Paul, foreground, has some early success while John is working on another fish in the distance.

The action results in a nice rainbow for Paul.

John was not to be denied his moment in the sun when his first ever trout on the fly was this excellent conditioned rainbow. (IMGP1515)

Picked up Kate and Dale from the Priory at Bothwell and headed off to Currawong for their introduction to fly fishing.

A typical spring day in Tassie, ‘if you don’t like the weather … a hang on 30 minutes and we’ll change it’ type of day which couldn’t deter or dampen spirits as you can see.

For starters, above, despite the rain, Dale has a beaming smile with due cause with this beauty to the net. His first on the fly.

Then a little later, both the day (no wind or rain) and Kate are smiling warmly with her first to hand.

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.

From left, Don, Bev, Shar and Irv head of to do battle with some top nick and aggressive Currawong trout.

Above: Athough only her first day on the fly, Shar was first on also with this very nice rainbow, while Irv admires it from close by.

Above: Next up, Don gets this lovely wild brown to hand.

Learning was the aim, achieving was the game!

This lovely returning rainbow, was just one of four top quality fish to hand and several more to the fly for Vincent.

Sighted, stalked and caught by the angler it was a fitting fish to complete a great teaching workshop.

Staying at the beautiful heritage ‘Priory’ in Bothwell, picked Vincent up at 7.45am and we headed over to the Currawong Lakes for another top day on the fly.

Kim has worked the bubble line to perfection at the start of his fly fishing workshop, hooking up a lovely well-conditioned rainbow.

This can often be the case when good rains bring fresh water into a lake or lagoon.

Below, he used an unweighted #12 Montana nymph to get this one’s attention.

Here’s another page from the Curtis Creek Manifesto, and the advice is spot on.

First up the key word here is presentation.

Without acquiring good presentation, you might as well go home!! Or sit down and admire the fish swimming about.

[See previous entry here]

February continued to provide both great weather and top flyfishing as David found out on a one-day introduction to the art of flyfishing workshop.

David was happy to catch and release, and as the day progressed this was one of the half dozen wild brown trout to hand, above, although it wasn’t hanging around for a ‘happy snap’.

First up, although only having a long ago brief intro, he opted for the wild fish river waters rather than the still water start, and soon he was getting a feel for the gear in tranquil surroundings, below.

Then, after some spooked fish, heavy landings, missed half chances and the usual beginner’s actions, presentation improved to the point where ‘fish on’ was the cry heard more often, below.