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.

Not only did the guys get along fine, but each got more out of the day than they expected, with a sound introduction to casting, dry, wet and nymph fly fishing techniques and plenty of fish action.

Sean is delighted with this nice rainbow, first fish for the season on a ‘hopper pattern – just one of many to hand for the day.

We even managed to get Daniel onto the river for an hour or so at day’s end and he not only caught his first ever wild brown, but did it on the ‘hopper dry – becoming the first wild trout taken on a grasshopper this season.

Above: Norm is delighted with this solo effort on a very nice wild brown.

In the past, Norm and Roy have come down and fished separately with Red Tag, but this time they teamed up for a two day trip that went very well, despite an overcast and cool first day.

Fair to say Norm had the best of day 1 at Currawong Lakes and Roy finished top rod on the river on day 2.

Norm is working hard on what turns out to be an excellent rainbow and gets some well earned admiration for this one on the dry in tough conditions as Roy lends a hand to net the result.

Roy’s first feisty wild brown on the river on Day 2 was one of six to hand.

Bill and Gillian practicing on some of the sheltered lawn areas we have to get started with the basics.

The workshop soon progressed through the still water fishery and onto the river/stream work for a more extended and successful second day.

After a short time learning to read the currents and drift patterns, Bill soon brings a small wild brown trout to hand.

Then it was Gillian’s turn to hook up.

Bill ended up with five to hand and Gillian three (but who’s counting), plus a number of other chances and misses, etc. A good introduction to stream fly fishing all round.

Red Tag Trout Tours now has its own stocked teaching water which allows us to do the complete workshop from lawn intro casting, to on water exercises, to still water techniques and finally wild river browns. All at the one location.

It also includes heritage accommodation and all the add ons for extended stay workshops.

Top: Alison and Tim are the first on the new water after the initial lawn session.

Tim searches the wing riffle edges to see what is hiding under the ruffled surface.

Next it was down to the river for a relaxing lunch – well it would have been relaxing but for a rising trout getting started on emerging mayflies.

“Act nonchalant”, said the guide, “we’ll lull it into a false sense of security”.

So after lunch, it was onto the river to the sighted fish, second cast and Tim does it all – dry fly (emerger) right in its feeding lane, down goes the fly, up goes the rod and just like that, Tim has his first wild brown to hand. Thumbs up all round, Tim’s very nice brown to start his fly fishing life.

Client happy, guide happy and we didn’t even have time to put the waders on!

To finish off an action-packed great day, Alison gets her first ever wild trout on an emerger.

End of October saw the first Red Tag/Pro Angler tour get underway with Phil W. and Phil O.

As you can see from the apparel, weather conditions were not that kind to us and nymphing rather than dries were the go most of the time.

We still saw Phil O. get his first rainbow on the fly.

And Phil W. was soon among them with a nice wild brown trout. Both were taken on a small bead-head nymph.

One of a number of tour options we have at Red Tag Trout Tours is a short day teaching workshop close to Hobart for those tight on time (less than 30mins drive) that allows us to give beginners a go at a variety of fly techniques on still water.

Here Steve, self confessed heavy metal salty for many years, quickly gets to grip with a decent delivery, despite the ‘breeze’ in the background, and is soon laying out some nice casts on the water.

Although getting a couple to the fly, none came to hand, this time the fish had the last laugh!

However, Steve definitely has caught the ‘fly bug’ and is heading back with Dad another day to get on the streams.

Jon was our next introductory 3-day workshop ‘Tagger’ and besides getting some great fish at Currawong on day 1, he also took the first wild brown river fish of the season in the backwaters on the lowlands rivers.

This lovely brown is less than three years old and is one of the wild spawned browns in the creeks at Currawong Lakes.

Here Jon breaks the wild river fish duck for the season, a very fit brownie approx 2lbs, full of vim which took a slightly weighted Tasmania fur fly (red tag version) fished just below the surface.

Another top conditioned early season brown, lurking alongside the bank to Jon’s right.

This one picked up on a brass beadhead nymph. This section will dry up in the next few weeks, just shows that fishing the flooded backwaters can be quite productive.
This was still August, late Tassie winter!

In addition on day 3 we saw the first mayfly hatch out in a quite, sheltered back water. Trout didn’t take it, but further inspection revealed many well advanced nymphs so close to go.

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.

Returning angler Vincent brought Paul down to Tassie to learn the art of the fly. Day 1 sees Vincent is very pleased to get this stalked riser at Currawong Lakes under control.

Then on day 2 Paul achieves the ultimate, sighted feeding on ‘hoppers under the bank, perfect presentation of the dry imitation, timed strike and this is the result, a top quality wild brown river trout and a grin to match.