Hobart

Tassie summer is settling in

HOBART

Andrew

Large Finally, the roaring 40s have cooled off a little, allowing anglers to head out over the Christmas break in pursuit of some of their favourite summertime species.

Although reasonably settled, saltwater anglers have first thing in the morning, and then again later in the evening in 60-80m of water.

Sand flathead, on the other hand, have been biting well on all but the bottom of the tide on both bait and soft plastics, and trolled and spun lures. Close to Hobart, anglers have been enjoying good success in Frederick Henry Bay towards Slopen Main. ranged from 15-38kg, with rumours of jumbo fish seen and lost by some.

Early kingfish rumours were rewarded, with anglers taking kingfish at both Lewisham and Fortescue Bay near Port Arthur.

Australian salmon have not slowed in many spots since their arrival in late October. Cremorne at Pipeclay Lagoon, Marion Bay at The Narrows and Swansea all have good runs of solid fish happening now.

At the time of writing, there have been no reports of albacore tuna.

Southern rock lobster anglers have experienced mixed results on our eastern rock lobster rebuilding zone since the introduction of the new size limits in December. Persistence is the key, and also knowing that in 2 years’ time the overall biomass will reach this new increased size limit and we will be back to what we know with this species. For now, obtaining a sized fish might be hard, but this won’t last forever.

Tasmania’s highland lakes are enjoying a cool January and plenty of water, with the majority having higher water capacities than normal for this time of the

The rock lobster season started well, and ‘Christmas crays’ were on the menu for many.

faced challenges in relation to weather on the coast, of significance easterly weather patterns that at times have made getting offshore a little harder than it needed to be.

For the moment, however, we have good reports of sand flathead and tiger flathead biting well off the east and southeast coasts. Tiger flathead have been biting well around Bicheno on the turn of the high tide

Betsy Island has seen its fair share of snapper being caught already, and anglers are anchoring up and berleying for best results. Fish have ranged in size from just legal to 600mm. These fish will continue to bite well into late summer and autumn.

Tasman Island saw numerous SBT caught over Christmas, with a smattering of fish caught at The Hippolytes as well. The size year. As a result, the fish are highly active.

One water that has been fishing well is Arthurs Lake. This troubled water took a steep decline around 2012, caused largely by increases in water levels affecting the status quo of well-established weed beds and feeding zones. Around 2019 this water began to produce fish again, and this year seems to be back to its old self, producing great daily bags of healthy browns to 2.3kg on bait, spin and troll and fly. The tight fishing amongst the drowned timber has to be seen to be believed.

Great Lake continues to produce both healthy brown and rainbow trout to 1.8kg. Evenings seem to be fishing a little better than early mornings. Reports indicate rainbows are late spawning this year, many having just returned.

Penstock Lagoon is yielding well-conditioned browns to fly anglers who fish there. The majority of the fishing seems to be concentrated around the edges on smaller wet patterns. Anglers are experiencing some dry fly action as our summer kicks into gear.

Until next month, good luck everybody.

Arthurs Lake is now producing quality trout and is on the comeback after years of uncertain fishing.

FISHING NEWS

Tassie Inland Fisheries Service news

In November, anglers from around the country descended on Lake Burbury and Bronte Lagoon for two fishing competitions organised by the Queenstown and New Norfolk Angling Clubs respectively.

On the West Coast at Lake Burbury, 173 entrants weighed in a total of 561 fish at the annual comp run by the Queenstown Anglers Club. Both brown and rainbow trout in good numbers were being caught near inflowing rivers spinning hardbody lures. A 1.2kg (cleaned) rainbow was the heaviest for the event. 50 entrants also made their way to Bronte Lagoon in the Central Highlands, where the New Norfolk Licensed Anglers Association hosted the Southern Tasmania Licensed Anglers Association’s annual Interclub Challenge. Overall there were 93 trout weighed in, with a total weight of 67.1kg and an average weight of 0.7kg. A 65cm brown weighing 2.2kg (cleaned) won the event.

Both events saw challenging weather conditions from late Saturday afternoon as a vigorous cold front crossed the State, but this didn’t deter the enthusiasm of all competitors who braved the conditions, camped out and tried their luck. TAGGED

TROUT WINNER

Liam McKenna of Devonport and his mate Jarvis had a trip down to Lake Rosebery they won’t soon forget. Arriving down at the water from the north west coast at around 10am on 19 November, they spent the day casting and retrieving soft plastics from the shore.

Throughout the day Jarvis had caught 10 fish to Liam’s two. According to Liam, Jarvis was starting to remind him several times about the day’s catch score board.

This all changed at about 6pm. Liam had a good hit on his soft plastic and brought in a good fish. Upon having a good look at the fish in the net they noticed an orange tag Morwong perch have been biting well off the Tasman Peninsula and other East Coast areas.

next to the dorsal fin that read ‘WINNER’. Liam realised he had been lucky enough to catch one of this year’s promotional $2000 tagged fish.

He then reminded his mate Jarvis that it wasn’t the quantity of fish caught that was important. It is all about quality!

This trout was one of the five fish released into Lake Rosebery this season. There are also still plenty of tagged trout in waters around the state to be caught as part of the Tasmanian Tagged Trout Promotion. - IFS