Western Lakes gate to open today!

Fresh news from the IFS website, the gate to the Nineteen Lagoons is due to open today! Lookout out tailing trout, here we come...

Fly Tying in stock now

Our first fly tying shipment has arrived! Over the next few days we'll work behind the scenes at adding these to the online shop, which should be loaded and live by mid-next week. Highlights include Hare's Masks from $7.95, Bucktail from $9.95, tungsten bead 20 packs from $9.95 and Metz #2 capes for $89.95. Also in stock, we have some great lever-action vices for $79.95, capable of holding hooks from #1/0 to #20. Selected Loon and Dr Slick products are...

Fly fishing Tasmania September mini-report

Here's the latest news from around the state: 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...

We’re open & live Online!

We've just added our first couple of shipments to the online store. We're the first ever Orvis dealer in Tasmania, and only the second in Australia, so look out for plenty of their cool gear and equipment. This includes the Orvis Helios fly rod, the world's lightest, and the most awarded fly rod in history. We'd also like to highlight a new product for Australia, Recyceld Waders. RW manufacture (by hand, in the USA) great chestpacks, bum bags and other packs....

Trout Waters of Tasmania – Available Now

Arthurs Lake - Trout Waters of Tasmania

The new Trout Waters of Tasmania by Greg French has arrived, and is available now for purchase. Major changes include excellent new maps showing lake levels and best fishing areas, river maps, and optimum river levels for fishing. Also included are dozens of newly listed waters, and new full colour photos. Trout Waters of Tasmania weighs in at a hefty 1.4kg, and 368 pages of knowledge.

Trout Waters of Tasmania by Greg French

After more than eight years, Greg French has revised his bible of Tasmanian trout fishing waters. Inclduing full lists of optimum river levels, lake levels, access maps, fishing maps, and of course an A-Z listing of every Tasmanian Trout Water, this is a must have guidebook. Available now from FlyShop 1864, for delivery from the first week of August.

Tasmanian Trout Waters by Greg French

Fly Fishing Film Festival – Launceston 24 August

The Gin-Clear Fly Fishing Film Festival is set to return to Launceston on the 24th of August. Feature films will include Nick Reygeart's (of The Source DVD's) HATCH film, narrated by Tasmanian fly fishing legend, Greg French. Ecpect global fly fishing hatches, from Eastern Europe, New Zealand and England to name a few. 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....

HATCH DVD – Available Now

News in from our mate Nick Reygaert at Gin Clear (creators of The Source dvd's) is that his newest series of dvd's, titled HATCH, are just about to come off the press, and be featured at the RISE Film Festival. Greg French, one of Australia's favourite authors is narrating the films, which documents the most amazing hatches in the world. Featured locations include the fabled English chalkstreams, the impossibly blue waters of Slovenia's marble trout rivers, and Tasmania's own Western...

Trout Waters of Tasmania by Greg French

 

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...

Fly Fishing Tasmania – last week of the brown trout season

  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...

Fly fishing Tasmania – March mini-report

March 2, 2011 mini-report: Autumn is here, and so are the autumn mayflies. Black spinner and beatids are beginning to show on the Lower Macquarie, Brumbys, South and North Esk, and St Patricks Rivers. Our Pheasant Tail Black Spinner has been the best pattern, though the Shaving Brush has also been reliable. Hoppers are around in sporadic numbers (typically on the warmer days), with action on the Lower Macquarie and South Esk - as per usual, the WMD Hopper has been...

Fly Fishing Tasmania – mini report

Mini-report: Lower Macquarie and Brumbys Creek are fishing well, with high and clear water during the weekdays in particular. The fish are in superb condition, averaging a shade over 2lbs, all on dry flies (raft fishing these waters should be on every angler's 'bucket list'). The two Esks are also fishing well, with high flows from recent rains. The St Pats and smaller creeks have colder than normal water-temps, however dries and nymphs are effective. The Meander is still dirty from a land-slip...

Symmons Plains for sale – 4km South Esk frontage

Anyone interested in their own Georgian fishing lodge? The iconic Symmons Plains estate is for sale, along with 4km of South Esk River frontage. It was on this property that trout were first introduced to the South Esk in Tasmania, and where they continue to thrive today. http://www.harcourts.com.au/Property/View/TRT0095/Perth-15046-Midland-Highway

Fly Fishing Tasmania report January 2011

      A Sunburnt Country With the large-scale floods across Australia at the moment, it’s an appropriate time to remember Dorothea Mackellar’s iconic Australian poem, My Country. Here’s an excerpt that fits in well with the last decade of drought and floods in Australia:  ‘I Love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, Of droughts and flooding rains.’  Like most of Australia, Tasmania has received record rainfall. The floods of last week took out...

Meander River Angler Access map

With the co-operation of local landowners, the Meander Council, and local resource management groups, the Inland Fisheries Service has been beevoring away to open new angler access points on the Meander River. The Meander is one of the best lowland mayfly rivers from Deloraine to Hadspen, whilst it represents one of our best fastwater streams from Deloraine to Huntsman. To help anglers wanting to access this great resource we've created a free Google Fly Fishing Map which can be viewed here. The map shows...