Western Lakes Tasmania, winter sunrise

• Fly Fishing Tasmania—lots of rain, and the season to come

Great news for Tasmanian fisher’s has been the big-wet of late. Just a few days ago, Mole Creek (on the Mersey River) saw 150mm’s of rain (that’s half-a-foot!) in a day, and all the rivers, including the drought ravaged Macquarie River, are in flood. And by flood I mean that they are well over their banks! The drought-depleted and algae-bloom affected Leake, Craigbourne and Tooms lakes are now full, or close too, which is awesome news—Tooms’ in particular features excellent fishing to baitfish feeders, while the Macquarie downstream offers the best small red spinner mayfly falls in Tasmania. This will be the best season in four years or more, both in terms of water flows and lake levels, and associated mayfly populations and fish sizes.

With two or so weeks to go until the new trout season opens, I’ve spent the last month tying flies for our webshop, and exploring remote waters in the Western Lakes. The trip report from our last weekend of explorations among the wilderness Western Lakes is here, but in a nutshell, early rains brought about early spawning, which will result in bigger and healthier early-season trout. As I type, Lake Augusta on the rim of the Western Lakes is overflowing, and has been for four days. 

We’ve also been concentrating on lots of behind-the-scenes activities in the last month, which have included gaining access to new guiding locations on the Meander River. This river adds to our guiding venues on the Mersey, Macquarie, Brumbys, North Esk, South Esk, St Patricks and north-eastern creeks. I’m sure that repeat clients (as well as new guests) will enjoy this season’s new venue.

• Opening day tactics

As alluded to, our trout season opens in just over two weeks on the 1^st of August. Many will be heading up to the hydro lakes for opening day (such as Arthurs Lake), but I’ll be hunting around in the flooded backwaters of our northern rivers. The author David Scholes made these flood-fishing events famous, but the recent years of drought have seen opportunities for flood fishing all but disappear. I’m not going to miss out on this winter’s offerings, so the Upper Macquarie, lower Meander, and perhaps even the South Esk or Lake River will be on my flood fishing to-do list. Patterns such as the Fur Fly, Woolly Caddis and Black and Peacock Spider will feature among the fly patterns to try.

As August moves in to September, hatches and falls of cockchafer beetles, stonefly, and by late September, mayfly will be underway and the trout will be looking for dries. By October the mayflies will become consistent (outside of any flood events) leading to some of the best close-quarter dry fly fishing of the season.

•  ‘Meet the author’s day’ at the Tasmanian Trout Expo – Greg French, Phil Weigall and Daniel Hackett

 The annual Tasmanian Trout Expo (at Cressy) is on over the weekend of the 29-30^th of August this year, where I’ll be found manning the Petrarchs Bookstore stand. The Sunday will see Greg French and Philip Weigall also at the stand, happy to talk to fellow fishers and sign books. Phil will be launching his new book ‘Fishing Season’, so it will be a great opportunity to get your copy on the day. More info on the Trout Expo here.  

•  Fly Fishing offerings from RiverFly for season 09-10  

October 2009 -May 2010 Try a Three Rivers Package and lodge accommodation with RiverFly Tasmania and Quamby Estate Homestead  

November 2009 – May 2010 Book in for a Wilderness Campout. We have a remote river venue for 1-2 night trips, and Western Lakes campouts for those wanting to experience Tasmania’s wilderness fishing mecca.  

Fly tying classes – shortcuts, improving techniques, and trouble-shooting - Keep an eye out on our Blog for the dates of our second round of fly tying classes. The first round finished successfully in early July.

• Fishing and fly tying tips

Tip1: If you get caught wading in water that is too powerful and need to turn back, try and avoid wading downstream back to shore: the water will start to ‘float’ you away as your centre of gravity is pushed downstream by the force of the current. Instead, it is safer to slowly work your way back to shore in a diagonally upstream direction, where you can keep your centre of gravity forwards, and your feet on the ground.

Tip 2: When tying parachute flies, always use a hackle that is one to two sizes larger than usual. This will give the fly a larger ‘footprint’ on the water (which will make it a better attractor), and ensure that it stays upright on each presentation.

•  The Source-Tasmania DVD now available

The Source-Tasmania DVD by Gin-Clear Media is now in stock and can be ordered through our WebShop. As the feature film of last month’s international Fly Fishing Festival, The Source has already been shown to more than 2000 people, to generally great reviews. The film-fest is now headed for Europe for showings next month.

The film is beautifully shot across four locations: Sea-run trout destinations on the North-West Coast, the rainforest creeks of the Western Tiers, the mayfly waters of the Lowland rivers, as well as a longer section featuring the wilderness Western Lakes. The Source features Greg French and Daniel Hackett, as well as a cast of visiting anglers. Purchase The Source here.

That’s all for this months newsletter. Look out for the August edition which will contain a report on the opening month of fishing, with a focus on the feature-flood fishing we’re looking forward to. Have a great opening Day from the RiverFly team-Daniel, Simone and Patrick

Greg French and Simone Hackett, 'beyond Maydena'

If you’ve just picked up your copy of the latest FlyLife Magazine (Winter 2009), you’ll find a great article by Greg French on fishing the rivers past Maydena, in the state’s south. Greg’s been exploring them flat out during the past season, experiencing Tasmania’s most consistent fishing for larger river trout (in the 2-6lb class). Most of these fish are sighted, either polaroided, or seen rising among areas of deep water and high density structure. The scenery from these rivers is beautiful – typically rainforest full of ancient myrtles and sassafras, while the rivers themselves are medium sized fastwaters (similar to the Mersey) with a tannin-tinge.

To promote these unknown river fisheries, which are situated among some of Tasmania’s most beautiful forests, RiverFly is offering two chances to join us, and author/explorer Greg French as our guest, on these magic rivers. We are planning for one 2-3 day trip in late February, and one in early March, to coincide with the driest part of the season, and the best chance of hitting the rivers at the best time, to target the best fish. The exact dates are flexible to suit our guests, and our standard guiding rates apply. Trips will be based from New Norfolk or Maydena, depending on your preference.

If you are interested in joining RiverFly Tasmania on our fly fishing trips beyond Maydena, with our guest author and fishing explorer Greg French, drop me an Email now.

Greg French and Simone Hackett, Styx River, Southern Tasmania

Patrick Horan, preparing for an R&D day

Some great news for RiverFly guests is the recruitment of Patrick Horan to the RiverFly Tasmania team.  Patrick was head-hunted by RiverFly in 2008, and since then has been serving a guiding apprenticeship of sorts with RiverFly founder Daniel Hackett; as expected, Pat has taken to guiding like a duck to water. This is no surprise-Patrick has been teaching fly fishing Adult Education classes for more than four years with the Fly Fishers Club of Tasmania, and was a junior Tasmanian fly casting champion when Daniel met him almost a decade ago. Patrick is an excellent photographer, and an even better fly tier; you’ll find Daniel pilfering his innovative parachute hackles and hopper patterns most days their guiding together.

One thing to point out is Patricks local knowledge: it wasn’t too many seasons ago that Daniel was talking to Pat about a new, favourite secret spot; Pat replied with ‘yeah, I know the spot, I’ve been fishing it for a few seasons now’.  You can find more about Patrick on the RiverFly Guides page.

Quamby Estate Homestead

We are excited to announce that after a two-year hiatus from providing lodge accommodation, RiverFly Tasmania is once again offering river-based lodge accommodation and all inclusive packages to its guests. Through a strategic alliance with Quamby Estate, a large Anglo-Indian 1830′s estate just 15 minutes west of Launceston, we now have a new home for the accommodation side of our business central to Tasmania’s northern rivers. (In fact, the Meander River forms part of the magnificent views from the estate). 

The estate is operated as a part of Anthology www.anthology.travel, a new eco-tourism travel group who also owns and operates the world famous Cradle Huts and Bay of Fires Walks from Quamby Estate. The partnership between Anthology and RiverFly Tasmania is great news for the $60M Tasmanian recreational fishing industry, which over the past two seasons has struggled to offer a critical-mass of dedicated accommodation linked to professional, full-time guides, since the recent sales of Blue Lake Lodge and London Lakes.

RiverFly Tasmania and Quamby Estate have launched two initial packages, starting at three days and three nights from $1662 per person for two anglers. Visit www.riverfly.com.au/riverfly-lodge/ for more information. We will update our normal packages page to include the new packages over the next week.

Coporate retreats are also catered for with RiverFly Tasmania and Quamby Estate, offering opportunities for guided fly fishing as well as golf on the Estate’s own 9-hole golf course, as well as helicopter tours for the adventurous. 

baetid mayfly dun

David Scholes and the modern-day hatch

David Scholes was (and is still regarded as) one of Australia’s most revered fly fishing authors. He wrote of fly fishing in Victoria and Tasmania during the 1950’s and 60’s, which were considered to be among the halcyon days of these fisheries: little or no fishing pressure, plenty of water, and many new fisheries to be explored.
Reading through David’s classic Fly Fisher in Tasmania (1961), there’s stories of rivers, hatches and fishing with mates, but for me, it is a story of one memorable ‘hatch’ that stands out–a unique army caterpillar fall on the North Esk River. From Fly Fisher in Tasmania:

‘One day stands alone on the broken rivers–the day I found the Army Caterpillars on the North Esk. I had witnessed this rare event previously, but never with such startling results…I would like you to hear about this extraordinary tale. Friday was the last day of December 1954 and began with a clear warm sunny morning and little wind…about nine o’clock, we broke out of the willows into a more open and sunny section. Then and there I beheld the first part of a spectacle I had never seen before, nor have I seen since…The bend I looked into was high on our side, curving away to our left, but for as far upstream as I could see, the whole pool seemed alive with rising trout…At first we were spellbound by the size of the trout, some being absolute whales of five or six pounds.’

In this story, David was speaking of the largest caterpillar fall he had fished, a ‘hatch’ that featured armies of paddock-munching caterpillars migrating to an isolated stretch of river, where they proceeded to climb off over-hanging tussocks and onto the water, not unlike lemmings from a cliff. These caterpillars float, making them an irresistible prey item, while their sheer numbers are enough to bring even the biggest fish up from the deepest pools–exciting stuff indeed.

How does this link to our modern-day fishing? This year I was lucky to guide two groups onto two different army caterpillar falls on our broken rivers – the St Patricks and the North Esk rivers.

Brian and his son Nick experienced the first caterpillar migration during January on the St Patricks River, where trout’s bellies hung like under-slung saddle-packs, disgorged with the floating prey almost 54 years to the day after David Scholes experience his own North Esk hatch. Later in the season, and more recently, the Sloan group of first-timers from Victoria also experienced a migration of caterpillars on the North Esk river, leading to an almost three-pound trout for Jennie in her first hour of fly fishing ever! I wonder if it was on the same stretch that Scholes’ fished all those years ago?

These hatches were great events, with a significant demonstration for us to take note of. Though our fisheries may be effected by climate change, over-allocation of irrigation rights and increased pressure, there is still so much left to protect and enjoy–hatches that would make the lad’s of the halcyon days giddy with excitement are still a reality, and the glass is half-full; let’s do our best to keep it that way.

March and early April 2009 fishing report

Autumn day on Brumbys Creek

March is typically my favourite month to fish, but this past month was best described as sporadic. In Launceston rainfall was at a 25-year high for the month, which meant that plenty of frontal systems crossed through the state – these days were hard for fishing, while the preceding humid days prior to the arrival of a front was good for baetid and ant falls. Unfortunately, whilst we did have good hopper action, the increased rain and greener paddocks led to a shortened hopper season.

In summary, a dozen excellent ant and baetid days were experienced, along with a couple of solid hopper days. The highlight fisheries for the month were the Lower Macquarie (ants, baetids), St Patricks (hoppers, baetids) and the Mersey rivers (ants).

Fishing predictions for late April and May 2009

Winter feels like it is arriving early this year, so the fishing will be primarily reliant on baetids for the rest of the season. Ants will be an option on the warmer days, and on the rainbow waters into May, gum beetles and midge will be the key hatches.

We offer discount guiding during May on the rainbow waters, with most days focusing on high-bank polaroiding some favourite lowland lakes, and a bit of nymph-fishing on the rainbow trout rivers. Contact us if you would like a day or two on the water at these discount rates www.riverfly.com.au/contact .

*RiverFly Fly Tying Classes – winter courses*

This winter we will be holding fly tying classes for beginners and experienced tiers. Consisting of six evening-sessions, these courses are being built around the fly selections we use for guiding, many of which are featured in our In Season Tasmania coffee-table book. We will also be featuring a few secret patterns that produce the goods during the hard times!
Much of the tying will focus on the little tips and tricks that make the major difference to the quality of your flies, the time it takes to tie them, as well as their fish-catching abilities.

Class dates for Launceston are about to be released, with a maximum of six persons per class. Register your interest by E-mailing me now www.riverfly.com.au/contact

If you live in the North-West, Hobart, or anywhere else for that matter, and have a few mates or fishing club that would like to form a class, we’d also love to hear from you–we aim to offer classes to all that would like to learn.

To register interest in our fly tying classes, please Email me at www.riverfly.com.au/contact

Fishing Tips

Fishing Tip1:  On a humid and stormy day, the fishing often peaks just prior to the rain – make sure you don’t just fish the fair-weather days, or you’ll miss out on some great fishing opportunities.

Fishing Tip 2:  When spooling your reel with a new line, make sure you unroll the line from the spool, rather than pulling it off sideways: the later will result in a series of permanent twists in your line

The Source Tasmania dvd–Release date July 2009–pre-order now

If you can’t make it to a showing of The Source–Tasmania during the national Rise Fly Fishing Film Festival this winter, you can pre-register for a copy now www.riverfly.com.au/contact. Check out our blog (webdiary) entry for more details on this awesome high-definition dvd, due for release in June 2009. www.riverfly.com.au/blog .
That’s all for this month’s report. If you are reading this fishing report via our blog (webdiary), remember that the tech-savvy among you can subscribe via RSS. If you are receiving this report via Email, feel free to pass it on to your friends using the Forward tab below.

Happy Easter from Daniel, Simone and the RiverFly Tasmania team.

Prime spring-creek runs

Hopper fishing tips: If fish consistently approach the hopper, but fail to take it, try twitching the fly with a movement of the rod tip. This often seals-the-deal, proving to much for the trout to refuse.

Hook-up on the WMD Hopper