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.

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.

When hailing from north of Darwin and being a salty heavy metal ‘heaver’, wanting to ‘sort out his casting’ and catch a wild trout in a river somewhere, thought I was in for a bit of a challenge this day with Janzten.

No such worries, here he is laying out the best part of 40 feet of line after 15 minutes on the lawn and 10 minutes on the water. He had a natural feel for timing and loading the rod, and with a little application of ‘delicate’ power, things just clicked.

Not long after, natural hunting skills combined with new casting confidence results in a nice rainbow to hand.

Then onto the river and the first wild brown from pool one makes a nice entree for dinner.

After a number of other wild browns were released, the result was a top day, steep learning curve achieved and casting confidence acquired.

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.

Andrew first tried his hand at flyfishing with us back in 2003. The bug, however, never left him so he decided it was time to get a thorough grounding this time round with a 3-day/2-night extended introductory workshop to open the new season which started on August 6.

Day 1 at Currawong Lakes broke the duck with some refresher casting then wet fly work resulting in this first up action seen above.

Along with a break off or two plus a couple of others to hand, a good start.

Even had a shot at a sipping midger with a dry, just before the breeze came up.

Day 2 was a tougher one on the river (see moving lake).

On the right hand side of the fence is another paddock! The actual river course is the very far side bank and is three metres wide in summer!

Lots of casting/fishing practice, weighted nymph under indicator, wets and unweighted nymphs in shallows … but no fish. Highest water levels for decades.

Day 3 Armed with all the practise and casting skills it was back to Currawong Lakes and more success.

Result: six more to hand, five rainbows and one wild brown trout. Best was a rainbow hen approximately 6lbs.

Finishing off with a winter evening final cast as the shadows lengthen, below.

Click here for a larger version

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.

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.