Lake Pedder

A huge expanse and endless opportunities

Daniel Deppeler

As we pulled onto the boat ramp that slips down into the gin clear waters of Hermit Basin on the eastern side of Lake Pedder, one thing instantly struck me. The empty carpark. Where was everyone? The weather was splendid with a bright blue sky, a gentle breeze and rising barometer. It was a strange almost eerie feeling. Having done the majority of my trout fishing in Victorian lakes including Purrembete, Bullen Merri, Toolondo and Eildon, the likelihood of pulling up to a deserted boat ramp on a spectacular day at a mainland lake brimming with trout is, to say the least, unheard of. Over the next two days we covered a lot of water and did not see a single soul. There is something about the solitude, isolation and loneliness of the Tasmanian wilderness that draws you in and provides a much-needed contrast to busy, modern day lives.

Where to start

The daunting prospect of choosing where to start, given that the lake covers 242 square kilometres, is the first challenge to wrap your head around. There are five boats ramps on Lake Pedder; with Scotts Peak and Edgar Dam ramps located at the South Eastern side of the lake and McPartlan Pass, Teds beach and Serpentine Dam all located on the northern edge of the lake. We chose to launch at the McPartlan Pass ramp through no reason other than convenience, it is the closest ramp on the way in from Hobart. With the boat launched, car locked up and sunscreen applied the game plan was to troll a variety of lures around and see what we could learn in the process. We studied the sounder to look for fish, bait or anything else that stood out, chose lures of different colours and depths and trolled right through the Hermit Basin area and around to the main lake before finally getting the attention of a fish. A lovely little Brown trout of about 30cm which was released back to its home in no time. This fish was taken in close to a bank with standing timber so we thought we would stay in tight to the bank and try to find a pattern. We trolled a stretch of shoreline that contained a mixture of drop offs, flats, small inlets and stands of vertical timber, back and forth for the afternoon and picked up 6 Brown trout. These fish ranged from 30 to 45cm and most were in very good condition.

One of these fish in-particular gave us a real hint into unlocking this lake. Its stomach was full, almost bulging and when you touched it you could feel hard, pointy lumps and bumps. We decided that this plump fish would make a nice change from sausages, bread and onion for dinner and upon cleaning it I removed at least nine small Yabbies from inside its stomach.

Patterns began to emerge

A little habit that we have got ourselves into whilst trolling is to mark a waypoint on the sounder every time we get a strike or hook a fish. After catching 7 trout and an equal amount of hits for the afternoon, we turned to the Simrad NSS12 EVO3S mapping feature that revealing our tracks and waypoints. It showed clearly that several spots on the trolling run had produced multiple hookups.

The fish we had caught had taken a variety of lures, mainly diving hard bodies in several different colours, so to us it appeared that location was more important than the presentation. We had several hours to kill before we wanted to cast the banks on sunset, so we gently slipped the Yamaha 150hp outboard into gear and motored back to these areas identified to see if anything else stood out. Shallow, boring, barren areas in between the timber and drop-offs. Nothing to see here type of spots, wouldn’t normally stop and fish type of spots. Flat and featureless is how we described what we could see. Looking around I noticed the bank also changed colour in these parts and went from rock and pebble or timbered to exposed clay.

Then the light bulb moment. What was that fat trout full of again? What likes to live in clay banks? Yabbies.

Casting the Clay Banks

That evening we dropped the Motorguide iX5 and cruised the clay banks, sitting in about 3m of water and casting right up into the shallows. We used mainly hardbodies and soft plastics and found that they needed to be worked along the bottom for the best results. By using deep diving hardbodies we could get them down to the bottom and bring them along banging into the mud every so often. The soft plastics we fished with a slow roll along the bottom. Colour choice again didn’t seem to matter with fish being taken on gold, black, redfin pattern, green and orange. I would have loved to have tried some small black vibes but unfortunately, I didn’t pack any in my lure boxes.

I have read about trout fisherman targeting Yabby feeding trout and mud banks up at Lake Eucumbene. Our experience at Lake Pedder confirmed that these areas can be prime feeding zones for hungry trout. We enjoyed a fantastic session catching countless trout ranging from 20-48cm in length. As seems to be often the case, we felt the best fish we hooked were also the ones that pulled hooks! The gear we were using were light spin rods in 1-3kg range and 2500 sized reels. These were spooled with 6kg Tasline and we fished 4kg fluorocarbon leaders. Whilst fishing Pedder you will almost certainly at some stage came up tight on some timber. Normally I would fish 2-3kg leader for Trout, but we increased to 4-5kg because of the timber. We lost a few lures to snags and I can highly recommend having a lure de-snagging device on hand. It saved us a few dollars that for sure.

Just before dark we gently pulled the Extreme boats Game king into one of the many white sand beaches for the night. After a stretch of the legs, we were soon eating crispy skin trout fillets with garlic salt and lemon, washed down with an ice-cold beer. Then the swags were rolled out on the boat deck and alarm set for another early morning assault on the Yabby beds. If you are looking to camp for a few days, then there are three good campsites close to the lake. Teds Beach and The Huon campgrounds are managed by Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service and require a Parks pass to access. Edgar Campground is managed by Hydro Tasmania.

Surface Bite Then Shutdown

We were back on the water and cruising the clay banks just as the sun started poking its head up over the awe-inspiring mountains to our east. There was a stiff breeze blowing and the clear skies had been replaced by dark, billowing clouds during the night. I had purchased a couple of OSP bent minnow lures before this trip and was very keen to give them a run.

It was evident by little swirls and sips that there were trout working hard up on the bank, so I sent my Bent minnow right up in the shallows and began its erratic retrieve back to the boat. Casting again this time bouncing the lure off of the rocky bank, I knew I was in the zone and several winds later, crunch, the bent minnow was engulfed by a beautiful early morning brown trout. We continued casting for another hour or so with nothing more to show for our efforts but the strengthening wind gusts, water chop and growling stomachs soon saw us back into our sheltered bay for breakfast and to come up with a new game plan. The incoming clouds and rain soon made our minds up for us and our Pedder trip had sadly come to an end. We motored back to the ramp and noted just how quickly this lake can chop up and become dangerous to small watercraft.

The Wrap Up

It never ceases to amaze me how much you can learn each and every time you go fishing if you pay attention to detail and take note of everything that happens. Trying to understand and unlock fish and their movements/feeding patterns is ultimately as much fun as buying new lures, rods and reels. The lessons we learnt in one afternoon at Lake Pedder have shown me how important yabbies can be to trout in lakes with large yabby populations.

75–115hp FourStroke

Next time I visit Lake Pedder (I hope it won’t be to long) I will be packing a lure box full of Yabby imitation lures. I have no doubt that dark vibes, small lipless crankbaits and Yabby imitation soft plastics would all do well on the clay banks.

Unbridled power, unexpectedly compact, uncompromising reliability, unbelievably fuel efficient. Mercury’s 75–115hp FourStroke Range. Unlike anything the world has ever seen.

If you haven’t fished Pedder for a while or ever before I thoroughly recommend you give it a go. It is remarkably beautiful, and would no doubt have many trout that have never seen a human or a lure!

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