Good mates build fly skills

Peter enjoying the streamcraft session with John looking on.

After that the weather (mainly wind) had a hand in heading up to Currawong for day two where first up John is delighted with this big nymph chasing rainbow (est 5lbs+).

Then Peter is onto a top conditioned fish, again on the unweighted brown nymph.

Andrew and Aaron – team success

Wife Di gave Andrew, and son Aaron a great surprise when she secretly arranged a two-day overnight workshop with Red Tag Trout for the boys.

Day one was the stillwater starter and day two the rivers and streams intro session.

First up Andrew, above, sets the pace with this action. which turns out to be a fantastic rainbow touching 6lbs and taking hin into the backing twice! Not bad for a first up fish!

Not to be outdone by Dad, Aaron, below, gets up close and introduces himself to this nice fish.

Then to top off the workshop on day two he is a very happy camper having sighted, stalked and got this river wild brown trout, below, to the net on a very tricky pool outlet that any experienced angler would have been pleased with.

Well done Aaron – a very promising fly fishing future ahead.

Workshop successes continue

This was the second nice fish to hand for his first day on the fly for Joe’s introduction to fly fishing at Currawong Lakes.

Particularly pleasing to Joe as he sighted the feeding rainbow, stalked it, presented the unweighted nymph on target, hooked and landed it. Good one Joe!

Father and Son Spring success

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Ken and son Campbell wanted to get into fly fishing so had a introductory workshop recently.

Not only introduced to the skills of casting etc, but also to some nice wild browns as well on their first outing.

Below, Ken breaks his duck and nets this wild brown trout.

Then not to be outdone by Dad, Campbell gets this rather larger one on the Woolly Bugger, above, which Ken too thinks is a pretty good effort judging by the grins.

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Early season success

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After a mixed day on the water end of August, Adrian got this nice well-conditioned rainbow to hand.

Had a number of hook-ups with some good fish on (this one, below, put a decent bend in the #5wt) but with all the feed and water around they were not taking the fly hard at all and gentle hands and a soft touch were needed for success.

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Mid Winter success

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Yes, believe it or not, this is mid winter (July 2 to be exact) in Tasmania – sunny sky, little wind and good fly-fishing workshop conditions.

I won’t kid you it is sun-bathing weather at this time of year, but with sound clothing choices and determination to ‘have a go’, learning to fly fish in Tasmania any time of year can be both rewarding and good fun.

Gordon wanted to learn the gentle art of fly-fishing over two days at the start of July.

Day one covered gear variations and necessities, casting techniques, fly presentation, basic knots, introduction to fly tying (a Red Tag of course) and a bit of time on the theory of trout behaviour, then on day Two some serious trout stalking, sighted feeder fishing and as you can see catching!

This fish, was sighted by Gordon fossicking near the little tuft of reeds in the bay behind the swirl, he popped an unweighted black nymph near its nose and the rest is history as they say.

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Nationwide film festival lifts Tasmania’s wild trout image

For details of shows, venues and dates visit Fishing Tasmania.

The featured film is a 45-minute fly fishing travelogue, The Source — Tasmania demonstrating the State’s variety of wild trout waters. Highly recommend it.

Experienced US anglers land in Tasmania

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Well travelled angling trio, Edna, Mak and Melissa spent seven days with us in mid-April and despite a cold start at Currawong Lakes, fished mainly dries and took fish at every location we visited, especially Mak who loves his river and small stream work.

Above, Mellisa is delighted to get the first fish of the tour which was also her first ever trout on the fly, an emerger as well even in these conditions which included (in Mak’s words) ‘Alaskan solid sunshine’ … hail to us!’

After a solid tussle, Melissa finally had something to smile about – well done Meli!

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Next up it was Edna’s turn, again a lovely rainbow on the dry, which she very gently returned to fight another day.

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Finally after giving the girls a start, Mak breaks his duck with a solid rainbow of his own.

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Then it was off to a selection of rivers and streams, all quiet, secluded and with a healthy head of wild Tasmanian trout.

Not every fish went back, all were very keen to try their own freshly caught wild brown trout, simple grilled whole with fresh home-made bread – the favourite Red Tag way.

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The sights you see when the (deer) season is over. These couple of very likely lads spent a few minutes walking straight towards us without a care in the world … think they knew they were safe, besides it is very hard to hook and land a wild buck on a #3wt with a #14 emerger!

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Mak reckons they were the best wild deer he has seen outside of his old hunting grounds back home many a year ago.

Back on the river Mak sets on another nice wild brown using a grasshopper pattern and then gets onto a really good fish, while the girls enjoyed some time out.

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Then Edna brings her last river fish of the trip to hand on a delightful tour.

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