits the North Eastern Highlands, a collective of peaks and high plains. It is these high plains such as the Diddleum, along with the granite filled bogs and soaks that interest fly fishers, for it is in this country that the first type of Tasmanian spring creek is found. That’s it, thats the clue: find the granite, and you’ll find the springs.
These creeks are often feeders to larger rivers such as the St Patricks, North Esk, South Esk and Georges rivers, and feature narrow, shallow and gravelly bottoms consisting of granite sands. This sandy bottom is awesome to polaroid, but the trout are flighty-they know they stick out like dogs balls. The best tactic is to get down in the long bankside grasses, eye-ball to eye-ball with the tiger snakes and stealth along hunting shadows and shapes.
A box of dry flies and a first aid kit is all you’ll need.
Well if you haven’t noticed, the winter doldrums are here. The sun sets at 4pm, and an extreme lack of outdoors activity has given me the milky sun-tan of an Emo. The only saving grace? A few good reads.
Friend and author Greg French is about to release the follow up to his best seller Frog Call, with his new book titled ‘The Artificial’. No doubt more stories of wilderness adventures, fishing, life and all critters great and small will be included. If you like John Gierach, you’ll like Greg’s stories, so keep an eye out for it.
Speaking of Gierach, he has also just released a new title, ‘Fools Paradise’. Without even seeing it I know this will be a cracker; this is the guy that popularised the term ‘Trout Bum’ after all.
Finally, a read I really enjoyed last winter was ‘The River Why’ by David James Duncan. It’s a bit slow off the mark, but by the time the semi-autobiographical lead character is at home in the woods, the reader is well and truly hooked. This is deemed a modern classic by those in the know, and is now destined for the big screen.
