Early April action

Good weather, tough fish

Bob and Mickey from the US had a good weather, but a tough fish day. Here Bob is rewarded for his efforts with a good wild brown to hand, taken on the grasshopper.

Later, Mickey has success with another one on the dry.

This one was the perfect ambush, sunken log spotted 15-20 feet of the bank, ‘hopper’ presented over the outer side of the submerged trunk and bang! Lovely 1.5lb wild brown did the rest.

First timer gets a good result.

Louise from the Northern Territory had a great first up fly fishing day while on a short visit to Tasmania.

This excellent wild brown from was returned, but then the next one was a good sized rainbow that provided dinner back for the friends she was visiting.

Successful and productive on day one of fly fishing doesn’t get much better than that

Late April action

Good mates have a top short break

One day on the still waters of Currawong Lakes then day two on a wild brown trout river was just what Andy & John were after.

Andy’s reward after a good sighting, 30mins stalking and ‘controlled’ fish action brings this lovely rainbow to the guide’s net. As you can see, tough Autumn evenings in Tassie mid-April!

Next day John has some top action on the streams with this quality wild brown bringing a broad grin.

Trevor’s best ever!

Regular ‘Tagger’ Trevor probably still has his smile on after this magnificent rainbow taken on an unweighted brown nymph weighed in at close to 6lbs.

He triumphantly declared it was his biggest trout ever on the fly.

He’s coming back in a couple of months to look for its Mum and Dad!

Out of the West

Other returning ‘Taggers’ for some last minute wild trout stream action were Andrew & Jen who teamed up with long time local friend Vanessa.

The girls got away early on the success board with first up Vanessa getting this lively little one, above, to hand on a small copper bead-head nymph.

Next is Jen with this hook up on a #14 Humpy drifted down the run after spotting the fish.

Then Andrew gets onto this one with an emerger.

With a group tally of 10 or more to hand, 75% on the dry, not a bad finish on light gear for the end of April in Tasmania.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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

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.

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!

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.

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

Over the last couple of seasons, Trevor has become a Red Tag regular, twice a season, on-e in mid spring and again in Autumn, single day each time.

This time Trevor opted for some shallow margin lakeshore stalking, hopefully on the dry, and Currawong Lakes didn’t disappoint.

We kitted him out with a Pro Angler Stalker Master series #5wt, which is a 9′ long 4 pc and rated medium-fast so it has a little forgiveness built in.

Here Trevor demonstrates the smooth bend on the #5wt which resulted in this lovely conditioned rainbow trout to hand.

But, I think his most enjoyable fish of the day was stalking, successfully presenting the emerger to and then releasing this lovely brown.