9 minute read
The Holy Grail x Two — Trevor Howard
TASMANIA’S HOLY GRAIL x TWO
ESTUARY PERCH and BROOK TROUT are two of Tasmania’s hardest fish to catch, but not always.
Trevor Howard tell his story.
Trevor’s Saturday prize - A Clarence Lagoon brookie.
There is a term used that runs along the lines of “the rewards are there for those that go in search of them.” Young angler Trevor Howard adds weight to that saying by spending most of his free time searching Tasmania’s many and varied waterways. Recently he spent a weekend fishing both Clarence Lagoon and Arthur River, he didn’t return home disappointed.
I have loved fishing ever since I can remember, any sort of fishing, salt or fresh water, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what type of fish I catch, what species, or even what size, what I am constantly in search of are new experiences and hopefully I will be rewarded with memorable fishing.
During the latter part of September I visited two places over a weekend that I had never fished before. One was Clarence Lagoon in search of brook trout with my father, Dale Howard, and the other was the Arthur River with some mates; the target species here were large brown trout and the elusive estuary perch.
Day 1 - Clarence Lagoon
Leaving home from Perth Tasmania at around 6.30 am, dad and I set forth on the drive to Clarence Lagoon, it took us around two and a half hours before we found ourselves standing on its shoreline.
From where we live it is approximately a 150 klm trip each way with the last few kilometres being very rough. The track from the main road deteriorates as it gets closer to the lake especially the last kilometre.
If you have an expensive four wheel drive and value its paintwork, don’t drive it to Clarence Lagoon.
Situated in the central highlands not far from Derwent Bridge, this lagoon is not well signposted and the only real indication that you are in its vicinity is the Clarence River that runs under the main road. Rumour has it that the locals like to keep Clarence Lagoon’s existence reasonably quiet and as soon as signage goes up, it mysteriously goes missing again.
The best description on how to get there that I can offer, is once you cross the Clarence River, look for a nearby bush track veering off on the right hand side as you head towards Derwent Bridge,
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it’s just before some button grass plains that expand over a considerable area. If you reach these plains, you’ve past the turnoff and will need to turn around for another look. Once you find this track, you won’t forget it.
It was around 9 am by the time we started fishing and we started by wading slowly along the lagoon shoreline, using hard bodied lures and placing long searching casts.
I don’t think lure colour plays a major role, but that said, perhaps the yellow underbody of the lures we used, helped attract a response from the tannin stained darkness below, who knows?
We hadn’t walked very far when I had my first hit. Once hooked, I expected the fish to splash around a bit and come to the net without much Fuss. This had been my previous experience with brook trout at Lake Plimsoll on Tassie’s West Coast. I was wrong!
The fish exploded past me and out towards the middle of the lake, reminiscent of an angry rainbow trout. The drag on my reel sung loudly and I let out a few expletives fearing it was going to be a case of the big one that got away, by this time dad had heard the commotion and was positioned nearby with his phone on video record whilst at the same time laughing and providing a running commentary, thanks old man, no pressure!
Slowly the bend in the rod started to subside as the fish began to exhaust its strength and we soon had our first Clarence Lagoon brook trout in the net, we estimated it would have weighed around 5 pounds.
After a few photos and high fives, we released it, hopefully for someone else to enjoy at a later date. The regulations on this water have a bag limit of two fish per person with a minimum size limit of 300 mm, but for us a photo of these magnificent fish along with the knowledge we are doing our bit to keep the population at a sustainable level is enough of a reward for us.
What ensued over the next couple of hours amounted to possibly one of the best fishing experiences I have ever had with my dad, and we have had many.
Seven fish were landed and released between us in a session lasting just over 3 hours with many touching the 5 pound mark, I thought to myself as we headed home, this is an experience that wouldn’t be topped or repeated for a very long time… How wrong I was.
Day 2 - Arthur River
Being a truck driver, dad had to work the next day, and unfortunately the long hours he puts in behind the wheel saw him having to sit out the next mission the following day.
Sunday found me heading to the Arthur River on the State’s North West Coast. Approximately 300 klms from home this time, I set forth at 3.30 am on yet another long drive, the trip taking approximately three and a half hours from my home.
I was to be joined by a mate, Jarvis Wall and I was dreaming that along with some big brown trout ‘perhaps’ I would land the elusive Tasmanian estuary perch. EPs are a protected species and must be returned to the water immediately. We knew there was a healthy population in the Arthur River and Jarvis had success here previously. I really wanted that estuary perch to tick off my bucket list!
It was around 7.30 am when we arrived to very windy conditions, I had only ever been here once before and was rewarded with success back then with an eight pound brown. The plan was to find as much shelter as we could from the wind and I found myself heavily reliant on Jarvis as to the best spot to fish, the water read 10 degrees on the sounder.
We decided to run 1/6th jig heads matched with curly tail soft plastics of varying colours and brands as advised by those in the know.
A brownie and the holy grail of Tasmanian sport fish the almighty estuary perch from Arthur River.
After about an hour I felt a hit and to be honest I thought I had a perch on the other end of my line as it didn’t feel like a trout, after a short battle a small brown of around a pound came to the net and after a quick photo, we released it for another day.
Not long after that Jarvis had a hook up on a little sea runner and despite no real inroads made as to fish quality or species, we continued fishing the ledges and drop offs.
I was using a technique where I dropped the jig straight to the bottom, and whilst it was sinking, I was keeping an eye on the braid for any movement, suddenly I saw the line give a small flick so instinctively I struck and found myself hooked up to a Tasmanian estuary perch.
The fight was nowhere near what I expected it would be, disappointingly it was just a dead weight, it came to the surface, had a splash around and Jarvis slid the net underneath it, a twenty to thirty second fight at most.
What was impressive was its size - 54.5 cm to the fork and it weighed 2.75 kilograms. I was one very happy boy! After some very careful handling and a couple of photos we watched it swim back to the depths. We fished on until around 4pm before calling it a day for two more small trout, the long trip home was at the back of our minds. I look forward to going back and trying to catch another one of these awesome fish soon.
To finish I would like to say this. No doubt there will be some people reading this article that are not happy about me highlighting these fisheries, but I feel they should be highlighted, after all they are public fisheries for all to enjoy. There has been talk of a breeding program and redistributing this awesome fish to waters where they are no longer found - such as the Ansons River on the East Coast.
People have been very generous in relaying their knowledge to myself over the years and some have inspired me to search further and longer as a result of them sharing their experiences with us all through a magazine such as this.
I hope in some small way, this article encourages others to do the same.
Respect our fisheries, respect our fish and I am confident they will always be there for future generations to enjoy in the same manner mine does now.
If you have caught these fish in other waters in Tasmania please contact the editor. Trevor Howard
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