After 3 1/2 years of hard work and planning, we are excited to announce that we will be opening RiverFly Wilderness Huts in October 2012!

RiverFly Wilderness Huts are located adjacent to the famous Western Lakes & Walls of Jerusalem National Park / World Heritage Area.
The hut project has been a massive project for us, and is the first project of its kind in Tasmania to combine wilderness fly fishing and conservation. Of this we are extremely proud. This outcome means that for every customer that visits RiverFly Wilderness Huts, a slice of Tasmania is protected forever.
Here is a link to the webpage and further details http://riverfly.com.au/riverfly-wilderness-huts/ . Keep an eye on our newsletter and blog for more information, and we are taking bookings now.
Thanks, Dan and Simone Hackett.

Up in the highlands and we have had some great midge and tailing trout feeders at Bronte Lagoon, and literally hundreds of fish to target at Pine Tier Lagoon.

These end-of-season sightfishing highlights are the norm for Tassie. Target the stable weather and sheltered waters, and have a great end to the season.

It’s been a long time between newsletters, but we’ve had good reason: the arrival of our first baby, a little boy named Sidney, and the opening of our new fly shop in Launceston, FlyShop 1864 (at 45 Cameron Street, Launceston, www.flyshop1864.com.au ).  

Onto the fishing report… 

Tasmania got off to a great start in spring, with the Macquarie River featuring the best red spinner hatches since the 1960’s. What a difference three wet winters make! On top of the red spinners, we had loads of excellent black spinner falls on the South Esk, and some great creek fishing in the north-east. All-in-all the fish size this year is up about 30% on average, due to the extra rain and flood foraging to be had. This includes trout throughout the Western Lakes, where fish numbers have also doubled in some of the more seasonal catchments, for example the Christys Creek area. 

The fishing prior Christmas saw some excellent hatches of mayfly on the famed Little Pine Lagoon, as well as Woods Lake and a couple of the Nineteen Lagoons. Down on the rivers and the South Esk continued to fish exceptionally well, though more new anglers were to be found, practicing in preparation for the recently held Commonwealth Fly Fishing Championships. Again the north-east creeks fished very well, and timing our visits to coincide with good water levels and warm water-temperatures was the key. The Meander upstream of Deloraine also proved consistent with caddis and mayfly hatches, with our Scruffy dry flies and Pheasant and Ice Nymphs accounting for many of our trout. Both patterns will be added to our webshop next month, along with more than 30 more of our new custom ties. 

February was a hard month for fly fishing in Tasmania, as the huge weather systems crossing mainland Australia sent consistent easterlies throughout the state. This made the fishing quite difficult, with patchier hatches, and fickle fish, as competitors in the Commonwealth Fly Fishing Championships found out for themselves.  

The weather pattern has now settled, and we are experiencing some great hopper fishing on the Macquarie, Lake, Brumbys, Meander and South Esk rivers. The 2^nd of March also marked the first day of serious autumn mayfly hatches on the lowland rivers, whilst last weekend saw excellent ant falls on Brumbys Creek. The sight fishing has been great, and we expect an excellent mayfly season through till late April. If you would like to pop down to Tassie for some end-of-season sight-fishing, then send us an Email. We’ll pick you up at the airport, and have you fishing within 30 minutes! www.riverfly.com.au/contact .

  Our new FlyShop – FlyShop 1864, 45 Cameron Street Launceston www.flyshop1864.com.au

This season saw Simone and I open our flyshop in Launceston, which we are very excited about. We’ve named it in honour of the year that trout were first hatched in Tasmania–1864. Our shop is the first and only Orvis accredited dealer in Tasmania, which was a great coup. Orvis are the largest fly fishing company in the world, and have been around since 1856. In addition to Orvis, we stock a number of niche brands including Recycled Waders, whom make great fishing packs and bags from old recycled waders, Rio flylines, Maxima lines, Peter McKean Cane Rods, and a large range of internationally-competitive prices on fly tying materials.

A lot of our stock is already online, and available through our webshop at www.flyshop1864.com.au , with the complete range online by May.

Product Reviews and News –Orvis Hydros flylines, our custom 1864 trout flies & new Ice Dubbing

¨      New Orvis Hydros Flylines

For years now, Rio and Scientific Anglers have been the primary choices for flylines in Australia. We love the Rio lines, and have used them for years, however our line of choice has just changed. Released in January 2012, the new Orvis Hydros flyline range is our new go-to flyline of choice. Their top-of-the range Hydros 3D textured line, which we’ve used for a couple of months now, has proved its worth as the best sightfishing line around. It floats brilliantly, the coating enables the line to shoot as good as, if not better than anything on the market, and the textured coating avoids all of the previous problems of textured lines: excess noise, finger cutting and poor roll casting. At $104.95 it’s also great value, and perfect for medium-fast, to fast action rods such as the Orvis Helios, and the Sage One. If you prefer slower action rods, then the regular Trout Taper is the line to choose. With a traditional coating and taper, and a high-float tip, this is the perfect match for most Orvis Helios mid-flex rods, Winston tapers, cane rods, and creek fishing. Again they are a great value line, at $89.95. http://flyshop1864.com.au/shop/lines-and-backing/

¨      Custom 1864 Trout Flies

One of the points of difference with our flyshop is that we tie all of our own fly patterns for the shop. We don’t purchase from Asia or Africa, where a child could be forced to tie flies for little return, and what’s more, our flies are developed, tried, tied and tested by myself and our RiverFly team, day-in and day-out. The results are the most functional, innovative and effective flies available for Australian conditions. By May we plan to have all our patterns available on our webshop (including a few of our previously ‘secret’ patterns). We also tie to order, so feel free to send us an Email with your request www.riverfly.com.au/contact .

¨      Orvis Ice Dubbing

One of the great new materials we are stocking is Orvis Ice Dub. Anyone that knows our fly patterns would realise that UV-reflective materials play a large role in effective patterns. Up until now we have used and recommended Glister as the synthetic dubbing of choice, but we’ve come across a better substitute. Orvis Ice Dub has all the light-reflective properties of Glister, and in fact looks exactly the same, however you’ll find it softer and easier to use. The colour range is great, and we have 18 colours in stock. http://www.flyshop1864.com.au/shop/dubbing/

Fly fishing tips – don’t hold the fly, powdered floatants and leader lengths

1. Many times I see anglers holding their dry fly whilst waiting to spot a rise. This typically crushes the fly, and hinders its performance. My suggestion is to instead hold the tippet, just above the fly, leaving everything ready to go and easily at hand.
2. After landing a fish, powdered silicone floatants are ideal for drying out a slimed-up fly. Our favourite is Loon Top Ride http://flyshop1864.com.au/shop/floatants-sinkants-and-caddies/loon-top-ride-floatant/ , however Frogs Fanny has a lot of devotees, as does the identical (and well priced) Orvis Float Dust.
3. Changing leader lengths to suit the fishing can help to catch more fish. When fishing heavy flies such as grasshoppers, or fishing in the wind, I recommend a leader of around 9 feet. When more subtle hatches are on, such as small mayfly and ants, I like to move up to a 12 foot leader. They cast with a similar effort, however the added length gives a greater margin for error should the cast go astray.

Wilderness Huts – Opening in October 2012

Lastly but importantly, stay tuned for our next newsletter, where we will be announcing the completion of our new wilderness huts! This has been the most exciting project to be involved in, and is the fruition of more than 3 years of hard work. Spaces are limited for the 2012/2013 season, so if you are keen to try Australia’s best wilderness fly fishing, then be sure to let us know www.riverfly.com.au/contact

 Thank you from Daniel & Simone Hackett.

RiverFly Tasmania www.riverfly.com.au

FlyShop 1864 www.flyshop1864.com.au

45 Cameron Street, Launceston, Tasmania.

Many apologies for the delay between reports…we’ve been busy with our young son, and our new fly shop www.flyshop1864.com.au . Now, onto the fishing:

February saw the arrival of the hoppers to the rivers of the Northern Midlands, in particular the South Esk, Lake, lower Macquarie and Meander rivers. The large yellow hoppers were a little low on numbers on all the rivers, other than the lower Macquarie, however the small brown and orange hoppers were great trout fodder on the remainder. Our imitation of these, the Mini WMD http://flyshop1864.com.au/shop/dry-flies/mini-wmd-hopper/ proved to be the best pattern. Other highlights have included black spinner falls later in the day, between 2pm and 4pm on the slower rivers.

The autumn mayfly also started last week, with dun hatches (black spinner duns, baetids and caenids) occuring on lower Brumbys Creek, Macquarie, North Esk and Meander. Our Possum Shaving Brush and Black Spinner have been the best patterns. http://flyshop1864.com.au/shop/trout-flies-tied-in-our-shop-in-tasmania/

Fish in general have been in excellent condition this year, with Brumbys Creek having the largest average size for years (2 1/2lbs). The Lower Macquarie has lots of fat and young fish presently, whilst the Lake and Meander rivers have some longer and older fish. Cormorant plagues have cleaned out a few runs of the South Esk and Meander, along with the odd lagoon in the Western Lakes, however these are only isolated occurances.

Up on the plateau and late season mayfly have been showing among the Nineteen Lagoons in the Western Lakes, as well as Woods Lake where they’ve been joined by tailing trout. A break from the heat last week also saw water temperatures drop and midge hatches start again. It shouldn’t be too long until the gum beetles and jassids make an appearance.

Looking towards the next three weeks and we’ll be stocking up on black and red spinner mayfly patterns, small mayfly emergers, and the odd ant pattern in readiness for the autumn mayflies and ants. In the meantime we’ll be focussing on the consistent and exciting hopper fishing to be found on most days; the only conditions to be wary of are those with south-easterly winds, which somewhat slow the hatches. Finding sheltered nooks and crannies on the streams are the keys to success during these periods.

Thanks, Daniel Hackett.

A rapidly rising Great Lake is littered with dead worms, which will provide awesome sight fishing opportunities along the edges as soon as we get a couple of consecutive warm days. Lake Augusta is also producing excellent sight-fishing in high water conditions, however the gate out West is still shut. Lake Huntsman is the pick for tailing trout, early and late, with the chance of good midge-hatches during the day.

The St Patricks is running consistently high, but very clear, likewise the upper North Esk which stays clear until near its confluence with Burns Creek. The Meander is high and murky, but the South Esk is reaching fishable levels and clearing. The Upper Macquarie is primed for the upcoming mayfly hatches, at a nice and high level and reasonably clear for this time of year. Great news is that Brumbys is up and flowing again, and look for good beetle falls over the next month.

That’s all for now, but look out for this season’s first newsletter next week.  Until then, you can check out our new flyshop at www.flyshop1864.com.au for some great Orvis gear, along with products from Recycled Waders, Loon, Dr. Slick and Rio flylines. We have some great value fly tying materials being added for the site next week.

Thanks

Daniel, Simone, and our new edition, young Sidney James!

Also set to show will be Soulfish 2 (check out the trailer below), Fly Nation (Steelheading the Skeena River) and the slightly crazy Jazz and Fly Fishing. Tickets are available here

NEWS JUST TO HAND – Co-inciding with the Fly Fishing Film Festival coming to town, rumour has it that a new fly shop will open it’s doors in Launceston on the 24th. We’ll be there for beers and fly tying prior to the film evening, and plan to make an afternoon of it. We’ll post the location and details as they come to hand…

HATCH – Fly Fishing DVD Trailer from Gin Clear Media on Vimeo.

Trout Waters Tasmania

It’s here! The updated version of Greg French’s Tasmanian Trout Waters (2002) is due for expected release in July 2011. It’s been nearly a decade since TTW was published, and the book has since became known as ‘the bible’ for anyone wishing to know where and when to fish in Tasmania.

The comprehensively re-worked 2011 edition, titled Trout Waters of Tasmania, has evolved even further to include more waters, and features an even greater coverage of the great Tasmanian river fisheries. We’ve been proud to help Greg out with new features, including comprehensive river level references for the northern rivers, and awesome maps of the Meander, Mersey, Macquarie, St Patricks and Brumbys Creek.  The Brumbys Creek Top Weir map is priceless, clearly displaying the best fishing areas, which are the floodplains that inundate during periods of high flow.

The lake maps have been re-worked also, and now show the shorelines at full supply levels, average levels, and low levels. These maps alone make the new Trout Waters of Tasmania an invaluable purchase.

Available now for purchase from FlyShop 1864, our sister business and fly shop.

Here’s a mini-report for the last week of the season:

Lots of flooding in northern Tasmania has meant the best fishing has been on the small rivers and streams. The St Patricks and Meander have proved the pick, with 25% of trout to dry flies (Fastwater Duns) , and the rest to nymphs (Pheasant and Peacock, Black and Peacock, and Ostrich Herl nymphs). Late afternoon, from 2-4pm has seen the best fishing, and the chance of small-scale baetid mayfly hatches. The South Esk should be at a great level for fishing by this weekend, whilst the lower Macquarie and Brumbys Creek are best left till next season.

Fly Fishing during May: The best of the rainbow fishing will be on the rivers, including the Weld (southern Tasmania), Leven (rainbow sections) and upper Mersey.

Out in the Western Lakes the tailers are well and truly back in action, along with dry fly fishing on the still days. Gum Beetles and Jassids are out on the lower altitude lakes.

The key for this time of year, whether on the rivers or lakes, is to fish the calm weather patterns: frontal systems affect the fishing quite severely.