114 dawn to dusk great lake midge troutPresented from Issue 114, February 2015
There was a time when I thought Great Lake was a barren and unappealing body of water. My opinion soon changed as I discovered the existence of midge feeding trout out in the middle of this Lake back in the late 80’s after reading Robert Sloane’s classic book “The Truth About Trout”. Since then, there have been many new publications from very competent anglers who have spent a lot of time unlocking its secrets. Great Lake can produce some superb dry fly fishing during the summer months and the best way to experience this, in my opinion, is from a boat. Once you have a boat on the water it opens up so many opportunities to find feeding fish. It also gives you the freedom to cover a lot more water to find fish as the conditions change.

great lake grading 2016 05 23The low level boat launching area at Boundary Bay on Great Lake has been graded. As water levels are slowly rising it should give anglers better boating access for those that want to boat fish on Great Lake. The upgraded launching area is 300 m North East of the usual launch site.
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Easy Day On The water

Jim Schofield, Steven Hambleton and I had made an early start to the day with a dawn run on the wind lane feeders on Great Lake. As the morning progressed and the midge feeders disappeared we moved onto some boat polaroiding. There was a northeasterly wind blowing as we punched our way into chop from Swan Bay towards the southern side of Howells Neck Island. The water level of Great Lake had dropped so much that Howells Neck Island was no longer an island and was more like an extension of Elizabeth Bay. As we moved into the shallows, fish were spotted almost immediately. Big buggy Chernobyl Ants, Red Tags and stick caddis all took fish. Further along the shore the wind was blowing into the shoreline stirring up the water along its edge. A closer look saw fish appear and then disappear in amongst this band of discoloured water. The fish were also patrolling the clearer less turbulent water. A single hookup quickly turned into a double hook up, then a triple hookup as all three of us made the most of a steady run of fish as the boat continued to drift down this productive shore. Fish numbers started to drop off, as the features of the lake started to change. In an attempt to seek out similar water we crossed over to the western side of the lake into Canal Bay. With the wind and sun at our back we drifted in and along the southern shore. Conditions were perfect, with blue skies and a light wind to conceal our presence, we had fish swimming right up to within a couple of metres of the boat before they would spook. It was just one of those days when everything came together. We stayed for the evening rise in Swan Bay as usual, before finally calling it a day. We had fished from dawn to dusk and had done it all from the comfort of Jim’s mobile viewing platform. Far too civilized for me, now where are those walking boots!

Craig Rist

boundary-bay-aBoundary Bay

Had a nice little session in Boundary Bay (Great Lake) ​Wednesday evening, 7th January, fishing alongside Benny Dodd. Five Browns and two Rainbows caught on Hardbodies & Plastics.
Regards
Todd

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great-lake-2014-09-11Great Lake 11/9/2014

Aiden Hume with a 4.5 kilo brownie caught in Haddens Bay Great Lake - Thursday 11 September

 

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Great Lake 1/2/2014

We decided to head up to Great Lake today with George Papp hoping to get onto some fish out in the middle of the lake in the waves. We arrived around 11 am and finished around 5pm. Conditions were good, with a northerly wind around 10 to 15 knots and a clear sky, but did not see a fish. It must have spent a couple of hours out there, so we decided to head into Canal Bay for a look.

Great Lake 1/2/2014

We decided to head up to Great Lake today with George Papp hoping to get onto some fish out in the middle of the lake in the waves. We arrived around 11 am and finished around 5pm. Conditions were good, with a northerly wind around 10 to 15 knots and a clear sky, but did not see a fish. It must have spent a couple of hours out there, so we decided to head into Canal Bay for a look.

Great Lake 1/12/2013

Hi all - I had the long weekend off so decided to go fishing instead of the Devonport show. Arrived at the Great Lake around 3pm hit the water which I must say was not pleasant by 5pm in the Little lake. Got 3 nice Brownies of good condition by 8pm.
Saturday morning things were much more pleasant and got 5 nice Brownies by 9.30, then with a change in the weather coming later in the afternoon decided to hit the water early to be ready at 4.30 and headed to Reynolds neck.

Great Lake Report 3/11/2013

Well with all the strong wind, bad weather, and work commitments until this weekend I hadn't been able to wet a line for the season.
But I've kicked it off with a bang. Having a few days off on holidays this week and had a look at Willy Weather on the net decided to give it a bash and go to the Great Lake. Arriving at lunch time on Thursday started fishing at 4pm, by 8;30 had 4 nice Brownies in the boat about 1lbs, 1 Rainbow 1 1/2 lbs, and a 2 1/2 lbs Rainbow, released 2 smaller Brownies, and lost another 2 at the boat.

Great Lake Report 2/11/2013

Had a trip up to Great Lake today with a mate from Hobart, Graeme Cox. I met Coxy at Great Lake Lodge at around 10am and headed up the highway to a track down the lake just past Boundary Bay. We put the boat in and we headed over to Elizabeth Bay, very sunny and calm conditions, which made things a bit tough, but we managed five nice fish.

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