Arthurs Lake Report 7/1/2011

After an invite from fellow Presidents Jim & Virginia Mckenna, my son (Jacob) and I headed up to Arthurs Lake on Thursday evening to spend a night by the waters edge at Jonah Bay, fishing “definitely” not the main priority.

We went more so with the view of sitting back with a “few coldies,” having a bit of a relax in a deck chair and spending a bit of quality time with my boy and a couple of close friends.


We didn't have a fish Thursday night, instead we sat around having a chat with some campers “next door” by the name of Dave Egan and his mate Jamie Shea.

Dave runs a fly fishing class in Victoria and each year around this time, he brings one lucky student over to Tassie with him for a week or two, to experience what we have to offer in this department.

As the tales got longer into the evening, it was decided we would have an impromptu Tasmania versus Victoria fly-fishing competition the following day, with the first prize being bragging rights.

As there was a lot at stake, Jim and I got out of bed at 5am, only to look at each other and go back to bed until around 8.30, it was then we had a leisurely breakfast before heading out...I think Dave and James did the same.

Anyway, we fished all the usual haunts around Jonah Bay until around 11.30 am for not even a touch or even a rise seen, so it was back to camp for lunch to regroup, it was here we found my son beating Virginia at 500 (cards) much to Virginia’s (tongue in cheek) disgust.

What to do now we thought?, these bloody Vic’s will flog us, they had even jumped in their car and headed off to another water such was their determination to give us a belting!!

We needn't have worried, as whilst we were sitting there wondering what to do, all of a sudden fly fishing boats started to role into the boat ramp.

Not one but around 15!!.

Included in the this convoy was well known angler Jim Allan, and they all headed to the one spot....

“Something's going on here we thought”,.... they know something we don't.

We followed.....................

Within minutes of catching up with this “mobile flotilla “and having a cast or two, I had three “crackers of fish” in the boat and Jim had one, our luck had changed big time, all caught on an orange bead head nymph hung under a dry.

We finished with 7 for the session, (all big fish )and all in excellent condition. We also broke on another and had a few on for a couple of seconds before they pulled free.

Whilst not a lot of duns were seen and only one fish was caught on a dry, they are starting to look up and hopefully this is the start of an exciting couple of months ahead.

For the record, most anglers were using this technique (nymph under a dry) to catch their fish and we only saw a couple of fish rise all day.

That evening we took Virginia and Jacob out and they also scored with the soft plastics..see pics below.

When our Victorian mates returned they had 4 in their creel...not a bad effort but bragging rights were ours!!

That being said, they did pull a couple more out of Duck bay that evening following a good caddis hatch.

By the way, they are now “fellow Presidents” and have promised us a report on their Tassie experience upon their return to Victoria. When we left them they were preparing to head to Lake Leake.......good luck fella’s.!!

Regards,

Todd

 


 

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