After a long break from trout fishing for some of us and all the recent disruption to our lives, one Tasmanian tradition continued this weekend with the opening of the 2020-21 brown trout fishing season.
Anglers were out in force around the state making the most of idyllic winter weather to head back to their favourite fishing spots or trying somewhere new.
With the assistance of Tasmania Police, MaST and Parks and Wildlife our Officers were on patrol, and inspected approximately 736 anglers and 113 boats. Compliance with Inland Fisheries and Marine and Safety Legislation was very pleasing. There were two infringements were issued for fisheries offences, whilst four were issued for boating safety offences.
The new trout season begins tomorrow. To support angling opportunities in regional areas we have stocked 100 Atlantic salmon into Lake Kara.
At an average weight of over 1.5kg, they will test the skills of any angler. Remember the bag limit in Lake Kara is 5 fish total, of which only 2 may measure longer than 500mm. Thanks to Tassal for kindly donating the fish.
For those that are yet to purchase their licence, please visit www.ifs.tas.gov.au Doing so might also allow you to win $10,000 if you catch one of the 5 tagged fish released into different waters around the state. For more information on the Tasmanian Tagged Trout Promotion. You’ve got to be in it to win it!
Source: https://www.ifs.tas.gov.au/news/2020/jul/31/atlantic-salmon-released-lake-kara-start-season
Atlantic salmon release into Lake Kara for start of the season will provide some action for local anglers. |
This week we have been busy stocking 4 500 rainbow trout into Bradys Lake.
They averaged 355 grams and have been specially grown by the Huon Aquaculture Group at their Millybrook hatchery.
These fantastic rainbow trout are sure to provide fun in the coming months for anglers using all methods.
Remember a bag limit of five fish applies, with a minimum length of 300 mm and only two fish over 500 mm.
Earlier this winter we transferred 1 044 wild adult brown trout up to 1 kg from the Liawenee Canal, yingina / Great Lake.
We suggest you get out there, have a great time and wish you the best of luck for the season opening on Saturday 1 August.
Here is the Bradys Lake, Lake Binney and Tungatinah Lagoon brochure with map to help you.
Source: https://www.ifs.tas.gov.au/news/2020/jul/29/bradys-chain-lakes-good-place-start
Please find attached Adrian Webb's report for the year.
This report covers two consecutive days fishing tannin waters after some decent rains that got the streams up and running to a good fishing height again.
Some excellent catches are being reported around the state, just in time for the school holidays. It's great to see fishers out and about again since restrictions were lifted.
After five days of not being able to fish due to windy and wet conditions today I headed back to the same little tannin stream in the hope the trout may be out and about seeing as the river is running a little higher than my last visit. The weather today wasn't all that bad either, plenty of cloud cover with patches of sunlight every now and then, the cool air temperature ( 9 degrees ) was also bearable for a change. It was a late morning start as well, just on 11:10 am when I finally hit the water after a nice long walk to get there. Seeing as the little well used gold #00 Aglia did the job a few days ago I stayed with it to start off the spin session. With the water level running a little higher and faster I did think about going for the larger #0 gold Black fury but decided to wait and see how the little gold Aglia performed first.
With most of the larger rivers running high & fast I thought it best to head over and hit the small streams again as they're much safer to fish, even though there's plenty of water in them they are still okay to hop into and chase trout.
The weather was damp with light drizzle showing up every few minutes and a very cool air temperature of just eight degrees. I arrived at the area I was about to fish when a couple of young boys (7&10) who were helping their parents repairing a paddock fence wandered over for a chat and wanted to know how to catch trout.
I spent around thirty minutes giving them all the info they could take in, before heading off through the bush I gave them a couple of Mepps booklets plus several Mepps spinners to get them started. It was 2:40 pm by the time I hit the water and started flicking a #0 Aglia Fluo rainbow spinner into the cold dark tannin water.
A campaign to accelerate the recreational fishing community involvement in fish habitat restoration was launched today by OzFish Unlimited.
Through a series of powerful images, the online campaign flips the cliched bragging right photo of an angler and their catch with the waterways in focus instead of the fish.
Click here for more information.
Source: https://www.ifs.tas.gov.au/news/2020/jun/17/focus-waterway-health
Community involvement river restoration work
With fine weather this morning with rain forecast for later this afternoon I thought I would get a spin session in before the rain arrived. This trip was to the upper Mersey River, an area on private property and one I haven't fished for a couple of months. The reason I haven't fished here all that often this trout season is because it's a rough & tough area to get into, plus the river itself has to be one of the toughest stretches of water to fish. The rocky river bottom is always covered in a brown slime and so slippery under foot at times it's near impossible to stay upright, not only that the rocks roll underfoot. Another problem here is the water weed growth that has spread along the river making spin fishing near in possible in most stretches of water. Another reason I headed here was that I wanted to give the tannin waters a rest as well as a change of scenery, another reason for heading to the upper Mersey. It was close to 9:20 am when I arrived & parked the car on a narrow bush track on private property, then after a lot bush bashing followed by a long walk I was at the river by around 10:00am. The river was running a little higher than I had expected and still at a safe wading depth, the water was a light tannin colour, the river bottom was it's normal poor condition as I stated earlier.
In May – June 2019 3,500 adult brown trout were caught in the fish trap on the River Derwent at Lake King William. They were tagged with a numbered green tag, and released directly into Bradys Lake. During the 2019-20 season, a total of 95 of these trout were reported to the IFS as being caught by anglers. Of these fish, most were kept, with just 5 reported as being released.
As all tagged fish were transferred into Bradys Lake, we could look at where they moved to within the chain of lakes. Of the 95 tagged trout caught and reported by anglers, 27 were from Bradys Lake, 46 from Lake Binney and 22 from Tungatinah Lagoon. This indicates that 71% percent of these tagged fish had moved out of Bradys Lake, with 48% moving into Lake Binney and 23% travelling down into Tungatinah Lagoon. One fish was reported from the Bradys white water.
Read more: Anglers’ Report - Tagged fish from the Bradys Chain of Lakes
Handy information and links to fisheries,weather etc
Fishing books
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and an art worth your learning.."
Presented from Issue 112, October 2014
So said Izaak Walton in the 1600s. It seems that Burnie’s Hannah Ledger has combined angling with art rather well. Hannah is a fish fanatic, outdoor enthusiast and budding, self-taught artist. From as young as she can remember, she has always had crayon in hand, colouring book under arm and as she’s grown as a painter, jars full of paintbrushes and cupboards full of ready-to-go blank canvas’.
A country girl at heart, Hannah was schooled at Yolla District High School, a small ‘farm’ school in the states North West, then went on to Hellyer College where she was given the opportunity to really grow her art skills; And by grow, that meant skipping the classes that would probably have more an impact of getting her somewhere in life, like English and Math to spend every spare minute with the art teacher, painting or drawing.
As typical teenagers do, they make poor decisions- and after being accepted in to one of the countries top art schools, turned down the offer and decided to move to the big island, where she lived for 5 years working in what seemed ‘dead end’ retail.
Read more ...