Demoiselle dragonfly, England

The famous chalkstreams…

Just a week ago I was fortunate to find myself fishing a Hampshire chalkstream, in England. These slow flowing rivers are regarded as the birthplace of modern fly fishing, and as luck would have it, I was there in time for the mayfly. It was truly marvellous, watching the large danica mayfly (size 10!) hatch off the carefully managed river.

I was lucky to be fishing with a friend and customer who owns a membership to a 4 mile stretch of water. Unlike Tasmania, most of the rivers are privately owned, and access is only available to syndicate members. Even if you want to, you cannot buy your way on to many stretches, it is strictly by invitation only.

As mentioned, the fishing was marvellous. We landed a dozen trout, each found rising to the natural mayflies (and there was three species hatching!). The river itself is managed by the owner, who in turn employs a river keeper to tend to the river. The river-keepers current goal? To replace the stocked trout with wild trout, which are now less common than stocked trout in England. It is an uphill battle.

Further highlights of the river included the lush bankside vegetation, carefully managed to suit the native insects and animals, and the surrounding land which was also managed to minimise impact on the river: cattle are kept away from the banks, and cropping is not permitted on the river’s floodplain. The river keeper and the management of the river is all paid for by the monies returned from the syndicate memberships. The result? The most cared-for river I have ever fished, all within an hour of the busting city of London.

In Season Fly Fishing – New online shop, and new book from Daniel Hackett

Last month, Simone and I were excited to put the finishing touches to our new online shop, In Season Fly Fishing www.inseasonflyfishing.com. Created to showcase and sell our feature products, such as our book In Season Tasmania and our hand tied flies, the webshop features secure shopping, and accepts credit card or PayPal. The website has been launched just in time for the release of a new fly tying booklet (Fly Cards, by Daniel Hackett), and limited edition print celebrating the Western Lakes fishery.

New ‘Fly Cards’ by Daniel Hackett, and ‘Western Lakes’ Limited Edition print

Both products arrive back from the printers over the next couple of weeks, each of which we are quite excited about.

Western Lakes is our limited edition print, featuring our most famous wilderness fishery. Click here to find out more about this limited edition print, which is the result of a partnership between In Season Fly Fishing, and local Tasmanian artist Clifford How. Measuring approx. 580×320mm, there are only 100 copies available. We recommend reserving a copy now, rrp $99.00

Fly Cards is our second new production, and is an innovative fly tying booklet written by myself. Featuring 20 of my favourite Australian fly patterns, with full-colour photos and tying instructions, ‘Fly Cards – A Series of Australian Fly Tying Patterns’ suits all levels of fly tyers from beginners to advanced. Visit the Fly Cards page at our webshop for more details and to order rrp $34.95

Would you like custom-tied trout flies from the RiverFly team? You can order these now from In Season Fly Fishing www.inseasonflyfishing.com .

Availabilities for September 2010 – Christmas 2010

We have started taking bookings for the up-coming season. If you would like to book a pre-Christmas trip to fish the mayfly hatches (From late September to Christmas), send us an Email now www.riverfly.com.au/contact

FlyLife Magazine – Free Online Magazine

FlyLife Magazine have just released their E-Magazine Winter Edition. The theme of this edition is ‘Tasmania’, with the magazine featuring a ‘best of’ selection of Tasmanian articles. Click here and select issue 2 to read the new edition http://www.flylife.com.au/emag/default.htm

Winter fisheries report

Winter has been good for the fisheries to date, with most fish across the state spawning a few weeks earlier than usual. This allows them to re-cuperate quicker, and should see fatter fish during the season as a result.

On the South Esk River, heavy rains around the start of June saw a good flush of water pass down the river, cleaning the riverbed of silt and leaving the river clean for next season. With the water tables re-charged from consistent light rain, I expect to see most rivers get a good flush over the next month or two.

That’s all for now, stay tuned for a pre-season opening newsletter next month. Thank you for supporting an Australian small business, and please feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends.

Thank you from the RiverFly Team – Daniel, Simone & Patrick.

Autumn mayfly rise

We are running a mayfly season guiding special for bookings of two or more days: our normal rates are $375 ea pp (for two anglers), however our multiple day bookings for between 9 April and 23rd of April are on special for $300pp, 0r $525 for a single angler (down from $620). Enquire here for availability and more details. April is one of our best months for mayfly hatches and match-the-hatch fishing.

With the season starting to wind down, Daniel and his team are starting to again fill custom fly orders. If you would like to orders some WMD’s for hopper feeders and the Western Lakes, or perhaps some classic Shaving Brush, just visit our shop icon in the top right corner and order away. Our Paypal payment sytem will process your payment, and the RiverFly team will start tying!

Macquarie River

Autumn is mayfly time on the northern Tasmanian rivers. Moody thunderheads often sit in the distance, as plagues of iron-blue beatids hatch, drifting down the river on foam lines and eddies. It is in these currents that trout hunt their prey, and within these currents that our simple dry flies fool the wild trout.

Wild Tasmanian hopper feeder

Gone Fishing…

 It’s been three months since our last fishing report, but with good reason: we’ve spent more than 50 days on the rivers since our last note, guiding through pre-Christmas red and black spinner falls, summer hopper hatches and the beginning of the autumn mayflies, and spent another 30 days out in the World Heritage Listed Western Lakes region, experiencing not only the sightfishing, but nature itself. We’ve found remnants of late 19^th century grazing operations, old forgotten horse and cart tracks, not to mention a world of detailed minutiae: cushion plants and orchids, blue and red mountain hoppers, and ancient remnant pencil pine stands. 

 There have been many surprises this season, some owed in part to the end of the drought, some to new river venues, and some to our expanding Western Lakes Campouts. One common theme throughout them all has been constant: wild Tasmanian trout. Whether it’s been the super-conditioned trout of the Meander or lower Macquarie River, the flats cruising trout of the Western Lakes, or the hidden monsters of the fast-water river gorges, the aim of our days has revolved around core values of inspiring places, visual fishing opportunities and wild trout. If we can find these three goals, we know that the enjoyment of the day will take care of itself.  

 Current fishing report

 Autumn fishing has started in northern Tasmania, with large baetid mayfly falls on the lower Macquarie and Esk rivers, and ants appearing on humid days. This has created some classic match the hatch fishing, both from the raft and wading. Grasshoppers are still around and on the menu, and are proving effective at times–again, this has particularly been the case on the lower Macquarie River and a few of our other favourite haunts. The strong baetid hatches are expected to continue through March and April, to the close of the brown trout season at the start of May. 

 Summer highlights

 Summer highlights at RiverFly have been many and varied: young Rory sightfishing and landing a 4lb trout on the Meander, Frank and his six days of sight-fishing nirvana, high flows and great rafting on the post-drought Macquarie river, and the sight-fishing experience of the Western Lakes campouts with the three amigo’s Jappy, Mark and Curtis, the team of four Septuagenarians’, and many others. January was probably the best month of the season to date, with loads of blue-sky days, and early season hopper fishing. March could be a close contender to take the title though, especially if the ants and baetids keep on coming! 

Fishing Tips

1. When casting, always plan to present the fly ahead of the trout, rather than directly at it.

2. When practicing casting, focus on efficiency: learn to (1) cast line out quickly, (2) re-adjust casting length effectively, and (3) change casting directions smoothly.

 That’s all for now. If you have any questions about fishing in Tassie, don’t hesitate to Email us. Thanks from the RiverFly team–Daniel, Simone and Patrick. 

 Stay tuned to the RiverFly Blog for weekly updates and fishing reports.

Western Lakes Fly Fishing

       

Rory and his wild Tasmanian trout

The river fish are well and truly on the hoppers, with the our WMD Hopper proving deadly. It’s been a freaky fortnight on the rivers, with more than 13 three-pound trout coming to hand, all polaroided, and all on the WMD hopper.

We’ve also been busy with Western Lakes Campouts, with the usual mix of blue sky days, and cracked up cloudy days providing both polaroiding days and mayfly days. January was an extremely dry month on the Central Plateau (19mm of rain compared to the average 120mm), so the best waters to head to have been deepwater lakes and their drop-off edges. These cruising trout have been averaging 2 1/2  to  3 1/2 pounds.

Finally, with a break from routine, here is a second pic of the day created by Mother Nature and fires on the West Coast: picture location, Western Lakes three nights ago.

Bushfire sunset, Western Lakes Tasmania

Flats style fishing for trout - Western Lakes Tasmania

The Western Lakes trout are on fire, with flats-cruising brown trout averaging between one and two pounds heavier than normal, due to the great winter and spring flooding. Main food items are early morning caddis, late evening midges, and daytime galaxia, with the average trout size ranging from 2 1/2 pounds to 6 pounds.

 Back down on the lowlands, and juvenile hoppers are starting to interest river trout on the South Esk, St Patricks and Meander rivers, and most of the creeks in between – the tiny granite-spring creeks of the north-east are fishing exceptionally.

If you would like to join Patrick and I for a Western Lakes wilderness campout, Email us now. We have a couple of spaces left on trips booked for January and April. RiverFly Tasmania is Tasmania’s only guiding operation licenced to work in the Western Lakes World Heritage Area.

Catch Magazine is an American based E-Zine (electronic magazine) showcasing some of the best fly fishing photography and film getting around. January’s edition (which is free to read) features a chapter from FlyLife Magazine www.flylife.com.au photographer and In Season Tasmania www.inseasonflyfishing.com.au co-author Brad Harris. Check out Tassie and the rest of the chapters here www.catchmagazine.net

Fly fishing for wild trout, wild places

Tasmania’s wild fisheries are on fire – caddis dominate the wilderness streams, the giant stoneflies of January are about to appear, and Western Lakes trout swim around like fat -lambs, benefitting from the huge spring rains.

Have a great Christmas, and thanks to all the anglers who’ve visited Tasmania in 2009!

A summary of the major issues are as follows:

• The Draft Plan ignores the advice of the Government’s own scientific advisors and recommends a continuation of the current minimum cease to take flows of 40ML/Day — this is more than 60% less than the recommended 100-160ML/Day environmental flows required to maintain and enhance the environmental conditions, and required to facilitate angling throughout the summer. The only reasoning that DPIPWE staff have given is that 40ML/Day is the status quo, and that irrigators would have to build their own dams for the collection and storage of high flows if their summer takes were reduced. This is a shocking justification, owing to the fact that trout population dynamics and invertebrate populations are being harmed 3 out of 5 years under the status quo, and Lake Trevallyn at the end of the South Esk in Launceston, has been closed for all water sports over the past two to three summers because of toxic algal blooms. The public needs to demand that the environmental flows recommended by the experts are adopted and enforced by the Plan, so that the environment of the river may recover, be maintained and/or enhanced. There are huge amounts of water available for irrigation, but it needs to be captured outside of summer and stored off-stream.
• Irrigators were the only stakeholders consulted in the formulation of the Draft Plan—Northern Tasmania’s Natural Resource Management body (NRM North) were relegated to observer status without input, anglers were left out in the cold (even though up to 3000 anglers fish the river per year), and other recreational users of the river and Lake Trevallyn weren’t even considered.
• The prescribed environmental flows are to be gauged at Llewellyn, along the Fingal Highway. This means that there is no environmental flow being guaranteed or monitored for the lower third of the river system, from Llewellyn through Glen Esk, Nile, Evandale, Longford, Hadspen or Launceston (into Lake Trevallyn). This is unacceptable, and environmental flows need to be guaranteed for the end of the river system.
• During Summer low flow periods, the South Esk flows emanate from one large aquifer – this aquifer is now being used to grow in excess of 15,000 hectares of new tree plantations in the headwaters, using more water than traditional standing forest or agricultural land. Under the Water Management Act 1999, evapotranspiration (water use) by trees or plantations is not considered a water use, therefore the authors of the Draft Plan have not accounted for the increased consumption of these baseflows. What the water managers can do however, is plan to manage for reduced baseflow availability, which we need to ensure is accounted for. Without this allowance for decreased baseflows, the Draft Plan is incomplete.

In a nutshell, one of Tasmania’s most popular rivers will be destroyed by the Plan in its current draft state. The Draft Plan fails to meet its own listed Environmental Objectives (2.2.1 (a), (b), (d)) and Social Objectives (2.2.3 (a), (b), (c)) (from page 9). The Draft Management Plan also fails to meet its requirement to ‘ensure that environmental water receives a greater level of security than consumptive water’ (from page 34).  I ask that any concerned anglers, recreational users or clubs view the Draft Management Plan here and have your say by making a submission to:

Contact: Water Management Planning Officer

Henry Maxwell
Water Management Planning Officer
1 Franklin Wharf HOBART TAS 7000
Phone: 03 6233 4807
Fax: 03 6224 4977
Email: Henry.Maxwell@dpipwe.tas.gov.au

For those of you worried about losing access through private (irrigated) property by speaking out against ludicrous aspects of this plan, have a think about this: if the plan goes through, the river will die a death of a thousand cuts, and there will be no river fishery left to access. The future of the river is in our hands – will you speak out, or let it die through a lack of action?  The deadline for written representations is 11 December 2009, feel free to cut and paste from my comments.

Tasmanian fly fishing - mayfly hookup

Meander River mayfly feeder

 RiverFly guide Patrick Horan with 4lbs of wild mayfly-feeding trout: today’s location scouting was certainly a success, with three other trout around 3lbs landed during an early morning caenid mayfly hatch!