From the Archives ...

Fishing on the Wild Side

Fishing on the Wild Side

Mike Fry doesn’t only live on the Wild Side of Tasmania, but also goes fishing in probably the wildest boat ever to troll for trout—certainly in Tasmania. 
When your mate says ‘What are you doing tomorrow, want to come up the Gordon for the night?’ it would be pretty hard to say anything else except “you bet” and start checking out your tackle box and packing your overnight bag. But if your mate was Troy Grining and he wanted to give his new 52ft, high speed cruiser a run across Macquarie Harbour, test the new onboard dory with a chance of landing a nice Gordon River Brown you would have to feel privileged. I didn’t say anything about getting on my hands and knees and kissing his feet…just having a lend of ya’ but I did feel very appreciative.

Read more ...

Coming to the 2019 World Fly Fishing Championships?

Why not send Mike a small donation for this incredible resource !
Contact Mike via this link for a paypal donation.
Or subscribe to his email newsletter.

Name:
Email:
We respect your email privacy
Keep in touch with our latest news
You can unsubscribe at any time.

arthur
Mike Fishburn and William Overton
with a well fought catch at
Cowpaddock Bay

Arthurs Lake is continuing to improve this season. Over the Christmas/New Year period lots of trout were caught. Spinning with lures and fly fishing were most successful.

Trolling cobra lures deep in bright conditions and shallow in dull conditions has been productive.

One angler using soft plastics had caught five well-conditioned fish from the Lilypads at the top end of Jonah Bay. There have been duns aplenty in Cowpaddock Bay also, with anglers using emerger style flies doing particularly well.

The $10,000 tagged fish that was released into Arthurs Lake is still there to be caught. If you are wondering where to go for a fish next, seriously consider having a look at Arthurs Lake!

Source: Arthurs Lake continuing to improve (ifs.tas.gov.au)

Category: Arthurs Lake
Hits: 1517

113 arthurs high waterPresented from Issue 113, December 2014
Many lure fishers started their fishing at Arthurs and consider it one of the most reliable fisheries in Tasmania. Professional lure maker Justin Causby gives his tips.

Trolling on Arthurs can be broken down into three areas. Open water, structure and the Morass. I’m personally not one for trolling open water very often. The fish are out there, and they show in very good numbers in early mornings as they feed on midges from the evening and night before. But once the sun hits the water or the fog clears they go down, usually deep. You see very little sign of them on sounders despite seeing many scores of tell-tale rises all over the calm water at dawn.

Category: Arthurs Lake
Hits: 5510

113 arthurs joTasmania’s best all round trout fishery

Presented from Issue 113, December 2014
The season seemed to start a bit slowly on Arthurs Lake. The reports from the camp ground at Jonah Bay was that very few fish were caught on the opening weekend. The quiet word from inland fisheries was that there had been a good run of big fish, in the 4lb to 6lb in the first run of trout into Tumbledown Creek. None of these fish were in the 20,000 trout transferred to other waters; they finished their mating and returned to the lake to begin to put on condition for the coming season.

Since the quiet start, the action has steadily improved; the continued high water levels have dropped somewhat but at the time of writing Arthurs is 1.1 metres from full and steady. The slightly lower level has sent trout out from the submerged kerosene bush into the weedy shallows, making them more accessible. Fish are easily seen chasing frogs in the shallows at low light and the caddis are thickening up and being regularly nipped off the surface. Mayflies are now hatching in good numbers.

Category: Arthurs Lake
Hits: 4291

111 arthurs troutPresented from Issue 111, August 2014
The beginning of the new trout season is finally here in Tassie! While temperatures are still very cold around the state, many anglers may choose to wait until the weather improves. For those keen anglers, such as myself, who remain undeterred by such weather conditions, the search for that first trout of the season begins.

The Central Highland lakes are always productive early in the season and one of my favourites is Arthurs Lake. This season, I plan to explore more places on this lake using my Hobie fishing kayak. It really is the perfect craft to get into areas where boats can’t. I have also learnt that such ‘hard to reach’ places often hold the best fish.

Category: Arthurs Lake
Hits: 4965

108 arthursPresented from Issue 108, February 2014
All Arthurs fish are small this year. Myth Busted. I recently spent a day with a friend on a water that some people have deserted because they believe all the fish are small. They are wrong.

Category: Arthurs Lake
Hits: 6333

Presented from Issue 107, December 2013
Arthurs Lake has always been one of the key fisheries for Tasmanian brown trout. In recent years though Arthurs has faded somewhat from the trout fisherman’s perspective with the lake being challenged by big draw-downs on the water level. The draw-downs drained many shallow bays including Cowpaddock and most of Jonah Bay, killing long established weed beds and resulting in the prolific mayfly hatch being interrupted. With the aquatic food supply from these bays no longer available this meant that the lake could not support a large head of good size trout.

In 2008 Arthurs fell to one of its lowest levels since damming, 5.72 meters below the full level of 952.82 meters above sea level. Dead fish were located in pools isolated by the draw-down and threatened galaxias were transferred to other waters by the Inland Fisheries Service to create safety populations.

Category: Arthurs Lake
Hits: 5648

Arthurs Lake Report 12/1/2014

Hi all had a trip to Arthurs with Derek Poole on Friday after he finished work at 1 pm. We arrived at Jonah Bay about 2pm and up to the cowpaddock by 2.30 pm. We started drifting but there wasn't a lot going on. After about half way through the drift i caught one and boated it. 
Category: Arthurs Lake
Hits: 6230

Morass Bay - Arthurs Lake

Before and after shots of the boat launching area at Morass Bay. No parking signs have been installed on the approach to keep the area clear for turning and launching (Stephen and Adam please use obstruction infringement/caution if required). Parking is available on Nielsen Crescent approx 50m walk from the ramp until the lake level drops. No Parking signs will be removed when there is enough space for parking at the ramp.

Category: Arthurs Lake
Hits: 8715

Arthurs Lake 24/2/2013

On reading the super forecast of humid, rainy and winds 10-15 knots easing back I headed to Arthurs confident of finding a good dun hatch. How wrong was I . Wind never got under 15 knots and I'm sure got up to 25 knots meaning any hatching  duns got swept up and spirited km away! I fished 4 hours and only saw 2 duns. It was a matter of getting in the lee and seeing what i could conjure up.. the trusty bead head under the dry did no good so loch style it was and within minutes of changing I hooked and subsequently lost two smallish fish.

Category: Arthurs Lake
Hits: 5831

Arthurs Lake 14/1/2013

My Nephew Jedd and I just returned from our Annual trip to Arthurs lake but sadly our trip was cut short to just over 3 days as my mum was very ill and we needed to rush home. The three days we did have were very good weather-wise with warm weather and a fair amount of sunshine.

 

Category: Arthurs Lake
Hits: 6545

Current TFBN

cover 2021 11

Click above for current issue content. The current issue of TFBN is extensive and topical. In Tackle Stores, Newsagents and by subscription.
Delivered to your door for $48 for 2 years (8 issues). To subscribe, send Mike $48 via www.paypal.com.au . (Basic instructions are here) The email is at Contact Us. Your address will be included from PayPal.
Or phone Mike with your c/c handy on 0418129949
Please ensure your details are correct, for Mike to organise delivery.

TFBN Newsletter Sign up Form

Name:
Email:
We respect your email privacy
Keep in touch with our latest news
You can unsubscribe at any time.

Why not submit an article ?

When you have finished for the day, why not have a brag about the ones that didn't get away! Send Mike an article on your fishing (Click here for contact details), and we'll get it published here. Have fun fishing - tasfish.com

Category Descriptions

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. 

Articles by Category

Get a Drogue

Catch more fish - use a Tasmanian Made Drogue

Jim Allen drogue Woods Lake

Current River Heights for the Northern Rivers

Current River Heights Northern Tasmania

windyty.com

Visit https://www.windyty.com/

Rubicon Web and Technology Training

Hello everyone, I thought it would be a good time to introduce myself.
My name is Stephen Smith and I have been managing the website tasfish.com since May 2009.
It has been an epic journey of learning and discovery and I am indebted to Mike Stevens for his help, support and patience.
I am developing a new venture Rubicon Web and Technology Training ( www.rwtt.com.au ). The focus is two part, to develop websites for individuals and small business and to train people to effectively use technology in their everyday lives.

Please contact me via www.rwtt.com.au/contact-me/ for further information - Stephen Smith.

From the Archives ... (last chance)

Sea run trout tactics – Craig Vertigan

Sea run trout tactics – Craig Vertigan

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 ...
Go to top
JSN Boot template designed by JoomlaShine.com