Tassie January 2011
by Dave Egan
Once again my annual trip to Tassie proved to be a fantastic fly fishing learning experience and heaps of fun despite tough weather conditions and some even tougher fish. For those lucky enough to live in Tassie you can pick your days to fish but for us poor deprived Mainlanders we have to take what we get and it isn’t always good what the weather gods dish out. I have fished the central plateau for the last 30 years so I know not to expect great weather on all days every trip. At times the poor weather improves the fishing such as dull, overcast and cool Dun type days.
Arthurs was the first stop from the 3-7th of January and we got a mix of sun wind, rain and high humidity. Finding fish proved tough and most fish were caught in the very early mornings when the wind was down or in the late evening rise. Although the Lake is full and the weed beds returning we only got a tiny amount of Dun hatches in the middle of overcast days.
As always the locals treated us very well with encouragement and advice and I can’t thank Jim and Veronica enough for their kind support and help. As always the locals and there friendly advice were one of the highlights of our trip.
Jim introduced us to Todd Lambert and his boy and he was amazingly generous with his helpful advice. He shared his knowledge with us and put us on to a little secret lake which proved to be as good as he said. The only problem was the secret lake wasn’t quite as secret as we thought and on our second trip to it reminded me of Burke Street in Melbourne. Still we caught fish and had fun.
Our second week when the weather got really wet and windy we took Todd’s advice and went to Lake Leake. Although the weather got worst we took advantage of the Elizabeth River and were amazed at the size and vigour of the river fish compared to the ones we caught at home. The Lake is very beautiful and even in a strong wind good fish could feed on Perch fry. The best fish we got (about 2.3/4 pounds) has a Rainbow about 3 inches long in its guts. I can’t wait to get back and see Lake Leake on a good day.
The camping ground is simple but comfortable and the newly opened pub was fantastic, cold beer ,great food, warm friendly people that made us feel like part of the family .There is a fishing comp on towards the end of the month on the lake and I wish I could be there for it.
Thanks for letting us join your fantastic club and I look forward to catching up via the web and cant wait till the next opportunity to get down to see your wonderful lakes again.
Tight lines. Dave Egan Vice President of the La Trobe Valley Fly fishing Club and now a new member of the Presidents club.
