I said earlier the last week of January had the lot, but I wasn’t prepared for superrod Jack! “I’ve only got the one day Roger, down here on business, it will have to be Saturday”

Well Saturday came round. Usual early am pick up in Hobart, took a look at Jack as he got in the Pajero, regular looking fly fisher, nice bloke, “looking forward to a good day on the water” was his position.

Got to the stream, day looked great, No breeze, overcast and about 15°C with a top predicted of 20-22°C.

“Nice looking stretch Roger,” was the opening comment. “Yes, think you should get a few today”, was my reply.
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Debbie not only had great weather for her 3-day introductory flyfishing workshop, but had success on both the lake and river environments with rainbows and wild browns to hand.

Day one was the Currawong lakes intro day and where rainbows were brought to hand.

This was followed by the river wild browns where this nice stream fish again fell to good presentation of the (‘hopper) dry.

The first cast back, or is it the first back cast! Anyway it was a great moment.

To many flyfishers this may just look like a cast on a river somewhere, but to my long standing (make that wading) client Gerald it was something he had been working on for over a year. Because since his last trip down, in our previous season, he has had his left foot amputated to the heel!

Now Gerald loves fly fishing Tasmania; the small streams, light gear and delicate presentation, ‘good presentation Rog, that’ll get one out’ I can hear him saying. No easy way out on the boats for him, if he was going to fish for wild browns then it was stalking or nothing!

With a special prosthesis fitted into his waders and an oversized boot he was ready.

He was also determined to do a two-dayer if possible, the plan being day 1, warm up, day 2, action!

Day 1 resulted in a couple of little ones on the nymph and a nice one lost on the dry — but day two brought five good wild browns to hand, all on the dry, three dropped adn a couple of other misses. Well done Gerald! Look out wild browns next season!

It is pleasing to see the increase in couples enjoying flyfishing Tasmania while holidaying down under down under. Here, Noah and Sarah had a beautiful day to hone their dry fly techniques and get some nice wild browns to hand.

First up Noah gets some weight on the line early in the day on this tight spot, while later on Sarah’s big grin reflects her joy and reward for her perserverance and improved presentation skills with a good one of her own on the PB ‘hopper pattern’s.

Garry (father of Matthew) had a day out on his own with Red Tag and had a ball. There must be something, as well as the trout, in our water that brings out the best in these Queenslanders.

Not only did Matthew star on a later trip (see Matthew’s Monster below) but here Garry gets a first class wild brown (around the 3lb mark) on the trial Stalker series #2wt Red Tag is testing for Pro Angler!

With some skillful rod work, good tackle and quick thinking Garry finally got this lovely fish to hand — another one on the pink bum ‘hopper.

Very taken with this prototype from Pro Angler and the boys tell me they will have a 6’ 6” or 6’ 9” model in the next season’s range — keep your eys open for them, they are little gems!

Dry fly enthusiasts Anthony and Brendan, shown casting above, ex internationals now from Queensland, had a top first up introduction to Tasmania fly fishing for wild browns with something like 30 odd fish to the fly and 15 to hand between them.

It again shows how the dry and mild autumns are extending our quality fly fishing into the last month of the season.

All fish to hand were on the dries and the majority of those on ‘hopper patterns.

Darby came down to Tasmania with two key goals – to get a better understanding of lake margin fishing (importance of structures, tailing fish, patrolling trout etc) fly fishing and, to tune up presentation skills on the rivers and moving waters.

I think he has got ‘onto’ the hang of things, above, quite well and soon had this good quality brown, below, shown being returned.

Then the river skills passed muster with this lively stream brownie to the net.

Good fly fishing mates Ken & Don decided to stop off for a couple of days with Red Tag on their way through Tasmania.

Day one was a top day, but day two a more challenging one with the, by now, familiar cloudless sky and clear waters.

After seeing a very good brown leaping clear of the water chasing damsels and dragon flies, Ken exclaimed how do we get that one! ‘Put this blue damsel on and I’ll see how Don is getting on’.

Hadn’t gone twenty paces when Ken yelled ‘might need a hand here Roger’ with a very well bent #4wt and this 3+lbs wild brown on.

That fish certainly brightened Ken’s day.

Don was not forgotten by the trout either, here he is caressing a nice one in to hand the previous day.