Ian was a little rusty since his last trip down so we thought Currawong Lakes would be a good starting point.

This well-conditioned wild brown trout, above, shows he had kept the basics ‘on call’ and the next four days on the streams would be just fine!

So it worked out, with some nice bits of stream action following: a good pick up under the overhang for starters, quality wild fish returned, and wonderful ways to finish the days …

Established Red Tag regular Simon looks pleased with this reward after some effort in getting the fish to the fly.

Next day on another stream, ‘I know you’re down there somewhere you have just eaten my emerger’

This is one of those annual surprises we talk about down here in our small stream fly fishing.

Roy had caught a number of top condition and excellent fighting fish before this ‘fish of the season’ for this little river came along.

Above: The hook up along and under the far bank, then things got somewhat hectic until it was brought to hand.

Daniel from Germany thought Tasmania would be a good place to learn to fly fish and he wasn’t far wrong.

Within an hour or so of picking up a fly rod for the first time here he is into his first trout.

Later on this quality wild brown comes to hand, taken feeding just off the reed bed.

Gary ‘of the 2wt large wild brown fame’, had a day at Currawong (weather driven) then a second day on the Macquarie river.

Both turned out to be good fish days, if very different experiences. First up weather not so hot but the fishing was at Currawong Lakes. Gary releasing his first to hand for the day, a lovely wild brown.

Then a number of top condition rainbows among them. The conditions at Currawong were fantastic after those winter and early spring rains.

This photograph shows the edge growth and feeding grounds which have produced top mayfly nymphs and hatches.

Then on the Macquarie, top conditions for a mayfly hatch and a good fish on here.

This is it, a magnificent river wild brown … they don’t come in much better nick, or more wild, than this.

Long time friend and lapsed flyfisher Trevor (long time no fish, not his doing) makes a triumphant return to the water. This set of pics sums it up beautifully when Trevor sighted his first riser.

Above: He has fish sighted, stalked & fly presented.

Below: Fish rises, takes & lift.

It was a top day on the dry (emerger) and we both enjoyed it very much.

Drought says Allan, what drought? As you can see by the flow in these ‘little’ streams, the Winter and Spring flows are still very strong and it made for some challenging, yet successful fly fishing over four days, even for an experienced angler like Allan.

To think this is now past mid-spring and we still have this amount of flow and no surface feeders.

Above: Here he is on day 1 with a lovely wild brown trout to the net after a real tussle in that rapid water. Fell to a brass bead-head dark brown nymph.

Day two and finally a Red Tagger gets ‘our’ first on the dry.

This one puts a good bend in the Stalker Pro Angler #4wt, Spotted rising around that tea-tree bush in front of him, Allan nicely dropped the dark brown emerger just his side of the bush and down it went!

Final day up on Currawong Lakes as the wind had driven us off the lowland streams and what a finish … this magnificent rainbow (est 8lb) taken on a copper-bead brown nymph took him to the backing twice and was so strong the attempted quick photograph in the hands prior to release was definitely not on this trout’s agenda.

One flick and it was out of the grasp and back in the water before I could even get the camera focused! Well that’s my story anyway!

As a stream fisher on a #4wt, this ‘close to’ 6lb rainbow, was a great start to the month. Taken in one of the feeder streams at Currawong on a #14 copper bead-head nymph it took nearly 15 minutes to get to hand in its narrow but deep hideout.

Put quite a bend in the Pro Angler Stalker Master as shown below. Ray went on to land five others, but this was the pick of them for both tight location and size.