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.

Now living in West Australia, but still a keen fly fisher, Ewan was in search of some wild trout during his recent visit to Tasmania.

He Found one of many to hand over his tour in this well formed ‘bubble-line’ seen above.

A very plump wild brown trout brings a well satisfied grin to end the last trip of 2011.

Fishing buddies Tom and Alby from the USA were blown away with their Tasmanian wild trout fly fishing experience.

Tom, who has fished a number of times in Chile and New Zealand, says Tasmania is now top of his list.

Alby, who has been to Chile with Tom, said he had never experienced dry fly fishing like it and now has headed back home to fish the nearby streams of Nevada (all I can say is look out home state trout!).

Tom (right) and Alby ‘doing it tough’ after a hectic morning session.

They loved their rivers and stream fishing, and fished a different area each day over four different rivers, all to wild trout (mainly browns), primarily with the dry, covered kilometres of water on numerous rivers and only once saw another angler (end of day six, farmer and friend upstream for an evening flick) for the whole time on the water.

A nice quiet corner, Alby looks on while Tom presents upstream to a rising fish .

Apart from the wild trout, they saw wombat, echidna, platypus and wallaby plus dozens of local birds … the complete Tasmanian experience.

Tom even supplied entree one evening complete with local wine, Tassie beer, fresh homebaked bread and open fire. Know it sounds like a hard life, but Tom understands, someone has to do these things!

This was top fish on day two for Alby; client and guide very pleased with the result.

Alby has got the 4wt working well on this one.

While next day, Tom gives his new Sage a workout on this lovely lowlands brown, shown at the top.

You can see Tom’s thoughts on his newfound favourite worldwide trout fishery on our Feedback page.

Marcus (a regular with Red Tag), leaves his Tasmanian handmade Peter McKean cane rod in the state and comes down regularly to visit rod and fish with both being very active on each occasion, as shown above with the third fish at the top of the first pool!

All this action was on dry flies, as part of the tradition on these trips, and the joy of using the rod.

It is single dry fly ‘upstream only’ fishing.

The guide has been known (very) occasionally to think nymph (not to be uttered out loud), and as for wets … the cane rod hasn’t even seen a wet fly since it was made, let alone cast one.

The #4/5wt – 7foot+ cane can really handle good fish in tight conditions.

Fred, an experienced stream flyfisher from the ‘old dart’, hit double top the other day on the river, on the dry.

First cast, fish to hand and then lifts the season bar to 20 to hand for the day!

By this stage, above, Fred had got three to hand in a space of 15mins and 20metres of stream.

Another very nice stream wild brown is netted, Fred is obviously enjoying getting re-acquainted with this group of ex-pats.

Being a natural hunter also helps the angler read the situation. Fred clearly enjoyed the ‘untamed’ nature of our streams and this added to his appreciation of the days action.

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.

Philippe, a first time ‘Red Tagger,’ gets our first river fish of the season on the Blue Damsel fly.

Spotted doing the usual leaping clear of the water feeding trick, Philippe sighted, stalked and presented the Blue Damsel spot on.

It augurs well for the coming summer opportunities!

This hook-up was literally a bee’s knee from the edge, and again the emerger did the trick.

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.