Conningham

Went out in the morning while there was still some cloud cover. Slowly drifted around past the sphinx. Got 25 flathead and 1 gurnard. While fishing for flathead all of a sudden the water behind me started boiling with blackbacks. Cast out and lost one. The water went quiet. And a strong wind came up. Started rowing back to conningham, trolling as I went. It was HARD going. Then the rod went over -- with a squid! Another squid was trying to eat the first one as I bought it in! I had to anchor and rest for a while. While anchored I span from the boat, and got a blackback. Finally rowed back against the head wind, totally knackered.

Went out in the late afternoon, after the wind had quieted down. As I walked down to the beach a school of blackbacks went ballistic right off the sphinx. I rowed over there toot sweet but no salmon to be found. Got 30 flathead and 4 octopus (or possibly the one octopus 4 times!). Finally started rowing back and trolling, and got two blackbacks.

Got home and Elizabeth and Saranya wanted to go out. So off again. Just off the beach. Elizabeth got 8 flathead and a cod. Saranya got 4 flathead. And I got 4 flathead and a cod. All small.

Conningham

Went to the beach again at night. This time just with spinning gear. Elizabeth hooked about 5 before I got one. I switched to a soft plastic, and even though I could only cast out half the distance, I was getting a fish a cast. Stopped at 8 fish each.

Conningham

Went to the shack. On the previous evening at dusk we saw a fisherman on the shore. I had to go and speak to him, and as we watched he hooked something large that ran out to the middle of the bay, breaking his 40lb line!

I got the surf rod, some bluebait, and Elizabeth and I went down for the evening to try to replicate the trick. Chucked out the bait, but got nothing. But Elizabeth and I span of the shore and got a bunch of fish. At least, Elizabeth got a bunch of fish :( lol. All small flathead.

St Pat's

Drove to the St Pat's river. Drive is 15min to the first fishable spot, and 30 mins to the last spot on the highway. (40 mins if you go up the road into the state forest). Fished at the last spot on the Tasman highway.

Got one small brown on a nymph, and had 2 small rises I missed. Found a pool FULL of rising fish, but no response. Then got a rainbow on a royal wulff. Saw a platypuss up close.

Had two sheep come up close to say hello -- very affectionate! No eating lamb anymore!!!!

Secret Spot

Figured out someone elses secret spot. Always a danger if you post pictures on the internet!

They had lots of pictures of big fish caught on soft plastics. I managed to get to the spot, but was using fly gear. Managed one nice fish (25cm) of a wooley bugger. Was broken off by something bigger -- but who knows how big. I guess not that big -- it was in fast water and I guess it was an aggressive rainbow. Then worked upstream and found some large pools with very slow water movement. No results there -- but the water was fishy. Also, it was hard to fly cast into some of the pools -- far better with soft plastics.

Moved on to the Meander. Got a small fish on a wooley bugger. And found a great stretch to fish for the future.

Huntsman Dam

Went to hunstman dam after work. Almost an hour to drive there from Launceston. A smallish lake surrounded by hills. Not too windy -- but windy enough to make my casting abysmal. Fished the north shore, where the Meander River came in. At this point the Meander is small pocket water, with no pools for fish of any size. Didnt see any fish in the lake, and lost a lot of flies to the drowned scrub. The dam is not particularly fish friendly -- it is gated with electronic gates that close at 8:00 pm. So its hard to stay for the evening rise.

Left and stopped at the Meander river at the town of Meander. Saw fish rising immediately, and tried with the dry fly. Got two takes on a Royal Coachman, and one on an Elk Hair Caddis. But missed them all. Switched to a wooley bugger fished down and accross, and almost immediately got a nice fish (30cm), followed by losing another nice fish.

Bellerive Bluff

Went for a 1/2 hour at 6.30 am. No fish, and despite the water being mirror calm, a fair swell. So I left before I got too wet!

Bruny Island

Went to Bruny on the Friday night. It was blowing a gale. A quick trip to the jetty showed it to windy to fish.

The next morning it was still squally. Span off the beach with a metal pilchard for Salmon. Caught 25, plus a tern. All released unharmed. Later got two flathead on the jetty, and saw a dead octopus in the water.

Brushy Lagoon

Brushy Lagoon is a smallish impoundment to the West of Launceston. It took me 50 minutes from office to dam wall to get there -- so its not that convenient for an after work fish.

I got there at 7 pm on a gray rainy day. I rigged up a 5 weight intermediate line with a green woolly bugger and started fishing near the dam wall.

After 10 minutes I had a soft tug, and connected to a small redfin. Some people dont like redfin, but I love the action a school of redfin provide, so I was happy! But there was only one reddy -- normally you get a ton once you find a school. Another 10 minutes later I got another soft tug. I struck gently, so I wouldnt lift the fish out of the water, and someone let a grenade go off at the end of my line! I saw a brief flash of belly -- it was something in the 5lb +/- 2lb range. I suspect it was a stocked atlantic salmon.

Tried the other end of the dam wall, and started connecting regularly with redfin. By this time I had switched to a red and black woolly bugger. I cast the line out and before I could grab the line and start retrieving something big smashed the bugger and broke the line.

Eventually it got dark and the line got tangled, so I put the rod in the car and tried the spinning rod. But the spinning rod kept connecting with weed -- definitely better as a fly water.

Four Springs

Went to Four Springs after work. An interesting lake. But the wind was blowing a gale (as it does on most Tasmanian lakes), so it was virtually unfishable. Used a cobra for 10 minutes and then gave up.

Timed the trip from the office -- it was 40 minutes door to boat ramp.