Jim, and son Brantley, had a top time ‘catching up’ on their recent tour. Jim has fly fished for quite a while and was keen to see if Brantley would enjoy the experience as well.

While Jim (bringing it to hand, above) took the honours on day 1 with a nice 4lb wild brown trout at Currawong Lakes, Brantley soon picked up the importance of presentation and was top rod on the rivers both day 2 & 3.

Brantley is justifiably happy with this very nice Tassie wild brown for his first trout on the fly – dry (‘hopper pattern) at that!

He then topped that off by outfishing Dad on the second river day with fish like this one, catching them on a 2 to 1 ratio!

Finally showing a mastery of all aspects of the art, Brantley helps Dad out by netting one of Jim’s feisty browns.

Click here to view the YouTube video.

Gavin & Eddie, from Pro Angler, Bentleigh, had been ‘talking’ about coming over to film and fish in Tasmania for our wild trout, ever since Tourism Tasmania and Red Tag Trout Tours have been presenting our Pro Angler/’Tasmania’ nights for some five years or more.

Well, they finally made it earlier this year along with assistant Stuart, and Wow!

After 60 fish to hand over four days, four different waters and more than 75% return on the dry fly. They can’t stop talking about it! Three days on a wide variety of rivers, and one day at Currawong Lakes, in total probably 120+ fish to the fly, they have video show footage par excellence.

Waters covered with Red Tag ranged from the faster southern streams to lowland meadows to clear water spring-fed rivers.

The fish were in excellent condition, often sighted feeders or polaroided ‘on station’ and gear ranged from #2wts to #4wts on the rivers and #5 & #6wts at Currawong Lakes.

Gavin stalks a feeder working upstream, waiting to sight its position accurately before presenting the fly.

Successful presentation, this plump wild brown pounder is typical of the small waters wild trout on day 1. These small waters really surprised the Pro Angler team with the quality, quantity and, at times, the size of the trout in them.

On another river somewhere, again a small water stream and lots of action to keep the crew both on their toes and fully focused.

Attempting the ultimate ambush! Eddie had (polaroided) spotted this ‘monster’ brown idly cruising along the bank under these trees so the challenge was on. Could the combined efforts of these three crafty, skilled and experienced anglers outwit one of nature’s natural hunters? You will have to get a copy of the Pro Angler DVD to find out!

The boys then went on to do a number of days with Bob McKinley from Fish Wild Tasmania on the central highland lakes which was also very successful and will be part of the DVD and TV shows, details of which will be noted here as the project finishes.

Paul’s dad Ron, in action above, was visiting from overseas and they were looking for a multi-day tour with Paul’s wife Sue joining us for the last two days.

The first four days varied between good to great with something like 50+ fish to hand and real quality and size.

Many anglers think our Tasmanian fly fishing drops off after February. However, on the rivers and streams (where Red Tag works and weather permitting) this is far from the fact. March and even April can produce top draw fly fishing with dries to the fore.

This was certainly the case in the 2nd week of March when Paul set a new one-day ‘to hand & release’ bench mark for this season at 23 fish.

Paul bringing 1st for the day to hand on the dry — Paul is a dry fly-only fisher — and to put the fishing in perspective, he outfished all on every day except day 2 when, with a little prompting from the guide, Ron popped a small bead-head under the dry and ended up ‘top rod’ for that day.

Some more action by the party:

Ron ‘high-sticking’ a nice wild brown on the nymph on day 2.

Day 3 was clear water polaroiding and precise presentation. Paul has some real weight here on his #2wt.

Paul’s delighted with this fish, again on the #2wt — one of a number of exquisite wild browns on day 3.

Sue wasn’t to be left out after joining us to try the Currawong Lakes. This nice rainbow was taken on a Red Spinner pattern.

During his recent visit to Tasmania, Billy Connolly took a few days out to get acquainted with some of our wild brown trout.

This he did with a high degree of skill and great enthusiasm which resulted in a very successful and rewarding trip over two days at Currawong Lakes and a third day on a ‘river somewhere’. All fish were taken on the dry and the vast majority sighted feeding fish.

His double-take came on day 2 at Currawong Lakes when Billy hooked the same fish twice on the same day, but bringing it to hand the second time.

Thats Billy holding that wild brown in hand, above, and note the pink emerger in lower lip, which was the first fly actually bitten off when hooked, it still had 2cm of tippet attached.

In all our combined years of fly fishing, including those guiding, this had not happened to either of us. So another first for the records.

Meanwhile, gentle hands bring another river brown to net.

Phil and his long time mate Paul won the Pro Angler/Red Tag 5-day/4-night package tour promotion for the 2010-11 season.

As both were fairly new to fly fishing Currawong Lakes was a great intro day which proved most successful, with Phil getting this nice brown to hand.

Then Paul lands this quality rainbow, below. Top action then followed on the river/stream work during the remainder of the workshop.

First up excellent day on a spring feed river, this one taken on a nymph. Then when the weather turned a bit rough, we headed to Currawong Lakes and had a number of browns to hand to offset the inclement weather.

With two days in late November, Gerald had a top day on Currawong Lakes with this quality 4lbs+ rainbow, one of a number of top fish to hand.

Day 2 was a Macquarie River day, tough weather but a couple of good browns to hand and a ‘how big was that one!’ break off part of the day.

That is what introductory fly fishing workshops should be all about.

Peter had been with us once before and was looking to introduce his wife Deborah along with friends Ian and Lisa to the joys of fly fishing in Tasmania.

Day 1 was at Currawong Lakes then onto a river somewhere.

Peter was delighted, above, with both this beautiful wild brown at the Lakes and the outcome of the adventure.

Here Lisa, above, has her first ever trout to hand, while Ian is enjoying his first up success, below.

And finally, Deborah reels in her wild brown on the river.

New flyfisher Gee inspects the result of only her second, yes that’s right, second ‘on water’ cast with a fly (emerger what else?) while regular ‘tagger Simon is delighted with Gee’s start. It was an excellent well-conditioned wild brown trout.

She then then followed up the next day with this sizeable rainbow and a big smile to match.

November was very busy, with many returning anglers.

Roy was one of them and managed to get a particularly good late spring day along with some nice wild browns to hand.

Brothers Lee and Jamie were keen to get their Dad, Roger, into fly fishing.

Being fishers for most of their lives and having tried all sorts before, they thought Dad, Tasmania, trout and fly fishing should be brought together.

A good day for all, with each getting into good wild brown trout, a break off, missed and sighted feeders.

All taken on unweighted nymphs mainly fished to sighted trout.

First up (top) Jamie with this beautiful brownie and Dad in the background.

Next up is birthday Dad, Roger, with an even bigger brown.

Then Lee gives us the ‘thumbs up’ on his success.