A wild rainbow on The Earthworm fly.
The Tasmanian season is well into a third week, and the fishing has been great. Well-timed rains on opening day produced brilliant flood-fishing on some of the smaller lakes, with RiverFly customers managing two days’ with double-digit catches. Even cooler is that many of these fish took the dry, including the 1864 Fastwater Dun. Among other lakes Bronte, Four Springs, Penstock, Woods and Lake Leake have all been fishing well, with Fuzzle Buggers, 1864 Earthworm, stick caddis and Fur Flies doing well. Over in the north-west, Talbots Lagoon has also been popular, but the usual late run of spawning fish has only just finished. A few more weeks till this water really fires.
The streams have also had a good start, and the headwaters of the Esk have been producing clear water and dry fly action, while the top of the Meander, Liffey and St Pats have produced good nymphing. Lower down and the Mersey is patchy on nymphs, the Meander above Deloraine is going well despite high water, and whitebait is starting to show at the mouth of quite a few estuaries. Fly of the week has been our blue nymph, affectionally nicknamed the ‘Silver Bullet’.
Over the coming fortnight expect frogs to show up at Four Springs and Talbots, galaxia feeders on the rocks at Tooms and in the highlands, and some serious pre-hatch nymph action on the streams.
Tip: Target smaller lakes immediately after the next heavy rain. With the ground already saturated, earthworms will begin to wash down gutters and drains, mixing with frogs to create some great edgewater action.
Frog time is almost here! Pic by Peter Broomhall.