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Trout Everywhere – Craig Rist

In Tasmania, trout have found their way into just about every trickle of water around the state. Many of these are very small tributaries of larger more popular rivers. The majority of the fish in these smaller streams are by no means monsters, with the average fish being somewhere between half a pound and a pound. Small brown trout dominate most of these small streams with the exception of a few rainbow only waters that are isolated from the dominant brown trout population.?The upper Mersey River between Lake Meston and Junction Lake is a classic example of this with its huge impassable waterfalls preventing any further migration of brown trout up stream.

: Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training; Category: Trout Fishing; Published: 29 January 2016; Hits: 3313

Trout Fishing

Polaroiding Central Highlands

The highlight of any season usually revolves around the best days sight fishing. Memories of the hunt, approach, cast and hook set will remain in your mind long after those of another ‘flogged up’ have gone. The main prerequisite for this style of fishing are sunshine and cloudless days – two things that should become more plentiful from now until the end of the season. Good polaroiding water is not hard to find but some places are easier than others in which to find fish while others are simply better.

: Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training; Category: Trout Fishing; Published: 29 January 2016; Hits: 4655

Trout Fishing

Saltwater shore bashing

The Christmas season is now upon us, many anglers will begin to pursue popular inshore species such as East Australian Salmon, Silver Trevally, Black Bream and Sand Flathead. Fishing from the shore has been one of my favourite methods of targeting specific species of fish for some time now and the very thought of discovering a new location is enough for me leave the boat at home. With Georges Bay and some North West hot spots being my favourite places to fish, many other destinations have either been discovered or successfully fished. Typical locations such as Red Rock on the North West coast has been producing many different species for a while now with the captures of good sized Silver Trevally, Gummy Sharks, Elephant Fish and Southern Garfish becoming more common. Some people worry and stress about not being able to access a kayak or boat in order to venture out onto the water but in reality, most anglers will have at least two great fishing spots that they can easily access from the shore.
When I began fishing from Red Rock on the North West coast with my good mate Jeremy Shaw, the possibility of encountering a Draughtboard Shark or Eagle Ray was enough to keep us coming back each weekend. Many days were spent fishing at Red Rock with colossal amounts of burley and junk food. Back then, captures of small East Australian Salmon and Sand Flathead were cherished and we never thought of leaving the rock for any reason other than the occasional trip out in the boat for a Mako Shark. During at least five years of fishing from Red Rock, we caught numerous and memorable fish including that of a rather large Seven Gilled Shark. It wasn’t until I began to seriously fish around the plentiful beaches and jetties of Georges Bay that I realized that fishing was the thing for me. Like the many hobbies that people enjoy, I got better at the sport and eventually became unstoppable. I believe that every angler needs to start off somewhere, land based fishing is a great way to begin the life long journey.

: Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training; Category: Saltwater and Estuary Fishing; Published: 29 January 2016; Hits: 6556

Saltwater and Estuary Fishing

King George Whiting

There are a number of Whiting species found throughout Australia, and many Tasmanians would be surprised to learn that recreational fishing surveys report around 10,000 Whiting are caught in Tasmanian waters every year. These would mostly be sand whiting though.
The King George Whiting is the prize. It is the largest and most well renowned species and is considered one of the best table fish around.
Normally South Australia is spruiked as the KGW capital of Australia but in recent years Tasmanian waters have started to produce some regular numbers of good quality, well sized KGW.

: Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training; Category: Saltwater and Estuary Fishing; Published: 29 January 2016; Hits: 14573

Huntsman Lake

This year’s brown trout season is already half over and it does not go down in my diary as one of the best. I have been lucky enough with time off and holidays to fish all my favourite waters including Echo, Great Lake, Woods and Arthurs but all have disappointed so far. One water however that stands out as being consistent is Huntsman Lake at Meander. I have had a great season here so far and eagerly anticipate the start of the dry fly season of this hopefully gum beetle encircled lake.

: Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training; Category: Huntsman Lake; Published: 29 January 2016; Hits: 7357

Huntsman Lake

Jan’s Flies Issue 89

It’s Christmas time again and that means dry fly fishing is well underway. There are not many fly fishers who don’t look forward to fishing the dry. Seeing the fish take the fly really starts the adrenalin flowing.
The fly this time is a very well tested emerger which I suppose is nearly a dry but does sit rather low in the water surface. The entire fly except for the tail is tied out of CDC feathers. The cul de canard, or CDC, feather comes from around the oil preen gland of the duck it is this feather fly tyers love to use.

: Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training; Category: Jan’s Flies; Published: 29 January 2016; Hits: 3793

Jan’s Flies

Sorting the tackle box

What is it about catching bream on lures, or any fish for that matter, which makes an angler, buy all kinds of weird and wonderful lures to try and trick them? After spending the winter re organising and sorting out the tackle box, (numerous times) I discovered that there were lures in my collection, which have not caught a fish let alone seen a drop of water. There were hard bodies of all types, deep diving minnows, shallow water minnows, shads, surface lures and assorted soft plastics.

: Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training; Category: Tackle, Boats and other Equipment; Published: 29 January 2016; Hits: 4332

Tackle, Boats and other Equipment

Bream on Fly

Tasmanian Bream are a fantastic sports fish that offer the Tasmanian angler a challenging and rewarding day on the water. Black Bream, in Tasmanian waters, have been able to grow to impressive sizes due to the limited angling pressure they receive and the healthy estuary systems they live in. Bream up to 2.5 kg are not uncommon in our waters and these very old fish are often seen and caught amongst schools of bream in the upper tidal reaches of a river during the spawning season.

: Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training; Category: Bream; Published: 29 January 2016; Hits: 7775

Mako sharks – Daniel Paull

The Shortfin Mako Shark (Isurus oxyrinchus) is the most streamlined, spindle shaped member of the Mackerel Shark family. Along with its distinctive long and conical snout and triangular dorsal fin, this species has short pectoral fins and a crescent shaped caudal fin. Their slender teeth, which curve inward and have no cusps at their bases or serrations along their edges, are easily separate from Great White, Blue, Thresher and Porbeagle Sharks. There is evident countershading on this particular species of shark; dorsally, they are a metallic blue colour whilst ventrally, they are a snowy white. These sharks are pelagic, solitary and fast swimming and have been known to travel vast distances of water in search of breeding grounds and prey. One individual shark is known to have travelled 1322 miles in 37 days with an average of 36 miles per day.
Shortfin Mako Sharks thrive offshore in both tropical and temperate waters, from the surface down to depths of over 150 metre. These sharks are potentially dangerous and have attacked people on some occasions, most of which have occurred when a shark has jumped and landed in a boat after it has been hooked by recreational game fishing anglers. Whilst breeding, litters of 4 to 16 pups are common. Older embryos eat some of the eggs while still in the uterus. Female Mako Sharks usually reach sexual maturity once they attain a length of over 3 metre s. It is believed that large female specimens may rest for up to 18 months before the next batch of eggs are fertilized by a sexually mature male.
Overfishing of the Shortfin Mako Shark, mostly in the northern hemisphere, has seen it listed on the world’s endangered list, making this species more vulnerable than ever before.

: Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training; Category: Tuna Fishing and other Game Fishing; Published: 29 January 2016; Hits: 8907

Tuna Fishing and other Game Fishing

Mythbusters – Excuses or fishy trends

Too windy, not windy enough, wrong wind direction. Too bright, too dull, too wet, too dry: excuses—or are they? Farmers and fishing guides have two things in common: firstly, they’re both in the weather everyday, working with Mother Nature. Secondly, both groups will tell you that the animals in their lives all react differently according to subtleties and vagaries of wind direction, atmospheric pressure and lunar cycles. In the case of fishing guides and experienced anglers, you can add a list of hatch and water level factors to the nuances of Mother Nature, vagaries which become plausible excuses at the end of a tough day. After the question of weather patterns and their affects on fishing came up on the FlyLife internet forum, I thought it might be a good time to do a bit of myth-busting with the aid of my fishing diary.

: Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training; Category: Trout Fishing; Published: 29 January 2016; Hits: 3784

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From the Archives ...

Mid Sea-Run Season Report

Trout Everywhere – Craig Rist

Polaroiding Central Highlands

Saltwater shore bashing

King George Whiting

Huntsman Lake

Jan’s Flies Issue 89

Sorting the tackle box

Bream on Fly

Mako sharks – Daniel Paull

Mythbusters – Excuses or fishy trends

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