Tasmanian Fishing and Boating News Issue 132 2018 May by Tasmanian Fishing

May – July 2018

TASMANIAN FISHING

Print Post approved 100003074

and BOATING NEWS — ISSUE 132

Naomi Wisby with a cracking ‘deep dropped’ blue eye trevalla. See more page 31.

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Curing the Winter Blues, Broadbill Lake Rowallan, Gamefish Techniques

Tagging Swordfish — Daniel Paull

Fuzzle Buggered — Gavin HIcks

Fly Tying – Rabbit Fur — Shane Broadby

West Coast Wonderland — Jamie Harris

Get off the Couch — Matt Sherriff

Lake Rowallan — Todd Lambert

Disappearing East Coast Reefs — Jon Bryan

Gamefishing Techniques — Kelly Hunt

Recreational Sea Fisheries News

THE trout TRIFECTA BULLDOG CRANK • 38mm • 10 Colours • UV Colours • Dives to 2m • Weighs 4g

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TANGO SHAD

• 50mm • 15 Floating colours • 15 Suspending colours • Dives to 1.6m • Weighs 4g

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LIVE FLASH MINNOW WRIGGLY

• 70mm, 90mm, 110mm, 130mm • 8 Colours • Fish deep or shallow • Rig weedless or on a jighhead

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For more information please visit

Do you stop fishing now the days are shorter and cooler? Or like me, just fish less frequently and for different species. Saltwater fishing can be fantastic over the next few months and nearly all target species are good to eat. Plenty of bay and inshore fish such as flathead, calamari, garfish and other spring to mind. If you have a bigger boat there are some delicious fish in deeper water such as blue-eye trevalla, hapuka, gem fish and more. In this issue we, once again, have some great stories. Jamie Harris is one of Tasmania’s keenest anglers and always has wise words on his fishing experiences on the West Coast. Daniel Paull is equally keen, along with his father Mason, and I love their story on tagging. A few years back no one would have considered putting a fish back. Now it is an honour to release a big fish - or often a small one. No one has an issue with a fish being taken and used for food, but almost everyone now does have an issue if a fish is killed and not utilised. Wasting anything is not good. During the last election the Liberal Party made several clear promises to boaters and fishers and published them in this magazine. We will keep the results barometer going so you can see how they perform. There are some great initiatives and I look forward to enjoying some of them.

Mike Stevens talks fishing with Chris Wisbey ABC Statewide Saturday mornings 6.40 a.m.

Tasmanian Fishing and Boating News Published by Mike Stevens: PO Box 7504, Launceston, 7250. Mike Stevens – P: 0418 129 949 or E: mike@tasfish.com Stevens Publishing, ABN 79 095 217 299 All material is copyright and cannot be reproduced without the permission of the publisher. Print Post approved; 100003074

Fishing News - Page 2

They include: $700,000 in local government grants to improve access to jetties and other structures, $685,000 to replace derelict jetties around Georges Bay, Consideration of a new Bridport Pier (a consulting nothing promise this one), $2.2 million for better parking at Burns Bay, Pirates Bay, Coles Bay, Swansea. $1 million for two artificial reefs - NW and South. $450,000 for four Fish Aggregation Devices (FADS), Increase funding for Volunteer Marine Rescue Units, $500,000 towards extending Coles Bay breakwater, $100,000 towards Binalong Bay Gulch boat ramp breakwater, $200,000 for an extension to Nubeena jetty, $215,000 to Anglers Alliance, $200,000 to expand Angler Access program in freshwater, $300,000 to build and upgrade amenities including toilets in high visitation fishing locations. This is part of an outstanding list. We wish them well and support the completion of these projects. Mike Stevens

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The author loves to ‘tag and release’.

TAGGING SWORDFISH DEEP SATISFACTION COMES FROM RELEASING THESE MIGHTY GAMEFISH Daniel Paull explains

t hasn’t been long since Leo Miller and his crew aboard ‘Choonachasa’ recreationally caught the first broadbill swordfish here in Tasmania and effectively opened the door to a thrilling new fishery right on our doorstep.Before that fateful day, our gamefishing season usually revolved around the ‘Big Three’.Those three fish were marlin, tuna and sharks. Although the availability of yellowfin tuna and striped marlin depended heavily on the influence of the East Australian Current, mako sharks, albacore and big ‘Jumbo’ sized southern bluefin tuna were readily accessible throughout the season and were the primary target for recreational anglers. With the continuing development of ‘Deep Dropping’ for broadbill swordfish and other deep water critters such as thresher sharks, the fishing here in Tasmania is looking tantalisingly good, especially with the inclusion of swordfish

to the list. Since the recreational fishery for swordfish was discovered, dad and I have tangled with quite a few of these gladiators of the deep. Since the beginning of the year, we have successfully tagged and released three healthy swordfish, slowly backing our effort of four fish from last year. Tag and release has become the most important element to our offshore fishing and has been for a long time now. Our main goal is to have fun and enjoy ourselves doing something we love while at the same time ensuring we do our little part in maintaining a healthy and prosperous fishery for the future.

Tagging Swordfish

During the 1970’s the GFAA (Game Fishing Association of Australia) and the NSWDPI (New South Wales Department of Primary Industries) created the Gamefish Tagging Program. This wonderful initiative gave recreational anglers across the country the opportunity to ‘tag and release’ their fish and assist in the gathering of research data. Ever since, the NSW fisheries have been supplying GFAA affiliated clubs with tags for a host of different fish species. All the tags, which can vary in size and colour depending on the allocated species, are labelled with a number and a return address. Each tag, before deployment, is attached to a numbered card with a description of where to place the tag in the fish. Tags are usually pinned in the

shoulder of the fish, just below the dorsal fin prior to release. The data recorded on the numbered card includes the locality in which the fish was caught, the angler and skippers name, the estimated weight

of the fish and a host of other important details. The program provides information on the movements and distribution of fish species, encourages the release of

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• 70mm, 90mm, 110mm, 130mm • 8 Colours • Fish deep or shallow • Rig weedless or on a jighhead

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BULLDOG CRANK • 38mm • 10 Colours • UV Colours • Dives to 2m • Weighs 4g

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TANGO SHAD

• 50mm • 15 Floating colours • 15 Suspending colours • Dives to 1.6m • Weighs 4g

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Fishing News - Page 3

smaller juvenile fish, discourages the taking of large breeding fish, encourages anglers to practice ethical fishing methods and to adhere to sustainability principles and perhaps most importantly, it develops respect and an overall appreciation for a magnificent resource and one that’ll hopefully be enjoyed for the generations to come. The tagging program has become essential in the continuation and long term existence of our sport and many anglers around Australia are now embracing the tag and release ethic. Tagging and releasing broadbill swordfish has become an interesting discussion amongst anglers. In a sport where the tag and release mentality is well practiced amongst GFAA affiliated clubs and the wider community, it has been surprising to see the vast majority of swordfish being caught around Australia are being taken and processed for food. While there is nothing wrong with taking a feed, there is a very real concern for localised depletion, particularly in the south-east of the country where the majority of the fishing is taking place. As recreational anglers, we can all do our little bit here and there to ensure the maintenance of a developing fishery. We have something very special out there, let’s protect it the best we can. The perseverance with circle hooks opposed to the more traditional ‘J’ style hook is paramount in the game of releasing healthy swordfish. Over the years, circle hooks have been shown to greatly increase the survival

of swordfish and a host of other pelagic critters. In fact, many studies have shown that one of the most influential factors affecting the survival of released fish in general relates to where the fish was hooked. The benefits of using a circle hook are obvious. They drastically reduce the chance of deep hooking a swordy and almost

guarantee you’ll hook them in the corner of the mouth. Hook exposure is everything while using circles. We’ve found the most effective way to stay connected to a fish is by bridle rigging our swordy baits. This technique allows the bait to swing freely below the hook.

Sunline’s newest braid SIGLON PE offers incredible performance at an amazing price! Made from EX-PE fibres, SIGLON PE offers a tightly woven braid that provides superior abrasion resistance, a very thin diameter for its breaking strain and minimal stretch. It is very easy to manage with a stiff yet ultra-smooth and round profile and is available in striking colour options. Available in 8 carrier PE (PEx8) and 4 carrier PE (PEx4).

PEx8 150m: Light Green, Orange, Multi Colour PE0.3 (5lb) to PE3 (50lb) 300m: Light Green, Orange, Multi Colour PE0.6 (10lb) to PE10 (130lb)

Fishing News - Page 4

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PEx4 150m: Light Green PE0.2 (3lb) to PE3 (50lb) 300m: Light Green PE1 (16lb) to PE3 (50lb)

The usage of circle hooks is one piece of the puzzle.The other piece is dealing with barotrauma. Barotrauma is the condition developed when a swordfish rapidly ascends to the surface causing natural gasses within the fish to expand. A swordy with barotrauma can be identified by a slightly swollen looking belly. The key to ensuring a healthy release and defeating the effects of barotrauma is by using heavy tackle and plenty of drag. A drastically shortened fight on heavy gear will ensure that the swordfish has enough strength remaining to powerfully descend back into the deep and naturally recompress the expanded gasses. This is the most important key to a successful release. In every scenario, the fish must be able to descend below the surface otherwise it’ll float and eventually become prey for some other oceanic predator! Bringing a fairly fresh and agitated swordfish alongside the boat in preparation for tagging can provide a few obstacles. The usage of a heavy and lengthy wind-on leader will help in those last few metres of the fight where the fish is getting closer to the boat. Once the majority of the wind-on is back on the reel the fish can then be ‘man-handled’ towards the boat, which is usually necessary when the fish is displaying that nose down attitude and is proving hard to budge. When the fish is eventually brought alongside the boat, a billfish tag is applied just below the dorsal fin and a few quick photographs are taken prior to release. A swordfish fully resuscitated and ready to swim back into the deep will often begin thrashing that big bill from side to side. This is the perfect time let the fish go and watch it swim off, often vertically, back into the abyss.

The artillery required to dominate such a powerful fish can come in the shape and form of many different overhead outfits. We’ve been using the Shimano Tiagra 130, the biggest member of the Tiagra family. The Talica 50 and Tiagra 80W are also popular options amongst keen fishers. A heavy rod is also needed to combat the drag these big reels can produce. The T-Curve Tiagra Game and Tiagra Ultra are also very popular accompanied with the reels mentioned before. Match either of these products together with some heavy braided backing and a short monofilament top-shot and you’ll be set to wrangle with these magnificent creatures of the abyss. Swordfish are known to most as the ‘gladiator’ of the sea. The title is certainly fitting for a fish that so many around the globe consider to be the king of all gamefish. I have the belief that setting out on a mission to successfully hook, fight, defeat and release a swordfish can provide one with the ultimate achievement in gamefishing. This incredible goal can be accomplished right here in Tasmania and the resource we have right at our feet is extraordinary. Hopefully as we move forward as a collective and appreciate the significance of this resource, a few more swordfish are released to ensure the existence of a world-class fishery. Daniel Paull

AVAILABLE AT SELECTED BOATING, FISHING & CAMPING STORES

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Fishing News - Page 5

STILLWATER The new SONAR Stillwater range are specifically designed for cold weather trout fishing in lake environments — just like Tasmania. Stillwater angling presents its own unique challenges and demands. Fishing just beneath the surface film, camouflaging full sinking lines, and fishing the hang are all aspects of Stillwater fishing that we’ve addressed with our Stillwater series.

Stillwater Hover Stillwater Hover

For fishing flies just below the surface WF-4-H thru WF-8H

Stillwater Clear Camo

Camouflage Line for Sub-Surface Fishing WF-4-I thru WF-8-I

Stillwater Clear Camo Intermediate

Stillwater 5’ Clear Emerger Tip

For Fishing Flies in or near the Surface Film WF-6-F/I thru WF-8-F/I

Stillwater Seamless Density

Double Density sinking lines provides straight-line connection to fly Sink 1/ Sink 3 – WF-4-S thru WF-8-S Sink 3 / Sink 5 – WF-5-S thru WF-8-S Sink 5 / Sink 7 – WF-7-S thru WF-8-S

Stillwater Clear Emerger Tip

Stillwater Parabolic Sink

Sinks in U-Shaped Profile Sink 3 running line, Sink 5 head, Sink 3 tip section WF-6-S thru WF-8-S

Stillwater Seamless Density

Sink rate chart – IPS (inches per second) Hover – 1 IPS Intermediate – 1.25 IPS Sink 1 – 1.25 IPS Sink 3 – 3.0 IPS Sink 5 – 5.0 IPS Sink 7 – 7.0 IPS

Stillwater Parabolic Sink

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A bank of Buggers...

BE FUZZLE BUGGERED

FOR THE START AND END OF THE SEASON THE BUGGER WORKS Gavin Hicks is on it...

Fuzzle Buggers…

suddenly it is coming up to that time of year again. Fishing season is as good as over and a brand new season will be fast approaching us which means it is time to sort out the gear, get rid of all the junk that hasn’t been used and restock the early season fly boxes. For some that will mean a visit to the local fly shop to source some favourite patterns, but for others like myself it will mean plenty of hours at the tying bench over the winter months (especially when I am tying for two boys as well, it’s funny how they don’t seem to appreciate the value of a well tied fly as much as I do!). These days for me that will mean a fair bit of time spent tying Fuzzle Bugger style flies, but the good old Woolly Bugger will also get the attention it deserves at the vice as well.

My bugger collection these days mostly consists of different coloured variations of the Fuzzle Bugger fly. I was first introduced to this fly quite a few years ago now after purchasing a fly tying DVD by the late Muzz Wilson. It showcased the various flies he tied using his fuzzling technique for both fresh and saltwater but the one fly that caught my eye the most was his Fuzzle Bugger. Whilst I have caught some bream on it for me it takes pride of place in the trout fly boxes. The original pattern called for the use of Muzz’s Fuzzle Dubbing which is no longer available anymore and didn’t that cause me a fair bit of stress when my supplies finally ran out. But all was not lost and after

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essential

FLYFISHER PH: 03 6331 8944 105 York Street, Launceston, Tasmania

essentialflyfisher.com.au Fishing News - Page 7

The Bugger workshop is extensive. a fair bit of research and experimenting with what I already had available to me I did manage to find some suitable replacements. A material called Translucent Sparkle Dub was sent to my door by Brent from The Lost Fly down in Hobart. Brent was kind enough to play around with the length of the fibres for me and send me some sample packs to try which worked quite nicely and Mike at Essential Fly fisher was able to source the replacement material for the original version which was aptly named Fuzzle 2 and I believe it is from Rick Keam. Both of these materials worked well enough to function as suitable replacements and all was well with the world again. Body material can be any chenille you like but for me the best one to use is Speckled Chenille by Spirit River. I have found that it takes and holds the dubbing the best when it comes time to tease it out with the Velcro and it also has some nice subtle hints of sparkle that shine through the body nicely when in the water. I have tried everything from standard rayon chenille, ultra-chenille right through to woolly bugger chenille(which isn’t too bad if need be, though it does make a thicker body so be mindful of this if using it and don’t overcrowd the hook eye area) but I always end up back with the Speckled Chenille.

Marabou for the tail material and I believe again that Spirit River are one of the best with their strung marabou for making Bugger tails. Hot spots can be added to the tail area if you choose to, which I sometimes do. Orange or red on the brown and black versions and fluoro green or chartreuse on the green versions of the fly. Hook choice for me is the Tiemco TMC 700 in size 8 for most of my general wet fly/ searching type fishing until I run out of my current supply, and then I will be broken hearted. The TMC is a black hook and I believe the black hook looks so much better under this style of fly. And if your fly looks good and gives you more confidence when using it then it will catch you more fish, guaranteed. I have been playing around a bit of late with the Hanak H900BL streamer hooks. They are black barbless hooks with nice sharp points on them which seem to look and work quite well. As mentioned earlier I like a size 8 hook for all my general searching type wet fly fishing and for if I am polaroiding in the Nineteen Lagoons/ Western Lakes area and the fish won’t come to a dry fly. On some of the shallower polaroiding waters I won’t even tie a dry fly on my leader, instead opting for a Fuzzle Bugger as first choice. And believe me there is nothing at all wrong

with watching a nice golden flanked brown trout suck in a bugger sub surface only a rod length away from you. I like to drop back to a size 10 or sometimes even a 12 when chasing tailing fish with these flies, mainly just to get that bit softer entry into the water with the fly so as to lessen the chances of spooking fish unnecessarily. Favourite colour choices for me are all black on the bigger hydro impoundments, namely the Great Lake where there is nothing better than launching a big black bugger into the waves and then hanging on when you set the hook into a solid fish. For polaroiding out in the Western regions I like to go with an all brown version of the fly, which the fish seem to have no problem attacking (most of the time). Sometimes I will switch it up and use a brown fly with an orange butt under the tail. Tailing fishing I will start with either the brown or an all green version depending on the water being fished, just don’t forget to down size. Back corner of Ada Lagoon when full for example would see me tying on the all green version with no hesitation what so ever. Here is my basic Fuzzle Bugger recipe and you can adapt and change from there to suit the conditions as you please, don’t you love fly tying.

Fuzzle Bugger

Hook – TMC 700 size 8, 10 for tailing fishing Tail – Spirit River Strung Marabou Body – Spirit River Speckled Chenille Dubbing – Fuzzle 2 or Lost Fly Translucent Sparkle Dub Thread – Colour to suit the fly you are tying (I like to use 6/0 Uni Thread most of the time)

Rainbows love Buggers. Fishing News - Page 8

Tie in the tail along the full length of the hook shank so as to get a nice even underbody. Tie in the chenille at the head and tie down along the hook shank again to keep and even underbody. Dub your choice of dubbing onto the chenille in small clumps as I find it sticks better this way. Take thread back forward to hook eye and wind chenille along hook shank to form body. Tie off behind hook eye making sure to leave enough room to finish fly. I then like to dub a small amount of material onto my thread and wind on behind hook eye to give a nice thick collar of dubbing at the front of the fly. Whip finish and add a drop of head cement so as not to damage the thread with the Velcro. Tease the dubbing out and mess it up with a strip of Velcro glued to an icy pole stick, the messier the fly looks the better.

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You can also add bead heads, dumbbell eyes (red dumbbells on an all-black fly go well in the Great Lake), cone heads, hot spots on the tail, lead wraps on the under body etc. I could go on forever with list of things you could add to make your own variations of this fly, you are limited only by your imagination.

Browns love Buggers.

Woolly Buggers

The humble old Woolly Bugger doesn’t take up as much space in my fly boxes as it once used to. I still carry a few black, brown and green ones mainly in the bigger boat boxes that do get used from time to time but to be honest the Fuzzle has nearly taken right over. The one fly that has had a resurgence in my tailing fly boxes is the MK 2 Woolly Bugger. With the release of the latest version of Australia’s Best Trout Flies book it got me doing a bit of reading again. I was comparing the old book with the new and came across Ken Orr’s pages which included the MK 2. It got me to thinking why the hell have you not been using this great fly of late Gavin? So I tied a bunch of them in various sizes on some black barbless hooks and lined them up in the C&F foam slots and the memories came flooding back. It truly is one of the great tailing fish/ early season searching flies so do yourself a favour and stock up on them if you haven’t already. By all means add a few twists with some of the modern day materials if you see fit and find whatever works best for you. But keep in mind the original version has stood the test of time and will always be one of the classic trout flies.

A box of Buggers is not enough.

Tie up or Rug Up

So whether you are going to tie flies all winter in front of the fire with a nice cold Boags Red or rug up and cast a few flies around over winter I wish you all the best. Just remember whichever path you choose you could do a lot worse than have a few Buggers on hand. Stay safe out there. If you have your pup with you make sure you keep him warm and enjoy those winter months for what they are. Gavin Hicks

A boy and his dog. Fishing comes second.

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Fishing News - Page 9

TYING WITH RABBIT FUR Shane Broadby takes a look at some common fly tying materials and what you can tie with it. Rabbit fur is very versatile and has some lovely colours available throughout a single skin.

irst, hunt, catch, pickup, beg your rabbit or buy a skin or zonkers strips from your local fly shop. The humble wild rabbit, underground mutton or bunny is just as much a part of the Tasmanian bush as our trout are a part of our cold water rivers, lakes and streams and our trout love to eat flies tied with rabbit fur. As with my previous article on possum tail, I was first made aware of rabbit fur as a tying material when I read Rob Sloane’s Truth About Trout, where Rob’s famous Rabbit Fur Fly was introduced to Australian fly fishers and being a keen young hunter in a hunting family, wild rabbit skins were freely available. European rabbit fur is a versatile tying material, with its natural grey colour having a wonderfully diverse range of colour shades on the one skin and has great natural looking movement in the water. The most useful fur for fly tying is situated on the rear half or rump end of a good winter pelt, this is where the fur is longer and thicker, the under-fur too is extremely useful. If you’ve got yourself a fresh rabbit skin, the best thing to do is to nail it to a board fur side down, nail the skin out slightly stretching it. When nailed this way and left to dry for a week out of the sun, the flesh side of the pelt becomes dry, flat and easy to work with. If you really want to bring out your inner outdoorsman, you can tan the skin, there are easy to use amateur tanning kits available that when the directions are followed result is a beautifully soft tanned pelt, tanned skins work better when tying Zonker style wet flies. For tying Sloane’s type fur flies with a dried skin, we need to cut the skin across ways, in about 5mm wide strips for the width of the whole pelt, then cut the strip into “staples” of about 25mm long, this will result in a staple of dry skin, with the fur orientated all to one side of the skin when viewed from the skin side, see the accompanying photo. I measure and score the dry side of the skin with help of a ruler and the back of the Fishing News - Page 10

blade of a craft knife, then turn the craft knife over and follow the score mark with the sharp side of the blade, you cannot use a pair of scissors for this task as it will cut the fur, try it you’ll see what I mean., we’ll come back to Sloane type fur flies a bit further on. The underfur of a rabbit skin was a staple for dubbing before synthetic and more exotic mixed fur dubbings became popular in Tasmania, the underfur of a natural brown rabbit skin is a bluish dun colour and is perfect for bodies on patterns such as the Iron Blue Dun, if you can get hold the skin of a black wild rabbit, the underfur is often a much darker shade. The under fur is great to work with as it dubs very easily. It can even be used as a winging material at a pinch. Leon Cubit of Cubit Mudeye fame, introduced me to a fly he called the Buzz Smutter, a Chironomid pattern that had wings tied from rabbit under fur tied figure eight style, but really the multitude of synthetic winging material available now is much easier to work with. You can use rabbit mask and the guard hairs just like the hare’s mask we use for the famous Hares Ear Nymph or the Gold Ribbed Hares Ear, a slightly different color but a softer easier hair to dub or too spin in a dubbing loop. I was introduced to fly fishing by my uncle, Ken Broadby. Ken developed a fly for fishing at Lake Sorell that was much more effective in his experience than the usual Red & Black Matuka or standard Yeti style wets that were popular at the time for this famous Tasmanian Lake. Ken’s Killer as he named it, is tied with a strip of tanned black rabbit tied Zonker, or Yeti style, a body of Red or Hot Orange chenille and a topping of Peacock Sword feather herls. The browns and rainbows of Lake Sorell did seem to hit this pattern much harder than other similar style flies.

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Ken’s Killer was a fly developed by the author’s uncle - Ken Broadby for Lake Sorell. It was very effective on browns and rainbows.

We usually sourced the rabbit fur from a piece of old fur coat or even a toy we use to find at the various agricultural shows, community fairs or toy shops that I think was called a Gonk. Gonk’s came in an array of natural and died rabbit fur, they were a real treasure trove for us back then. It’s fun searching around for different supplies of rabbit fur especially the dyed variety but really it’s far more convenient to visit a good fly shop. There is a huge variety of natural and dyed fur patches available and many different styles of Zonker strips in thicknesses such as 1/8 strips, Magnum strips, Texas cut strips and even Cross cut strips that make tying Sloane style fur flies easier. They come dyed in every color imaginable even dyed in barred fashion. There is a style of Zonker that came out of North America a couple of decades ago called the Double Bunny that has really opened up what can be achieved with rabbit fur for both fresh and saltwater fly tying. Some big Lake Crescent fish have been boated in the last few seasons on Double Bunnies. These flies can be tied big, flashy and they have plenty of movement, ideal for discolored waters such as Crescent, commercial fly tyer Brent Bowerman ties some real beauties. Rabbit fur really is a fantastic material for fly tying and really what can be done with it is only governed by the extent of the tiers imagination.

Sloane’s Fur Fly

Hook: Kamasan B170 or B175 size 10 or 8 Wing: Natural Rabbit fur staple, cross cut style Head: Two Ostrich Herls Thread: Black 6/0

Method

Wrap the thread from the eye of the hook in touching turns to half way towards the bend of the hook, then take the thread halfway back towards the eye, let the bobbin hang. Now get your fur staple and fold each end into meet at the middle, skin side inwards, like folding a tent, then fold once more in half. Position the fur package with the fur end pointing past the bend of the hook with the folded skin end positioned above the eye of the hook, nestle the fur around the hook then with your thumb and forefinger then wrap 4-5 firm turns of thread anchoring the fur, when done right you should now have encompassed the fur evenly around the hook with a millimeter or so of the blue under fur between the anchor point of the thread and the folded dry skin,

The Double Bunny, as the name may suggest, has a strip of rabbit top and bottom.

snip the skin off with your scissors and tidy up any stray bits of the underfur. Now drop a bit of head cement onto the thread base which will help to anchor the rabbit fur and wrap tightly over the exposed under fur with several more turns of thread, position the thread just short of the hook eye. Select two nice thick black Ostrich herls and tie in by the but ends, twist these together and then form the Ostrich Herl head, tie off and apply more head cement to the thread at the eye. You can vary the buoyancy of the fly by using lighter or heavier gauge hooks and also by varying of the length of the fur staple, a long staple results in a bushier wing. I also like to think that the natural undyed Rabbit fur has an advantage of a natural smelling fly; we know that Trout have a highly developed sense of smell natural materials may just tip the table in favour for us. This is Rob Sloane’s original tie, simple and very effective but the pattern can be tied in a big array of variations by using different coloured Rabbit fur, different colours of Ostrich Herl or by adding Peacock herl to the head or using yellow, green or fluro coloured threads such as Fluorescent fire orange. You can add a tail or flash. A very good variant is called the Modified Fur Fly tied on a long shank hook with a tail of gold Flashabou and a couple of extra wings of Rufous Wallaby belly fur added along the hook shank and tied with yellow 6/0 thread, it makes a great Galaxia pattern.

Method

The tying method for Ken’s Killer is the same as any Zonker or Yeti style fly, the only difference is the Peacock Sword feather topping. You need to tie 3-4 of the sword herls over the top of each side of the fur wing, using the natural curve of the herl to lay along the top of the Zonker strip, it takes a bit of manipulation to get it right but really I don’t think the trout care one way or the other if the herl lies properly. All the flies described work well early season, the Sloane’s Fur fly is right at home in the shallows when fishing to tailing and worming browns. The Double Bunnies, the Kens Killer and the Modified Fur Fly are just the thing for early season blind searching or the when the trout are hammering the spawning Galaxia around the rocky shores of the highland lakes. OK now put that pot of Curried Rabbit onto heat up and settle into that tying bench, the new season is approaching.

Ken’s Killer

Hook: Kamasan B130 size 8 – 2 Thread: Black 6/0 Tag: Red Wool Rib: Medium gold wire Body: Dark red medium Chenille or Hot Orange Chenille Wing: Black Rabbit Zonker strip Topping: 6-8 Peacock Sword Feather herls . Eyes: Jungle Cock (optional)

Leon Cubit of Cubit Mudeye fame, introduced me to a fly he called the Buzz Smutter, a Chironomid pattern that had wings tied from rabbit under-fur tied figure eight style.

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Fishing News - Page 11

Cast one at Essential Flyfisher — Launceston Fishing News - Page 12

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Plenty of bluefin on the West Coast.

WEST COAST WONDERLAND WEST CAN BE BEST Jamie Harris observes...

t’s no secret, Tassie’s west coast can be a wild, uninviting place when the weather is bad and let’s face it, it’s bad a lot! The whole western Tassie coastline cops the prevailing westerly winds most will know of as the roaring forties. With these often gale force winds and no land masses between Tassie and Africa, the swell and seas can get up to some ridiculously scary heights, making boating impossible more often than not. Swells of over 20 metres have been recorded - yes 20 metres. It is not all bad though, as the weather alone stops overfishing and keeps the area basically as it would have been perhaps 50 years ago! Where else could you say that about I ask?

.... and gummies too.

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Fishing News - Page 13

So when the weather does finally come good the normally quiet boat ramps around the township of Strahan become a hive of activity, whether it’s during the week or on the weekend. Most of the locals and even the not so locals however love their crayfish and so most are only heading out setting cray pots or rings etc. and surprisingly only a handful of people actually head out offshore fishing but those who do are usually rewarded with some awesome species! The water off Strahan gets deep quickly and you don’t have to travel far to get into some good fishing. Bluefin tuna in particular can show up just out of the heads in 30 metres or less. The birds and a sharp eye will usually give them away. On our most recent trip we found schools of tuna from around 30 metres, all the way out to the shelf. There are even reports of the odd tuna showing up in nets inside the harbour! Tassie’s east and south east coast has always been known for the best gamefishing in the state but I truly believe if more people were to fish our west coast, there would be some amazing fish caught! Especially given we’ve witnessed bluefin of 60kg+ jumping on more than one occasion! Fishing News - Page 14

Delicious striped trumpeter too.

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the mighty fish of around 200kg + simply cruised away into the distance leaving us certain that our fish we had on about 100 metres under the boat just had to be a swordfish! It wasn’t to

Southern bluefin however, are usually an afterthought when fishing the west coast even for me. The first target species, thanks to their amazing eating qualities, is usually the striped trumpeter. Stripeys like a rubbly, reefy bottom in deep water and while they can be found in less than 60 metres, the bigger fish will mostly be out in 100 – 200 metres. The most effective way to target these fish is to bait fish with heavy paternoster rigs and big sinkers to hold bottom. I like to tie/crimp my own with 150-200lb mono. Big circle hooks around 8/0 are best. I add some lumo beads or squids for good measure. Baits don’t matter much as most fish aren’t too fussy in the deep but I prefer squid as it will put up with the pickers longer than fish will. Some people use electric reels when targeting stripey and other deep water species but personally I like the thrill of fighting these big fish hand to hand on conventional tackle. Obviously there comes a point where it’s just silly to be dropping a spin rod down so deep and for me anything over 200 metres is getting way too hard for my old body. I like 10000-20000 size reels loaded with 50 or 80lb braid and they do the job nicely, along with a relatively short and heavy spin rod that’s rated to 80lb. A heavier stick will make it easier to not only wind your heavy rigs up to rebait but also to put the brakes on some of the big stripey and massive school sharks you may come across. Another exciting and untapped prospect of the west coast is the possibility of a broadbill swordfish out over the shelf. To my knowledge there has been swords caught on commercial gear but at this stage there has been none caught on conventional tackle. Last year we tried our luck on a perfect weather window and to our surprise we came up tight on our second drop of the day! After a six hour long battle we finally had a positive i.d. of a thresher shark and while we were somewhat disappointed, during the long fight we actually saw not one but two swordfish swimming on the surface sunning themselves! One came within just 30 metres of our boat and was totally unmistakable to the point of us contemplating casting a bait or lure at it! We didn’t though and

be however but this has only added fuel to the fire and I can only say WATCH THIS SPACE!!! Jamie Harris

Mixed grill .... or smorgasbord?

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Fishing News - Page 15

Visitor Paul Wu gets in on some action.

GET OFF THE W

ith Daylight Savings now feeling like a distant memory, the trees have lost their leaves and the days are getting shorter. What does this mean to the Tassie fisherman…should we be packing all our fishing gear away and retreating to the indoors? Not bloody likely!! We have plenty of options in good old Tassie to keep us off the couch!

COUCH

For those with boats, Winter often heralds calmer seas. The second half of April was hopefully a sign of things to come and after a blustery March it was awesome to see so many anglers back out on the water and into some fish. The change in conditions is especially welcomed by those with smaller boats as with the calmer waters they now have the opportunity to leave the lakes

MATT SHERRIFF looks at where you can have some action over the shorter Winter days. There is plenty of good fishing - you will just need an extra layer.

Sunrise is not so early in Winter, but still gorgeous. Fishing News - Page 16

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and rivers behind and experience some of the fantastic fishing that our inshore coastal waters have to offer. We took the opportunity to make the most of this weather and on the last Saturday in April myself and a mate headed out from Bridport in our side console Barcrusher. Having not used the sea ramp before, we thought we’d give it a go as we wouldn’t be as restricted by the tides as we would have been if we launched in the river. The upgraded ramp/pontoon is great for smaller boats in calmer weather (just wouldn’t be a viable option with much of a swell rolling in) and we headed north east towards Ninth Island. Deciding to stay in a little closer to the coast than usual, we fished in 25 – 30 metres of water for much of the morning and over a few hours we ended up with a solid bag of flathead up to 55cm and around 15 gummy sharks with only 3 or 4 being undersized. Note, due to the limit of 2 sharks per person most were returned to the water and swam away. While we were out there we saw a heap of birds just sitting on the water and went to investigate. Although they weren’t working baitfish, we’ve often found fish hanging deeper under a group of birds which are often just waiting for the next boil up. Another good sign for us was the oily slick water surrounding the birds which is an indication that fish have been feeding (looks like a burley slick). As soon as we got close to the birds the sounder indicated we were on the money marking up a solid school of fish around 15 – 20m deep. The Hayabusa Jack-eye jigs were quickly dropped and for the next 20 minutes or so we had a ball with some solid Slimy Mackerel and the odd Couta! It sure pays to keep your eyes out for this sort of activity and it can mean the difference between a good day on the water or a great one (no such thing as a bad day on the water). The following Monday we once again had a chance to hit the water. This time we were going to make the run down to Swansea and head out through Schouten Passage to the shelf to see what was on offer. After leaving town well before sunrise we were dropping baits in 500m of water around 8am. However, It wasn’t

Flake and chips..... yum.

The world’s best bait....

to be; the current was running hard and we struggled to hold bottom so after several unsuccessful drops in different locations the call was made to troll for some Tuna on the way back in. We all love good calls and this was one of them!! For the next couple of hours we had non stop action on what seemed to be acres of Striped Tuna. Downsizing our gear and catching them on soft plastics was awesome fun and it was a great test for the drags on our new Pioneer Altitude 4000 reels! At times the lures were hardly hitting the water before Tuna were smashing them off the top…it was great to watch that’s for sure! About 40 Tuna later, with all on-board suffering from a case of muppet arms, we headed back into the passage picking up a few Calamari before heading the boat back to Swansea. On the way back up the bay we passed several schools of working fish (which is always hard to do) but kept moving as we wanted to get past Lake Leake before the wildlife came out to play. Two great trips over three days with almost 100 fish coming to the boat…this is why the keen fisherman

among us don’t go into hibernation! Last winter we had several Flatty trips over Winter out from Weymouth with good results. The fishing may be a little slower than the Summer months but the quality of the fish was much better. Yes, the weather will be a bit cooler; you may have to take it a bit slower with icy roads on the way to your destination, but what do they say…risk reaps rewards! Grab yourself some thermals and a YETI Rambler to keep your coffee hot and leave the couch for what’s outside!

Winter Tips:

Get yourself some decent thermal wear Good quality cups/thermos for warm drinks/soups/ casseroles etc – we use YETI products Keep waterproof gear handy and carry a change of clothes for the trip home Be aware of icy roads – rain in the evening followed by a frost can be nasty!

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Fishing News - Page 17

If you are fishing in a small boat, pick your weather. It is often best to head out in the middle of a period of settled weather to avoid sudden changes and get caught out. Always advise others of where you’re heading as well. Don’t become a couch potato.

A few hot spots:

Bridport/Weymouth: Flathead and Gummy Sharks. Gummies tend to be in closer around the full moon. The whole north coast fishes well, this is just close to home for me. Eaglehawk Neck/Schouten Island: Southern bluefin tuna will often be hard in against the cliffs throughout the cooler months – big models too!! Squid will still be around their usual haunts but during the winter months you will generally have better success fishing a little deeper; 8 - 12 metres is a good starting point. Blue eye and gem fish are often thought of as summer catches but will be around during winter and the calmer days make them much easier to fish for. Matt Sherriff

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Fishing News - Page 18

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A lot of fun on light tackle.

Fishing for tuna with quality light tackle Pioneer Altitude 4000 Reel Lox Blade II 6‐8kg Rod Timber Wolf Braid 20lb

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Fishing News - Page 19

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Fishing News - Page 21

LAKE ROWALLAN

Lake Rowallan

The season never ends - just find a rainbow designated lake and some mates says Todd Lambert.

lthough spoilt for choice, many anglers in Tasmania have a water that they like to visit every now and again, not necessarily because it consistently produces massive bags of well-conditioned fish, but because it is dear to their hearts and perhaps holds fond memories of years past. Towards the end of the 2017 season (mid May), Todd Lambert and his good mate Mark Tapsell made such a pilgrimage to Lake Rowallan and in doing so, created some new memories for themselves at this often underutilised fishery. Fishing News - Page 22

Positioned in the upper reaches of the Mersey White water forest reserve, Rowallan is relatively easy to find. Situated approximately 25 kilometres past Liena, from Deloraine take the B12 past Mole Creek, turn left on to the C138 then on to the C171 past Lake Parangana. The southern side of this Hydro created impoundment lends itself to extensive areas of lakeside bush camping with the added bonus of an abundance of dry firewood available for gathering.

Winter can be cold and still - and productive.

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To Deloraine C171 MERSEY

AR M

ROAD

Rive

R OA

FOREST

Mersey

LAUNCESTON LAKE ROWALLAN

HOBART

HYDRO LAND

STATE FOREST

LOCATION

MERSEY WHITE WATER FOREST RESERVE

STATE FOREST

MAG

ROAD

Rowallan Dam

FISH

RIVER

ROAD

MAGGS MOUNTAIN FOREST RESERVE

LAKE SEY

MER

ROWALLA

STATE FOREST

FOREST

ROAD

HYDRO LAND

CRADLE MOUNTAINLAKE ST CLAIR NATIONAL PARK

Riv

WALLS OF JERUSALEM NATIONAL PARK

STATE FOREST

4km

Lake Louisa

www.tasmap.tas.gov.au

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Fishing News - Page 23

Why is it so special to me?

Before I go into the details of our last visit and offer some tips on how to fish it successfully, I would like to give you a brief insight as to why this water is “my special place”. Some 35 years ago, my (now deceased) father, Geoff Lambert was the local Police Inspector at nearby Deloraine, a tight knit rural community where I spent a majority of my youth. Being a country boy, most weekends were spent either hunting rabbits or fishing this impoundment with dad in our new “state of the art’’ savage gannet, it was pushed with a Chrysler “White Death’’ 25 horse power 2 stroke engine. Lack of maintenance eventually saw this motor give up its life on this very water resulting in a long row back to the boat ramp, but that is another story… Sometimes the past just hits you like a steam train and during this most recent visit, my eyes filled up more than once as I recalled past Code of Conduct memories that overwhelmed me in a tide of unexpected emotion. • Be aware of and comply with fishing regulations. For a• brief second, as silly as it may sound, I Respect the rights of other anglers and users. swear I felt his presence standing alongside Mark • Protect the environment. and I as we cooked our lunch in one of our old • spots. Carefully return undersized, protected or unwanted camping catch back to the water. I miss those days dad, and will forever be in • for Fish species and other organisms must not be your debt providing them to me…

relocated or transferred into other water bodies.

Angling Regulations To fish in any open public inland water in Tasmania you must hold a current Inland Angling Licence unless you are under 14 years of age. A summary of the regulations are contained within the Tasmanian Inland Recreational Fishing Code. Note: Waters flowing into Lake Rowallan (Except the Mersey River) are closed to angling at all times. The Mersey River above Lake Rowallan is a designated wild rainbow trout river fishery and is open from the Saturday nearest the 1st October to the Sunday nearest 31st May. Species

Minimum size

Bag limit

220 mm

12*

Brown trout, Rainbow trout

* Combined daily bag limit of 12. Method Fly fishing Artificial lures Bait fishing

Season From the Saturday nearest to the 1st October to the Sunday nearest the 31st May.

Blackfish illustration W. Fulton

Fishing News - Page 24

Protect our Water s Recreational anglers have a responsibility to look after fisheries resources for the benefit of the environment and future generations. • Do not bring live or dead fish, fish products, animals or aquatic plants into Tasmania. • Do not bring any used fishing gear or any other freshwater recreational equipment that may be damp, wet or contain water into Tasmania. Check, clean and dry your fishing equipment New Memories midgebefore off the top just a few hundred entering Tasmania. metres from us, after a few unsuccessful June and July 2016 saw a huge flood • Do not transfer any freshwater fish, frogs, to approach within casting event in Tasmania and the road to Lake attempts tadpoles, or plants between inland waters. that ultimately proved fruitless, Rowallaninvertebrates was one of those affected. With distance we decided make Check your boat, trailer,washed waders and fishing to gear forour way down to the road• and bridge infrastructure top end of the lake by following the old away, access in the season wasthat denied weed and2017 other pests should not be transferred until thebefore road reopened just in time for river bed, we didn’t spot another fish as we moving between waters. made our way through it. the • remaining few weeks of the rainbow Do not use willow (which is a plant pest) as a rod trout season. If you’re nota familiar with Rowallan, support as it has the ability to propagate from accessing the top end of the lake by boat A couple strike.of days before any official announcement that the road had actually can be frustrating as you have to make your been reopened, we decided to check in way through a heavy mix of submerged withNative the MeanderFish Valley Council as to the and standing timber, caution must always Management be adopted as the fluctuating water levels possibility of earlier accessibility. The lake has populations of climbingofgalaxias this lake(Galaxias quite often mean you are faced The assurance was given over the phone brevipinnis) and the spotted galaxias (G. truttaceus). Both that it was “unofficially open” and we could with a different approach every time you species now. commonly grow to betweenfish 120it.mm and 140 get through mm in length. Anglers may encounter River blackfish My only advice is to seek a path along Immediately plans were made for the the right hand sidemm shoreline with your back (Gadopsis marmoratus), a minimum size limit of 220 following day. facing the dam wall, once you find the river and bagatlimit of 12 applies to River Arriving approximately 10am, we blackfish. bed, it opens out like a small highway. were met with perfect conditions, in Curiously, for some reason this passage fact the water was like glass giving the seems much clearer on the return journey. appearance of the mountains melting into A cautious route through the river bed the waters reflection. will see you arrive at the top end of the The raw beauty of this place is lake some 15 to 20 minutes later, it is here breathtaking and days like this showcased the water opens up and the depth gets it at its finest, with the water so flat, we knew any fish caught would be a bonus, shallower. Blackfish This end of the lake lends itself to flat little did we know what was about to unfold line trolling, soft plastics and even dry fly hours later… As we launched near theUse dam wall, we fishing, we were amazed to see a couple Recreational observed a couple of feeding fish taking of duns and red spinners still present on thisramp trip. situated on There is a well sign posted gravel boat

the eastern end of the dam wall, but it can be difficult to www.tasfish.com - Get the knowledge - Get the fish.

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Fishing News - Page 25

Nice rainbow... Yellow Gum beetles and the remains of the previous night’s midge hatch were also found floating in the glass like conditions. We fished soft plastics through until 2pm only stopping for lunch with nothing to show for our efforts, not a touch, in fact not a shape appeared that even resembled a fish on my fish sounder and I was on the verge of suggesting we give the day away and head home…Then it happened. As the breeze that remained absent all day began to increase, a slight ripple started to form on the water, my fish finder started to make unfamiliar noises and shapes both large and small appeared out of nowhere on its screen, I remember saying to Mark, these have to be fish, aren’t they? The sudden scream of the drag on Mark’s outfit answered me before he did and a short time later, a solid three pound brown was in the boat. As we set ourselves for another drift, a couple of casts later, it was my turn, this set the scene for a solid session that produced 11 well-conditioned rainbow and brown trout. Reluctantly, with darkness starting to fall, we left knowing we had to make our way back up through the river bed and we left with the fish still in a frenzy, some of these rainbows went four pound and they were angry! The lure of choice? Gulp Pumpkinseed fished slowly in around 3.5 metres of water, it was like chocolates to them on this day. So there you have it, a great way to finish our season, you can bet we will be back up there early next season for a Fishing News - Page 26

camping trip or two, armed with fly rods, lures and plastics. Hopefully once again we will create some more memories of our own at this amazing place, why not put it on your radar for this season as well? You won’t be disappointed. P.S: A final tip. If you’re a bait fisher, be prepared to catch unlimited small blackfish as night time falls, the best way to avoid this is to suspend your bait off the bottom with a float. Todd Lambert

Nice brown....

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Fishing News - Page 27

Tasmanian recreational abalone and rock lobster fishery set to lose 32% of east coast reefs by 2021 Recent government modelling predicts that 32% of east coast rocky reefs that are vital to the recreational fishery will be lost to urchin barrens by 2021. Both abalone and rock lobster fisheries will be eliminated from these areas while the Tasmanian government fails to take any effective action. Tasmanian east coast reefs and recreational rock lobster fishery are threatened by the expanding population of the long-spined sea urchin, Centrostephanus rodgersii, due to government mismanagement of the Tasmanian rock lobster fishery. Urchin barrens do not support useful numbers of abalone or rock lobster and do not spontaneously recover over time. Established barrens will exist for the foreseeable future. Apart from being an ecological disaster, urchin barrens eliminate commercial and recreational fisheries for abalone and rock lobster. This is particularly significant for the recreational rock lobster fishery as 80% of recreational fishers target the east coast and the reefs initially most affected by Centrostephanus urchins are the shallow reefs down to 30 m that are most important to the recreational sector. Decades of overfishing have resulted in the almost total removal of large rock lobster from east coast reefs. Large rock lobsters (carapace length greater than 138 mm) are the only effective natural predator of Centrostephanus urchins in Tasmanian waters. This is much larger than the current recreational size limits, which are 110 mm for males and 105 mm for females. Without rock lobster predation controlling Fishing News - Page 28

their numbers, Centrostephanus urchins graze rocky reefs so intensively that kelp and other marine plants are removed. Normal reef habitat is replaced by urchin barrens where few species survive other than small filamentous algae and sea urchins. In 2017 it was revealed that modelling by the Tasmanian government’s scientific advisors from the University of Tasmania’s Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) predicts 32% east coast reefs will be covered by Centrostephanus urchin barrens by 2021. That disturbing prediction is actually very optimistic, as important factors that will make the situation even worse are not taken into account. The modelling does not take into account the permanent loss of productivity due to expanding urchin barrens or the effects of climate change on rock lobster reproduction and recruitment patterns, which are likely to be negative. Fleet dynamics, is also ignored. This means that fishing activity, which can be expected to preferentially target more accessible reefs or more productive reefs, is not modelled. The actual loss of reef is likely to be much greater than the model’s prediction of 32% by 2021. Understanding fleet behaviour is critical to assessing the government’s claims that it is rebuilding stocks and that there is nothing to worry about. If stocks rebuild on a particular reef, for example, fishers will naturally target that reef as it provides the best fishing. Unfortunately that means that as a result, there is almost no chance of rock lobster surviving to grow large enough to become successful urchin predators.

A Centr oste phanus urchin bar ren encroaching on a kelp bed in shallow water in shallow water on top of a bommie just off the east coast of Maria Island. Location: Mistaken Cape. Photo: Jon Bryan

Claims are regularly made that the east coast rock lobster stock is rebuilding due to recent management changes such as the east coast cap (the catch limit on the catch of rock lobster on the east coast) and the cut in the commercial state-wide total allowable catch (TACC). Unfortunately, the failure to deal with fleet dynamics means that this strategy will not protect reefs from Centrostephanus urchin barrens. Even if stocks rebuild in the short term, the ongoing loss of reefs to barrens will affect the fishery. As fishers preferentially target more productive reefs, rock lobster will be unlikely to survive the gauntlet of fishing to become large enough to control Centrostephanus urchins and prevent the spread of barrens. Rock lobster stock biomass in two of the east coast commercial management areas has fallen to critical levels. Area 3 (see Figure 1) rock lobster stocks are currently at 10% of virgin biomass, that is the biomass (i.e. the mass of the area’s rock lobster population) is just one tenth of the level before European fishing began. Area 2 biomass is at 9%.

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Figure 1. Tasmanian rock Lobster management areas. Rock lobster populations in areas 2 and 3 are estimated to be at 9% and 10% of virgin biomass respectively, while area 5 is at 9%. For non-fishery scientists the biomass levels need to be put into context. Fishery managers in most fisheries would be very concerned if stocks of species they were managing fell to 40%. A decline to 10% would normally be considered to be disastrous, to the point where major fisheries closures and management restructuring would be considered. A fishery operating at just 10% of virgin biomass is not normally considered to be a healthy or productive fishery. There is less of a buffer during bad years when natural weather events, for example, may reduce numbers, and it takes longer to catch fish, or take your quota if you are in a quota-managed fishery. Anyone who fished for rock lobster (well we used to call them crayfish or crays) in the 1970’s or 1980’s, as I did, knows how much harder it is now to catch your bag limit. For the commercial fishery, this low stock level imposes extra costs, makes the fishery less efficient and makes it harder for commercial fishers to make a profit. The government’s solution is to manage stocks so that they reach a target of 20% of virgin biomass, which is still too low. I have not been able to find any scientific journal articles on comparable fisheries where even 20% would be considered to be acceptable. Even as a member of the government’s own Fishery Advisory Committees (FACs), Crustacean FAC and Recreational FAC, I have never seen a reasonable explanation why Tasmania should set the bar so low for this important fishery. And remember, it is not just the rock lobsters at stake. Because large southern rock lobster are the only local predator of Centrostephanus urchins, they are critical to the ecologically and preservation of Tasmanian east coast reef habitats. The current management system means that there is little chance of rock lobster surviving to become large enough to prey on Centrostephanus urchins and control their numbers. The absence of large rock lobster will lead to ongoing loss of productive reef habitat to urchin barrens even if rock lobster biomass recovers substantially. And the continuing loss of habitat

spells disaster for the rock lobster fishery over the next decade or so. Some commentators claim that this problem is due to climate change. Climate change is no doubt making things worse, by creating better conditions for Centrostephanus urchins while making things worse for rock lobster. However, it is important to remember that this disaster is directly related to overfishing that has almost completely removed large rock lobster that are able to control urchin numbers. This has directly resulted in the expansion of urchin barrens, as has been clearly demonstrated in experimental work done by scientists from the University of Tasmania. Large rock lobsters can and do protect reefs from Centrostephanus urchin barrens. I first warned the government about the threat to Tasmania’s reefs and fisheries from Centrostephanus urchin barrens in the 1990’s, both in written submissions and at FAC meetings. I have personally briefed fisheries ministers on this issue, including David Llewellyn, Bryan Green and Jeremy Rockliff. A fairly obvious first step in dealing with this problem would be to bring stakeholder representatives together to develop some effective strategies that would minimise impacts on fisheries. This is something that I have been suggesting to Tasmanian fisheries ministers for years. To his credit, Brian Green actually organized this type of meeting, but failed to progress beyond a successful first workshop. More recently, at the end of 2017 I tried to arrange a stakeholder meeting. Scientists, recreational fishers, conservationists, commercial fishers and others agreed to attend. I also wanted to involve the Minister and his department. Unfortunately, despite initial enthusiasm, the commercial fishers pulled out and Minister Rockliff appeared to be unable to convince them to participate and would not involve his department without the support of the commercial sector. Fisheries ministers since the 1990’s have been aware of this ongoing failure in fisheries management. They have allowed the stocks of rock lobster to decline to unacceptably low levels and have not done anything useful to stop the expansion of urchin barrens. Despite the Tasmanian government being aware of the Centrostephanus urchin threat for years, we are now looking at losing 32% of Tasmania’s east coast reef by 2021. And that is an optimistic prediction. The situation is not hopeless. There are things that can be done. But there has been a lack of political will over the last two decades to provide leadership and incentives to deal with this problem. The impending loss of 32% of east coast reefs by 2021 should be enough to motivate action by the new fisheries minister, Sarah Courtney. If the government wants to destroy the iconic east coast recreational rock lobster fishery then it just has to maintain its current rock lobster management.

Southern rock lobster are the only significant predator of Centrostephanus urchins in Tasmanian waters. Only larger rock lobster with carapace length greater than 138 mm are capable of controlling Centrostephanus urchin numbers and preventing the spread of urchin barrens. Smaller rock lobster can’t get past the spines. Over fishing of rock lobster has resulted in stock in two critical east coast management areas falling to 10 % or less of the original biomass, which is an unacceptable level for this type of fishery, and removing almost all rock lobster large enough to control urchin numbers. Location: Mistaken Cape. Photo: Jon Bryan.

Management Responses to Urchin Barrens and Overfishing A number of options are available to deal with the urchin barren problem. Some of the more obvious are outlined below. I believe that the government and current Tasmanian fisheries minister should convene a stakeholders meeting to develop strategies to deal with urchin barrens and the threat to the recreational rock lobster fishery. Increase Density of Large Rock Lobster Managing the rock lobster fishery to build density of large rock lobster (carapace length greater than 138 mm) to 1/1000 m2. Research indicates that this density of rock lobster appears to provide protection to reefs from expansion of urchin barrens. According to one government report (Report to the Minister on the draft management plan for the Tasmanian Rock Lobster fishery Wild Fisheries Management Branch, Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, 2011) a closure of the east coast commercial fishery would achieve this in between 5 and 10 years. Introduce Maximum Size Limits Maximum size limits will protect the important large rock lobsters that are able to control urchin numbers and make all other management options more effective. Unfortunately, current fishing levels mean that it is unlikely for any significant numbers of rock lobster to survive to be big enough to be

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Fishing News - Page 29

effective urchin predators, so by itself an maximum size limit would be ineffective. Commercial Harvest At first glance, commercial harvesting Centrostephanus urchins for their roe seems like a win-win solution and is sometimes presented as the perfect answer to Tasmania’s urchin problem. While harvesting urchins for food may reduce urchin numbers in some limited areas, it will not have a significant effect on the overall problem. The demand for Centrostephanus urchins is currently low. Harvesting also does not normally target urchins on fully developed barrens as they are starving and their roe (the bit that is edible) is of very quality and of no commercial value. Starving urchins on urchin barrens unfortunately survive indefinitely and maintain the barren. There is some potential for collecting starving urchins then feeding them in aquaculture facilities, for example, until they are marketable but the costs involved are a real problem in a competitive marketplace. In any case, the logistics of diving and OH&S considerations limit collection by divers to relatively shallow depths (perhaps 15 m) and commercial divers will never be able to work economically on much of the reef being damaged by urchins. Culling Culling by divers is effective but very expensive. Logistical and OH&S considerations again prevent divers from operating economically except in relatively shallow depths. A number of trials have been carried out to assess the effectiveness of diver culling. The most relevant was carried out in a section of Wineglass Bay. Urchins were effectively removed after divers went over the same area of reef three times. It cost over 1.5 million dollars to clear a relatively small area, deeper reef below 15 m were not be cleared due to OH&S considerations, and of course the urchins will just return unless the culling continues or major changes are made to the management of the rock lobster fishery. Autonomous Underwater Vehicles or Robots There is potential to use autonomous or remote controlled underwater vehicles to cull urchins. Trials have begun on using this type of technology on crown of thorns starfish on the Great Barrie Reef. This technology is in the early stages of

development and needs much more time and money before it is effective. Even if they are developed, ongoing costs are likely to be high. Tasmania’s reefs need a solution quickly. Area Closures Areas closures could be used to allow rock lobster populations to recover and the density of large rock lobster to increase to a level where they protect against the expansion of urchin barrens. The likely strategy would be to close areas until the density of rock lobster increases to effective levels, then have a maximums size limit to protect large rock lobster when fishing resumed. Commercial Closure As described above, a closure of the east coast commercial fishery would likely result in an increase in the density of large rock lobster in between 5 and 10 years. According to the government, there are 12 to 14 commercial fishers who claim they can only fish on the east coast due to the size of their boats. They can still lease out or sell their entitlements, or some sort of compensation could be arranged. Removing commercial fishing pressure would reduce the east coast catch by 75 % overall, and probably around 50 % in inshore waters. This would greatly reduce fishing pressure and make managing the fishery and the urchin barren problem much easier. Managing Fleet Behaviour Fishers preferentially target more accessible and/or more productive reefs. This is common sense and backed up by research. The problem is that this means that stock rebuilding and efforts to manage urchin barrens can be undermined by fleet behaviour. Mechanisms such as tagging need to be developed to ensure stocks recover and reefs are protected from expanding urchin barrens. Funding The Tasmanian commercial rock lobster fishery sector has taken around 1 billion dollars worth of fish out of this fishery over the last decade. It has also taken most of the rock lobster out of the east coast and must therefore be seen as primarily responsible for the current situation. A small percentage levy would provide useful funding to support management options or buy outs of entitlements.

Do Nothing An alternative option is to simply do nothing. Prior to the state election this seemed to be the current position of the government. Recent changes to bag limits, seasons and even the introduction of the east coast cap area (which limits catch in the most critical parts of the east coast) will not stop the ongoing destruction of reef and conversion of productive habitat to Centrostephanus urchin barrens. Very optimistic modelling by government scientists predicts 32% of east coast reefs will be covered by urchin barrens by 2021. Urchin barren can be expected to expand across much of the east coast reefs. The do nothing strategy will result in the destruction of the iconic recreational rock lobster fishery on Tasmania’s east coast. Jon Bryan

The Author: Jon Bryan began fishing in the 1960’s and started spearfishing on Tasmania’s east coast in 1973 as a kid. He learned to scuba dive in 1978 and has logged over 4000 dives. He has dived in many places around the world, and on every continent except Africa. Spearfishing and collecting abalone and rock lobster eventually gave way to underwater photography. He studied marine biology and ecology as part of his science degree. As well as normal diving, Jon does deep technical diving using closed circuit rebreathers and mixed gas, and has done dives to 70 m in Tasmanian waters. Concerned about the decline in fish in places where he was an active fisher, he started doing part time work for the Tasmanian Conservation Trust on marine issues such as wild fisheries management and aquaculture in the 1990’s. Jon was deeply involved with the campaign to stop the super trawler and continues to work part time for the Tasmanian Conservation Trust and is currently a member of all Tasmanian Government’s Fishery Advisory Committees (FACs), including Recreational FAC and Crustacean FAC. He is also a committee member for the recreational fishing organisation TARFish.

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GAME FISHING TECHNIQUES Gaffs and gaffing; Cubing and other Winter piscatorial game fishing tips with Kelly ‘Hooch’ Hunt. Author ‘Hooch’ can make a decent fish look small. Don’t be fooled that you can land a mako like this easily though. You need a good and learned ‘gaffer’ with any mako or good sized fish.

GAFFS and GAFFING

Last month we touched on gaffs and gaffing so I thought we might talk a little bit more about them, and some bigger fish harvesting techniques. June is a month were jumbo tuna are at the forefront in Tasmania, along with some big broadbill swordfish. There is always the possibility of a mako shark as well and that raises some different points of view. There is a huge, and possibly devastating, difference in gaffing a harmless tuna and a fish that can open you up with either teeth, or in the case of a swordfish, its bill. In Tasmania there are two reasons to utilise a gaff at the side of a boat. Firstly, a gaff will negate the loss of your catch that is too big or too awkward to use a net and secondly they can be a handy tool to help in subduing a large dangerous piscatorial beast that you intend to harvest. If deep dropping and you have a string of tasty fish come up from the deep a net can be more nuisance than handy with all the deep drop hooks in the mix. A nice 1.2m stainless gaff with a 75mm hook gape is perfect for being able to pluck a big blue eye or hapuka off the line as you hold the leader. Once over the gunnel you can flick them off the gaff one by one as you work your way down the 3 or more hook rig. 1.2m might be a little longer than you think you need, but in case one drops or floats off after the journey from the deep, you will be glad it is. These fish are too highly sought after and super good eating to have you miss one because you can’t quite reach it. This gaff can also double as a general boat hook for grabbing a mooring line or a cray pot buoy in those boats cramped for gunnel room. School tuna can be taken with this same gaff right up to 60kg models. If you have been fishing for a long time

and quite skilled and reaching over and grabbing the tail of school bluefin and albacore it’s a good technique. It is not however for everyone as a high gunnel or a bit of ducks disease can make for more lost fish than taken. The 75mm gaff is a good size to sink into the fishes head. I like to hit em half way between where the fish’s eye is and the gill line. There is plenty of flesh to sink the gaff into and then lift the fish smoothly out of the water.

Tips for trouble free gaffing

Speak to the angler and don’t have them get to excited and lift the fishes head out of the water. You need to have patience and be smooth and gentle so that fish lays alongside the boat. Go out over the top of the fishes head making sure you don’t snag the leader and when you have the gaff in the right spot pull it towards yourself like you mean it. If your gaff is nice and sharp you will have the gaff hook set and the fish coming towards you. Slow down and smoothly keep the fish coming towards you and up over the gunnel. Very important to be cool calm and collected and a lot easier if you have played the fish out and it’s about done. Be patient and the more practice you have the more confident and proficient you will be and get your “Gaff Master” badge.

Jumbo tuna is another thing all together, but there are some similar points to remember. Stay calm ! Yes I know it is a big fish, yes it’s the fish of a lifetime, but don’t muck it up at the last hurdle. The gaff you need here is a bit bigger in the gaff hook and also longer in the handle. A good jumbo gaff is about 100 – 125mm in gape size and 1.5m – 1.8m. This gaff should be at least 10mm dia. in the gauge of the hook and have two hand grips. When the fish has been played out and doing slow circles at the side of the boat, the extra length will allow you to set the gaff sooner and further away. The basics are the same – slow and steady. Smooth and calculated

About this size a good small gaff is very useful.

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I say lifting but in reality you are de-weighting the fish and got the lion’s share of the weight on the gaff head lifting vertically. (Gaffs are super strong when the hook is sunk deep into the flesh and the lifting is done on the bend of the gape and not the point. You will not lift very much of anything on the point of a gaff. What you will do is open up your gaff).

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you hold the gaff out hook down and when the fishes head goes past sink the gaff in hard. The action of pulling the hook in will have the big fish coming your way so keep that action coming. You want the Jumbo’s head coming straight into your power zone in the centre of your body. In one swift strong movement you want Attomic PRINT.pdf 1 31/08/2017 PM boat and to pin the fishes head against the side3:03:53 of the be lifting the fish straight up and down.

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It is better to gaff a fish like this than be messing around with nets.

Occasionally your stress levels will blow out as you realise you can’t deal with ole mate ‘jumbo’ at the side of the boat. Right about now someone will need to come over and save the day. A second gaff or fish hook is crucial when gaffing a big tuna. Not only for securing the fish, but being able to get the trophy on the deck of the boat. A lot of people will laugh at the idea that two people can get a 100kg plus fish over a gunnel by themselves. Just remember you are not lifting 100plus kg as the fish is in water and slippery. You only have to lift the best part of the fish up across the gunnel and the shape of the fish and the slippery nature of the beast will help do the rest. There is a big tip that will help in this exploit. The second gaff does not need to go into the same spot as the first. This is the automatic reflex action from an in experienced crew member. Sure you have a second hook in the fish but at that height you both have limited ability to lift with just the arms. The second gaff needs to be sunk into the fish lower into the fish and the crew member bent over the gunnel ready to use arms legs and back when he hears the number 3. When the original gaff man sees that gaff go in and has the fish head high and vertical he needs to call out “Righto on the count of three..One..Two..THREE ! “ What you should be looking at now is a massive great fish laying in the bottom of your boat. Working as a team and getting the second gaff or fish hook into the fish at the right height is crucial. The skipper can help in this as well. Should the fish be gaffed on the port side just as the 1, 2, 3 call goes out they can leave the helm and

use their body weight to manipulate gunnel height to the water. The lower the gunnel the easier it is the get the head and shoulders of the fish on and over. Once you can do that the rest of the slippery torpedo shaped fish will come a damn lot easier. If the fish is on the starboard side the skipper can put the helm on full lock to starboard and throttle up a little. This will also lay the gunnel down and help out heaps. Now we go up to the next level. Mako sharks are angry and dangerous when you hook them. They are crabby and ferocious when you are playing them out. You can just imagine what happens when they are hit with a gaff hook. They go dead set ballistic. These fish are powerful and dangerous and not to be taken lightly. They call for equipment that is rather specialised. You can take mako sharks with a fixed gaff but I personally don’t advise it. A shark of 50 – 60kg is ok to hit with a couple of fixed gaffs, but be prepared for fireworks. We need to put these fish into some sort of context. They have immense power and strength. I mean like crazy power and strength. They are the in the top five of quickest fish in the ocean and super streamlined, but the power I am talking about is the force they can generate when they twist and roll. These fish can destroy gaffs, ropes and anything that gets in their range. I have seen them damage a lot of gear. What tends to happen though is we end up being under gunned. We don’t understand where that torsional power comes from and we grossly underestimate it. Like I mean… They are in water? A liquid - where does it come from? So when we are confronted with the prospect of harvesting a mako shark over the 60 - 120kg mark we a pretty good quality flying gaff with good quality rope and fixtures. I see people really under estimate the size and construction of the gaffs they take to battle for mako sharks. Often the decision on which gaff to purchase is limited to money constraints or inexperience. A bigger constructed and strong gaff can always be used on a smaller fish, but a small to big size and constructed gaff is going to end in misery on that bigger shark. If you are in a store looking for a gaff for mako sharks I would choose one at least two sizes up from what you think necessary and go with that. This will be a saving in the future as replacing tortured and broken gear is expensive. If you are happy to harvest sharks and do so regularly you would be best served buying a big flying gaff of about 250mm hook gape and 16mm gauge. A reinforced model would be also preferred. This will mean that you have the gear to take down most sharks you will come across. Having the gear is only the first part of the puzzle and using it will provide some exciting times. Making sure the shark is well played out and tiring is crucial if you are recreational fishing. Sometimes in game fishing comps you have time constraints and you have to take the shot when the shark is green. Green means the shark is still full of beans and ready to tear everyone apart. If you have the time, take it. When you feel the shark is ready to be harvested then just be smooth on the rod and when the shark is in hand on the leader. Use the boat to quarter over to the fish and don’t spook or annoy the fish. Setting the gaff will be annoyance enough. There are a number of views on how and where to gaff a big mako and they all come with their pros and

cons. Hitting them in the tail is said to take their motor away, but I have seen them thrash and flap a gaff out of their tail with too much ease. I really like to take a leaf out of big game hunters that hunt big dangerous game and hit them in their version of lungs. I prefer to gaff a big shark in the gill area. Go in through the gills and lodge the gaff in the meat of the body and have the gaff point exit the top of the shark. Now a flying gaff is designed to have a detachable head and come away from the pole. Make sure you have a good grip on the gaff rope and in bigger boats you can tie the rope off to a bollard or rear grab rail. Some care needs to be taken to ensure the rope won’t cause issues as the battle ensues and make sure you have a knife handy to clear the line if you have to. Once the shark has been hit with the gaff you can drive off and

hold tension on the rope with water pressure on the fish. The fish will flail and thrash and hopefully wear and bleed itself out and tire. This is a good time to hit it with another gaff or tail rope if you have one. If the fish is showing signs of succumbing you must still treat the fish with caution as they have a habit of reflex thrashing with their mouths open. Contact with these teeth will cause very serious injury. So remember, take your time and have patience. Gear up heavier and bigger than you think you will need of get away with. It is important to lift vertically as well with gaffs of either alloy or fibreglass handle construction. They are not levers! Lift as a team and you can’t go wrong…well most of the time. It is a skill worth practicing and the good thing is you need to catch fish to do so. Happy gaffing !

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TIME to TRY OLD TRICKS The fishing in Tasmania for all species is evolving. It may be global warming, a rise in fish numbers, better fishers, better equipment or just a pattern over dozens of years. It doesn’t really matter but the varied species and the volume of fish increasing is undeniable. This is a great thing for local Tasmania fishers. It was not that long ago that as a young adult I would troll for four days and not even look like getting a fish on surface lures looking for tuna. Recently I have had days where I got sick of catching them and groaned when a rod went off. The amount of fish you see when fishing the bottom off the shelf is also amazing. You don’t even have to have burley in the water. Just the action of raising and lowering your electrics or big spinning reels will bring albacore, bluefin and yellowtail kingfish to the surface. From here you can toss them a bait or jig them with metals or big soft plastics. The sword fishing brigade are also picking up some amazing fish while dropping their baits for these awesome fish. The baits are being taken mid water as well as down close to the bottom and finding bluefin tuna of all sizes and some interesting sharks. This has started to get my brain in gear and thinking we should be trying some older techniques that are very popular on the main land. TRY CUBING St Helens on the east coast and Bicheno are great places to try. The waters of Eaglehawk neck to the north are also good areas to have a crack. You just need to find some deep water and have a plan and be set up for it. What am I talking about? Cubing is an old technique that is largely ignored by the fishing fraternity in Tasmania because they have been told it doesn’t work or it’s too hard because of the seals. I am here to challenge those notions this month. The amount of fish I have encountered in berley trails over the last three years leads me to believe that a solid cubing session in the right conditions would find some very decent fish. The fish numbers and the amount of school bluefin swimming on our continental shelf is reason alone to give it a try. Then there are the quality albacore in our open waters combined with the persistent mako sharks. Tuna love a bit of slop and breeze on the water to get them fired up and feeding hard on the surface. When these conditions prevail using surface skirted lures and sub surface divers is a great technique and fool proof. What about those days that are super calm and bright. We all know them and drag lures for hours not having any luck and at the end of the day saying ‘Geeez fishing was tough today’. This is a perfect time to change up and try something new and get some cubes in the water.

No one would have dreamt of catching a striped trumpeter on a jig even a few years back. Now anything seems possible when you think outside the square. Cubing, jigs and reefs combine for some exciting saltwater session. Great news is that you don’t need any new rods and reels as the ones you have will work just fine. All you will need is to set up some short leaders with some circle hooks attached of differing breaking strain and hook sizes. You can go right down to 60lb fluoro leader and 6/0 hooks up to 100lb and 10/0’s if some big fish are looking to be encountered. It is important to remember that the lighter you can fish the more chance of a bite and hook up you can expect. All you need now is some fish to cube up and get over the side. The traditional fish of choice for cubing up is a big block of pilchards, but you can use whatever you have on hand or can catch before you go. Australian salmon and barracouta will work just as well. You will need around 20kg of fish to use as bait if you are going to have a serious attempt. Chose a spot on or over the shelf and when you pull up it’s as simple as cutting up your fish into 2cm size chunks and throwing a few handful’s over to get going. After you have done this just keep putting 2 or three over at a time as they go out of sight. The key is to build a constant yet not over the top line of cubes drifting in the ocean current so any fish can find them. Then when they do they can work their way up to the surface and find your baits drifting down to them. If you are lucky they may come up to the boat or within sight and you can hit them with baits or soft plastics and jigs.

Once you have substantiated your drift and you have had your cubes going for a while you can lay some baits out in the water. They key here is to have them drift down with the other cubes looking nice and natural. You can do this by choosing a nice strong hook like the Owner Mutu circle and placing in a bait so it is hidden, while also keeping the gape clear. Then throw three cubes in the water and strip your bait down with them. You do this by leaving the rod in the rod holder and tripping the bail arm or setting drag lever to free spool. Now you just gently pull line from the rod tip and striping some line onto the ocean surface. Having a few coils of line sitting on the water and watching them disappear allows you to strip off a few more loops at a time as your bait sinks naturally. You can do this for as long as you like and stopping will only have your bait stall and start to lift in the water column depending on your drift. You can then wind it in and repeat, checking your bait before you start again. You can also have an electric out and fishing the bottom while you are drifting and cubing along in the current. This is of advantage for two reasons. One; you might stumble across some blue eye trevalla (see the cover shot) and two; the up and down activity will draw attention and bring fish in. Once they are close they will find the cubes and be in your trap.

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Get a fisherman’s perspective of the new F25 with Australian fishing legend Steve ‘Starlo’ Starling. Starlo F25

Fishing News - Page 36

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I can already hear the nay sayers and negative nancies whingeing about seals. Yes in certain areas setting up a cube trail will draw some unwanted attention, but you just need to be sensible as to where you start. Get away as much as you can. On those slow days when it’s bright and you are not getting any hook ups what so ever, I feel it is better to have a fish on and lose it to a seal than not have any fish action at all. The seals don’t win all the battles. Get wide, get clear of seals and I think you will find that it is another fun way to come across fish of all species and size. Make sure you have a wire trace in a small bucket neatly coiled ready to go as you are odds on to come across a mako shark. You can have one rod set up with bait and another with a heavier metal jig working away just to edge your bets. The metal jigging is really starting to fire up here in Tasmania. It has been a very popular method in deeper water in New Zealand and mainland Australia and we are switching onto it. Winter in Tasmania is a little slower and the weather puts the brakes on here in June, but it is not all doom and gloom. There is still plenty of good fishing to be had and the weather is less of an issue. Kelly ‘Hooch’ Hunt

RECREATIONAL SEA FISHERIES NEWS Season Reminders

Calamari closures

Last year, two areas in the north of the state were closed for just over two weeks in October to protect spawning squid including calamari. The areas were (1) from Woolnorth Point east to Table Cape and (2) from Point Sorell east to Stony Head including Port Sorell and the Tamar River.

Will there be a closure in 2018?

• Recreational rock lobster season closes for the entire Eastern Region and for females in the Western Region on 30 April 2018. • Recreational scallop season is open from Saturday 8 April until July 31. All state waters except the D’Entrecasteaux Channel are open for scallop diving.

Need more information?

The effectiveness of the closure areas and dates • Get a copy of the Recreational Sea Fishing Guide are currently being reviewed based on IMAS research from Service Tasmania findings and advice to the Minister from the Recreational • Download the Tasmanian Sea Fishing Guide app and Scalefish Fisheries Advisory Committees. • Go to www.fishing.tas.gov.au; or www.facebook. Confirmation about north coast closures applying in 2018 will be available by mid-2018. The south East com/FisheriesTasmania Coast closure area will apply as usual from 15 October • Phone: 1300 720 647 or 03 6165 3233 – 14 November. • Email: fishing.enquiries@dpipwe.tas.gov.au

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Fishing News - Page 37

The Leven

The Leven slide on camper is constructed from light weight fibreglass panel and has outstanding insulation properties. The aerodynamic shape of the Leven not only looks great, but is functional saving you fuel on those long road trips. The electric powered roof gives the Leven it’s stylish exterior and the camper is able to be used even with the roof down. Security features in the Leven include the Aussie Traveller security door, and double glazed windows with triple lock down points that ensure a strong and durable seal. The quality fitted interior is designed to allow the maximum use of space. The features include a pull out table which can be stored when not needed and comfortable face to face seating in a choice of durable fashion fabrics. The sleek kitchen design features overhead storage, plenty of draws, and a choice of gas or electric hotplate. A fridge is also included in the camper so you will have everything you need including the kitchen sink.

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Fishing News - Page 38

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Call in for all your fishing tackle including full range rods, reels, lures, landing nets and bait. Also life jackets plus diving gear and stuff for all water sports.

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Fishing News - Page 39

Know your lifejacket

Better safety and facilities for Tasmanian boaters

Incorrectly worn or fitted lifejackets may not work effectively Make sure yours; • Fits • Is serviced regularly • You know how to use it • If it is inflatable - is it auto or manual inflate? Explain that to the crew

Scan the QR code above or go to www. mast.tas.gov.au to see MAST’s lifejacket awareness video. Incorrectly worn or fitted lifejackets may not work effectively

MAST spend $1,000,000 every year improving your recreational boating facilities around Tasmania. THE BOATWISE COULD

Apply any time for better boating facilities. Go to www.mast.tas.gov.au

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