Question: Ever wondered how many springs make up a small stream? At my last exploration, the South Georges River starts with 14 rainforest-born springs splurging out of the hillside, eventually collecting into one lovely sandy stream.
Lets face it, everyone loves a spring creek. The gin-clear waters, lower temperature variations and abundant hatches create dry fly fishing hotspots, but it is because of these reasons that their locations are often closely guarded secrets.
To the east of Launceston sits the North Eastern Highlands, a collective of peaks and high plains. It is these high plains such as the Diddleum, along with the granite filled bogs and soaks that interest fly fishers, for it is in this country that the first type of Tasmanian spring creek is found. That’s it, thats the clue: find the granite, and you’ll find the springs.
These creeks are often feeders to larger rivers such as the St Patricks, North Esk, South Esk and Georges rivers, and feature narrow, shallow and gravelly bottoms consisting of granite sands. This sandy bottom is awesome to polaroid, but the trout are flighty-they know they stick out. The best tactic is to get down in the long bankside grasses, eye-ball to eye-ball with the tiger snakes and stealth along hunting shadows and shapes.
A box of dry flies and a first aid kit is all you’ll need.