Fly fishing Tasmania – season 2026/2027 opening report

It has been great to see the feeders creeks off to a great start (small browns on the dries). Some of the classic Tasmanian lakes are also back from some tough years: Little Pine Lagoon has produced some great early morning fish, while the 19 Lagoons is producing some of the fattest wild browns in Australia (our hint: target the sand and silt bottomed water during spring frog season). Yet again these great starts are due to the good winter rainfall in Tasmania, combined with lower fish competition after the past couple of lean years with high predation and low summer water levels.

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New season, post drought and cormorants. What have we learnt?

Tthe fly fishing in Tasmania is getting more consistent on stable weather days, and we are starting to have consistent and large hatches. Atleast two rivers are featuring hatches with mixed species of mayfly, combining with caddis and early damselflies which has been brilliant

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Upstream presentation or across-stream presentation? Lessons from Pennsylvania

So I’m currently in Pennsylvania, USA (on a Fulbright Scholarship), surrounded by a heap of famous streams. Most of them start as limestone springs, and flow over shingle beds along the tight forested valleys of the Apalachian Mountains. Local streams include Spring Creek (next to our house, and the location of America’s first catch and…

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Summer fly fishing Tasmania report

Summer has been great on the rivers, with excellent flows and warm temperatures. We’ve experienced our first hopper falls of the season, more than a month earlier than normal, and currently have damsels, hoppers and mayflies on the menu. Best flies have been the 1864 Blue Damsel, and size 14 Scruffies. Cormorants have been hitting…

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