Tasmanian fly fishery rated as the ‘coolest unheralded destination’

Tasmania voted as best unheralded destination

News  just in is that Phil Monahan, former editor of American Angler magazine and current contributor to Midcurrent.com, just voted Tasmania as 'the coolest destination that most anglers don't know about'. You can read the full excerpt here:   http://www.midcurrent.com/flyfishing/cool_destinations.aspx  Thanks for the vote Phil!

End of season guiding specials & the RiverFly Tasmania webshop

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...

Tasmanian fly fishing pic of the day – Macquarie River, mayfly time

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.

RiverFly Tasmania fly fishing report – Autumn 2010

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 19th century...

Wild Tasmanian Trout – Autumn fly fishing picture of the day

The current 'pic of the day': a wild brown trout from the Meander River, caught on one of our Possum Shaving Brush flies.

Meander river mayfly feeder

The autumn mayfly have started on the Meander, South and North Esk, and Macquarie rivers. Highlights have been the morning beatids on the Macquarie, and daytime spinners on the Esk and Meander rivers.  Grasshoppers are still on the menu during warmer periods, and our WMD Hopper is doing the trick,...

Fly fishing tasmania – wild trout pic of the day

Fly fishing Tasmania, wild trout of the day: RiverFly's youngest customer, Rory, releasing his 4lb catch of the day. Rory polaroided this very fat, very wild brown trout, and hooked it on his second cast! Well done.   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...

Western Lakes Fly Fishing – pic of the day

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...

Tasmania featured in Catch Magazine – read it here

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 RiverFly photographer and In Season Tasmania co-author Brad Harris. Check out Tassie and the rest of the chapters here: www.catchmagazine.net

Wild Tasmanian Trout – Fly fishing picture of the day

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!

RiverFly Tasmania fly fishing report – November 2009

    Mersey River, Tasmania River Soldiers One of my favourite fishing authors is David James Duncan. His best seller The River Why is in process of being turned into a Hollywood film, but it is his pseudo-biography My Story as Told By Water that strikes a familiar chord closer to home, in particular the chapter River Soldiers, describing his involvement in river conservation projects. Hailing from a deforested Oregon (USA), and later moving to the mining industry-driven Montana, there...

South Esk River Draft Management Plan – Have your say now

The South Esk Draft Management Plan was released a month ago, and has since taken all my spare time; the South Esk River is  Tasmania's greatest river fishery, yet it is set to be destroyed under the Draft Management Plan which closes for public comment early December. 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...

Wild Tasmanian trout – fly fishing pic of the day

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!

Tasmanian Irrigation Developments – update

Cracks are appearing in the Government's proposed irrigation projects: not only do recreational users and the environment suffer from the proposals, but doubts are now being cast from deep within the inner sanctum of the Premier's own government. In May 09, the Treasury Department were the focus of a media leak, detailing the department's own hesitations about these 'economically unsustainable' projects: an opinion piece from the Mercury Newpaper had all the details. And now, on the ABC's Stateline program, the chief architect of the Food...

Wild Tasmanian trout picture of the day – Mayfly hook-up

Tasmanian fly fishing - mayfly hookup

Ronald from Belgium, setting the hook on another Tasmanian mayfly feeder. Spring has sprung, the mayfly are on, and the fisheries are firing. My picks for spring are the South Esk, St Patricks and Upper Macquarie rivers, but the Meander is also producing some great fishing, along with the Mersey and Brumbys Creek.

New Tasmanian fly fishing dvd – ‘The Window’

Trolling the net today, I found this new fly fishing teaser from Bombproof Media: The Window - Chasing Australia's Southernmost Trout. Without knowing a lot about the theme or quality of the project, the DVD looks set to revolve around the sea-trout of New River Lagoon, South West Tasmania. For those who don't know, the run of sea-trout in New River Lagoon was made famous by a Greg French/FlyLife article almost a decade ago, but the 14-hour hike to get there has kept this...