Tasmanian Freshwater Fishing Trip

[Stinger]

Well just got back yesterday from my trip to Tassie to see the family and do a bit of trout fishing.

Copped a few cool days with a bit of snow fall about the ranges.

Arrived in Hobart on Thursday 13th and went to the brother’s place.

He has a dam at the back of his place so decided to go for a quick flick with a bream spin fitted with a squidgy rainbow soft plastic. 4th cast hooked up and after a nice little tussle landed a 2lb rainbow that was released to fight another day . Had a few more casts for one other bump and then the rain and wind got the better of me.

On Saturday I travelled to the uncle’s farm located at Caveside under the western Tiers in the N/E of the state.

Sunday morning saw a light snow fall showing on the range and a stiff breeze blowing so not looking good for the highland lakes. After a bit of discussion we decided to try our luck at Four Springs Lake not far from Launceston.

Got to the lake and it was looking perfect but that soon changed when we got on the lake as the weed growth had a large percentage of it usable for trolling lures. The day saw us with only 1 hook up that did not turn into a fish landed.

Monday was looking better for a trip to my favourite highland lake, Lake Mackenzie.

The lake has a bag limit of 5 per person and I got to admit I had never managed that with a lot of trips seeing me coming up one short.

Launched the boat around 2pm. The water level was down about 6mtrs, the water temperature was 10.3 degrees and the air was thick with mossies but not one of them bit us.

Picked up 3 fish in the first 30 minutes and then the bites died off with only an occasional hit.

Pulled the pin around 7pm as it was getting very windy and dam cold.

Final total for the day was 7 landed with another 6 hooked and lost. As any trout fisho will know that’s still not a bad tally for the conditions. By the way I finally landed my bag limit of 5 and to say I was stoked would be understating it.

Tuesday say us trying another one of the highland lakes that has produced for me in the past, Lake Rowallan.

We headed up the top end of the lake where the river comes in as the bottom is an old grass paddock and usually produces a few nice rainbow as well as browns.

4 hours of trolling and we only picked up 1 2lb brown that didn’t even give a kick until he was in the boat. Decided to pack up and go back up to Mackenzie for the last few hours. Ended up with another three nice fish out of there 1 Brown and 2 Locklevens. (The Locklevens put up as good a fight as a rainbow.)

Wednesday we headed up to the Great Lake.

Only 4 other boats on the southern end of the lake as the wind was a stiff north easterly with a few white caps out on the lake.

Wasn’t long before there were only us and another boat left out on the lake.

Spend 6 hours trolling around using Tassie Devils and Flatfish lures for 2 browns.

Thursday wasn’t supposed to be a fishing day but the uncle talked me into it (wasn’t hard to do). He left it up to me where to go so even though we could hear the wind howling up over the mountains I decided to give Mackenzie another go.

Launched the boat around 2.45pm with the mossies even thicker than the other day.

5 fish in the boat in the first hour and 9 in with 3 hours. Took us another 2 hours to get that last fish so we both had our bags.

All in all it turned out to be a fairly good fishing holiday with 24 landed and about the same lost. Bagging out twice at Mackenzie made the trip one of my best experiences. Now all that’s left is for me to bag out at one of the lakes that has a 12 fish limit. Plenty of 11s in the past.

Light snow on the range

Mackenzie

Mackenzie Trout

Mackenzie Mozzies on boat

Lake Rowallan

Great Lake

Rainbow Trout

[jeff f]

sounds like you had a good time stinger

pity they weren't real fish instead of

feral pommy vermin:P

by the way what's a lockleven? is that the orange looking salmonid in the 17th pic

[flatty_catcher]

Yes fresh trout

undoubtedly one of the best table fish around.

Is one a salmon?

nice catch there.

[jeff f]

flatty_catcher wrote:

Yes fresh trout

undoubtedly one of the best table fish around.

:X gag retch you're kidding

[Shrimpo]

Wow thats some beautiful scenery, Some good fish aswell.

[Dinodadog]

Sounds like a fun time was had by all and some nice fish as well.

[Rocket75]

Just so different from up here!

Not sure about the cold conditions though, no wonder the mozzies were not biting, they like warm blood:silly:

Thanks for the report.

Rocket

[Mak]

:cheer: awesum senery

not a fan of eating freshwater fish tho

be good fun catchin tho's trout i reckon

[Do$tylz]

thats sweet as. Good report Stinger. looks like you had a great time.

Looks like a good sized rainbow as well.

[Mozza]

Great report stinger sounds like an awesome trip.

[Stinger]

Jeff both fish in picture 17 are brown trout. The larger one is a male. Just a colour variation that can happen depending on size etc.

A lockleven looks very similar to a brown it just does't have the red spots on it. If you look at picture 9 there a 3 Locklevens and 2 brown on the tray. The fish at the back of the tray is a Lockleven while the middle one is a brown (orange/red spots on the brown)

For those that haven't tasted wild trout (not to be confused with the tastless farmed ones)you are missing out on one of the best tasting fish you can get. I have cooked this for a few doubting mates over the years and every one of them has changed their opinion of them. Since I got back a couple of mates have already rung to see when they can come over for a feed.

[Angus]

Nice report. Love the scenery a lot.

High up on the "places I want to go" list.

SHame thats a massive list

Angus

[chubbstar]

Great report mate, You're makeing me home sick:(

I dont rate the taste of Trout very highly, but thats just my experiance, each to there own aye;)

How do you cook it mate fryed, poached, baked etc? I must admit home smoked is very nice though.

Well done:woohoo:

Jayson

[Stinger]

Jayson

I agree smoked is pretty good but if they are a deep pink colour (plenty of flavour)then lightly dusted with flour and shallow fried is hard to beat.