During the trout off-season I tend to spend a bit of time chasing bream, to continue getting a fishing fix, and spend time tying flies and dreaming about the trout season to come. It’s a time to spend doing tackle maintenance, stocking up on lures and dreaming up new challenges and goals for the trout season ahead. When the new season comes around I usually spend the first few months targeting sea runners. Sea run trout are simply brown trout that spend much of there lives out to sea and come in to the estuaries for spawning and to feed on whitebait and the other small endemic fishes that spawn in late winter through spring. Mixed in with the silvery sea runners you can also expect to catch resident fish that have the typical dark colours of a normal brown trout as well as atlantic salmon in some of our estuaries that are located near salmon farm pens. Living in Hobart it is quick and easy to do a trip on the Huon or Derwent and is a more comfortable proposition compared to a trip up to the highlands with snow and freezing winds to contend with.
Read more ...Please check all relevant authorities before fishing - www.ifs.tas.gov.au and dpipwe.tas.gov.au . Don't forget issuu.com/stevenspublishing for years of back issues !
After a long break from trout fishing for some of us and all the recent disruption to our lives, one Tasmanian tradition continued this weekend with the opening of the 2020-21 brown trout fishing season.
Anglers were out in force around the state making the most of idyllic winter weather to head back to their favourite fishing spots or trying somewhere new.
With the assistance of Tasmania Police, MaST and Parks and Wildlife our Officers were on patrol, and inspected approximately 736 anglers and 113 boats. Compliance with Inland Fisheries and Marine and Safety Legislation was very pleasing. There were two infringements were issued for fisheries offences, whilst four were issued for boating safety offences.
The new trout season begins tomorrow. To support angling opportunities in regional areas we have stocked 100 Atlantic salmon into Lake Kara.
At an average weight of over 1.5kg, they will test the skills of any angler. Remember the bag limit in Lake Kara is 5 fish total, of which only 2 may measure longer than 500mm. Thanks to Tassal for kindly donating the fish.
For those that are yet to purchase their licence, please visit www.ifs.tas.gov.au Doing so might also allow you to win $10,000 if you catch one of the 5 tagged fish released into different waters around the state. For more information on the Tasmanian Tagged Trout Promotion. You’ve got to be in it to win it!
Source: https://www.ifs.tas.gov.au/news/2020/jul/31/atlantic-salmon-released-lake-kara-start-season
Atlantic salmon release into Lake Kara for start of the season will provide some action for local anglers. |
This week we have been busy stocking 4 500 rainbow trout into Bradys Lake.
They averaged 355 grams and have been specially grown by the Huon Aquaculture Group at their Millybrook hatchery.
These fantastic rainbow trout are sure to provide fun in the coming months for anglers using all methods.
Remember a bag limit of five fish applies, with a minimum length of 300 mm and only two fish over 500 mm.
Earlier this winter we transferred 1 044 wild adult brown trout up to 1 kg from the Liawenee Canal, yingina / Great Lake.
We suggest you get out there, have a great time and wish you the best of luck for the season opening on Saturday 1 August.
Here is the Bradys Lake, Lake Binney and Tungatinah Lagoon brochure with map to help you.
Source: https://www.ifs.tas.gov.au/news/2020/jul/29/bradys-chain-lakes-good-place-start
Please find attached Adrian Webb's report for the year.
This report covers two consecutive days fishing tannin waters after some decent rains that got the streams up and running to a good fishing height again.
Some excellent catches are being reported around the state, just in time for the school holidays. It's great to see fishers out and about again since restrictions were lifted.
After five days of not being able to fish due to windy and wet conditions today I headed back to the same little tannin stream in the hope the trout may be out and about seeing as the river is running a little higher than my last visit. The weather today wasn't all that bad either, plenty of cloud cover with patches of sunlight every now and then, the cool air temperature ( 9 degrees ) was also bearable for a change. It was a late morning start as well, just on 11:10 am when I finally hit the water after a nice long walk to get there. Seeing as the little well used gold #00 Aglia did the job a few days ago I stayed with it to start off the spin session. With the water level running a little higher and faster I did think about going for the larger #0 gold Black fury but decided to wait and see how the little gold Aglia performed first.
With most of the larger rivers running high & fast I thought it best to head over and hit the small streams again as they're much safer to fish, even though there's plenty of water in them they are still okay to hop into and chase trout.
The weather was damp with light drizzle showing up every few minutes and a very cool air temperature of just eight degrees. I arrived at the area I was about to fish when a couple of young boys (7&10) who were helping their parents repairing a paddock fence wandered over for a chat and wanted to know how to catch trout.
I spent around thirty minutes giving them all the info they could take in, before heading off through the bush I gave them a couple of Mepps booklets plus several Mepps spinners to get them started. It was 2:40 pm by the time I hit the water and started flicking a #0 Aglia Fluo rainbow spinner into the cold dark tannin water.
A campaign to accelerate the recreational fishing community involvement in fish habitat restoration was launched today by OzFish Unlimited.
Through a series of powerful images, the online campaign flips the cliched bragging right photo of an angler and their catch with the waterways in focus instead of the fish.
Click here for more information.
Source: https://www.ifs.tas.gov.au/news/2020/jun/17/focus-waterway-health
Community involvement river restoration work
With fine weather this morning with rain forecast for later this afternoon I thought I would get a spin session in before the rain arrived. This trip was to the upper Mersey River, an area on private property and one I haven't fished for a couple of months. The reason I haven't fished here all that often this trout season is because it's a rough & tough area to get into, plus the river itself has to be one of the toughest stretches of water to fish. The rocky river bottom is always covered in a brown slime and so slippery under foot at times it's near impossible to stay upright, not only that the rocks roll underfoot. Another problem here is the water weed growth that has spread along the river making spin fishing near in possible in most stretches of water. Another reason I headed here was that I wanted to give the tannin waters a rest as well as a change of scenery, another reason for heading to the upper Mersey. It was close to 9:20 am when I arrived & parked the car on a narrow bush track on private property, then after a lot bush bashing followed by a long walk I was at the river by around 10:00am. The river was running a little higher than I had expected and still at a safe wading depth, the water was a light tannin colour, the river bottom was it's normal poor condition as I stated earlier.
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Here is a list of all of the Article Categories. The number in Brackets, eg (13) is the number of articles. Click on Derwent River and all articles relating to the Derwent will be displayed in the central area.
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Presented from Issue 100
Considering the world class quality of our sea trout fishery, these fish are not sought after by enough anglers. Sea runners live in the salt water and run up our estuaries and rivers from the start of August to the middle of November. At this time of the year, they are here to eat the many species of fish that are either running up the rivers to spawn or are living in and around the estuary systems. Trout, both sea run and resident (Slob Trout) feed heavily on these small fish which darken in colouration as they move further into fresh water reaches.
The majority of these predatory fish are brown trout with rainbows making up a very small percentage of the catch. They can be found all around the state but it would be fair to say that the east coast is the least prolific of all the areas. They still run up such rivers as the Georges (and many others) but their numbers along with the quality of the fishing elsewhere make it difficult to recommend the area above the larger northern, southern and western rivers.
Read more ...