Regular ‘Tagger Gerald loves the challenge of the wild trout chasing the damsels at Currawong Lakes.
This clear, bright and challenging day was no exception, yet Gerald got all on the Blue Damsel, mostly wild browns, like the one above, and a couple of rainbows.
There was some serious weight on the rod with these fish.
The fast and furious runs needed total concentration!
Long time great mates Adrien & Danny were mad keen to learn to fly fish the rivers.
After a hectic (and successful) previous evening introduction on our rainbow still water it was onto the wild trout river.
Here Danny’s third cast brings his first wild brown to hand.
Adrien finally gets his first river trout after misses, drops and a few trees.
When it all comes together, how easy is that!
Good fish! Colin, another repeat ‘Tagger from Sydney, set a new best to hand on his #2wt with this beautiful (1kg) river brown. Guide’s local knowledge helped pick this one up on an emerger drifted close to right hand bank of river.
Planning and flexibility pays off – a couple of examples within minutes of each other…
Task 1: Trout rises beyond branch behind anglers head next to log – ‘how do we present to this one?’, asks Colin. ‘Over branch, metre upstream from rise & half metre from log, don’t worry about branch – hook up fish first then we take it from there’, guide says.
Plan worked a treat with Para ‘hopper! Think Colin is still grinning over this success.
Task 2: Fish makes big splash next to far 45° reed on left/hand bend – Colin presents ‘hopper (last fish took it, but now gets refusal. ‘What now’, asks Colin.
‘We change ‘hopper to Blue Damsel right away’. Colin represents half metre past reed and it is on! Very nice 15 incher couldn’t resist the damsel.
These were great examples of Red Tag’s KOCPIT theory in action;
K- knowledge – local waters and trout feeding habits
O- observation – how the fish are feeding and what is around
C- concentration – on fish position and fly
P- presentation – accurate, first time on target
I- imitation – matched appropriate fly pattern to observed feeding activity.
T- Take – all the above came together. Result, trout to hand!
Keen young local angler Ruben gets his first trout to hand on the fly.
After sighting this plump rainbow and presenting a well-placed unweighted brown nymph his ‘duck’ was broken.
Knowing how keen Ruben is I am sure there will be many more successes to come.
Michael with sons Callum and Travis had a fun introduction to fly fishing.
Travis was first to score on the fly – a rainbow on a damsel fly nymph then success again with his 2nd rainbow, that time on the dry.
Then Callum got his first to hand, a wild brown on the dry in the river.
Dad, seen here ‘working hard’ caught the best rainbow on the day.
Libby and Graham (left) along with great mates Warwick and Jan at the start of their one day workshop – Currawong Lakes
Warwick gets the first to hand – on the Butler Blue Damsel no less – and this made an excellent entree back at Somercotes that night.
Then Libby lands her first ever fish – again on the ‘Butler Blue’ and knowing entree is secure, is delighted to release same.
With last minute cancellations, we now have great dry fly times available for the second half of February and first half of March.
Beautiful wild Tasmanian brown trout taken on Blue Damsel
The ‘Butler Blue’ damsel, great dry fly fishing now at Currawong Lakes
Nine out of 10 trout taken at Currawong Lakes over the last few days have been on the Blue Damsel!
They’ve been 2-5 lb browns and rainbows chasing hundreds of these insects, leaping bodily out of the water – fantastic sight and exhilarating dry fly fishing!
On the rivers and streams, grasshoppers, damsels and mayflies are making this Tasmanian summer a great dry fly time.
Special Offer till 15th March 2014
Get 50% off Currawong Lakes venue fees when booking Red Tag tours.
Steve, a repeat ‘Tagger from Victoria, did a very sensible thing at the start of his recent three day tour.
He took the time at the start of Day 1 to get the presentation right! Having not used a 7’9″ 4wt Master Plus before and not fished for some months, he found it ‘a little different’ to feel the loading, so we took the fly off and spent 15 minutess to get things right. This was number 1 of Day 1 literally just moments after the practice.
A nice piece of netting Steve.
On releasing the first wild brown, brownie’s fellow stream dweller makes a cameo ‘sail’ past.
This was top fish for Day 1 – on ‘old faithful’ – the dark brown para emerger no less. Topped 3.25lbs and really rewarded Steve’s earlier mornings practice session. It followed a 15 metre cast across reed bed with only a metre wide channel to target and less than 1.5m of free fly drift! Top result!
Gotcha! This was fish 1 (to hand) Day 2 and another box ticked. Steve wanted to polaroid the shallows for wild browns and this was the result. After a previous bigger brown (est 4lbs) took the nymph and disappeared he was very pleased to net this one.
On Day 3 Steve gets his wish for a wild brown on a ‘hopper pattern. So it was all boxes ticked on a top Tassie trout fishing experience.
The ongoing adventures of a passionate wild trout fly fishing guide based in Tasmania,
Australia's best trout fishing destination.
Roger Butler guides for his one-man guiding operation Red Tag Trout Tours which caters to flyfishers from all over the world, who share a common goal: getting a wild brown trout to hand.
Red Tag's Dangerous Dozen — the flies that wild brown trout find difficult to ignore
