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 5’ Emerger Clear 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-6-S thru WF-8-S

Stillwater Parabolic Sink

Sinks in U-Shaped Profile

Sink 3 running line, Sink 5 head, Sink 3 tip section

WF-5-S thru WF-8-S

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 Clear Camo Intermediate

Stillwater Emerger Clear Tip

Stillwater Seamless Density

Stillwater Parabolic Sink of my line but it wouldn’t be that easy as close to the bank he wrapped himself around some strap weed. After a little struggle, I got him out and dad got the net to him. This was an epic first encounter to fly fishing for me and I have been obsessed with this sport ever since.

Dry fly - Leader setup

Penstock Lagoon has some of the best dry fly fishing I have seen on a lake and is one of the reasons I keep travelling back to the lagoon. When using dries from the bank on a lake I often go a double dry setup with a 9ft 4X tapered leader with a short section of 3kg tippet to my first fly. From there, I have my point fly about a metre below. The reason for this is you give yourself about a metre of coverage in front of a fish and more chance of the fish seeing your fly. To be successful in fishing Penstock Lagoon, you need to focus on a specific family of insects. These insects are mayflies. As some of you may know, the lifecycle of a mayfly has four stages; the first stage being the eggs that will then hatch into the nymph, and then on an overcast warm day with a bit of wind those nymphs will then turn into a dun take to the wing. These little insects spend about a day sitting up in a tree or the grass before hatching into the spinner. At different times trout will key onto these life stages.

Targeting spinner feeders

Penstock has huge numbers of spinners around the edge which the trout key onto and start feeding heavily on them. Fishing to spinner feeding trout can be very exciting and engaging fishing. These fish are often close to the edge and in the shallows, charging around making very obvious bow waves chasing after spinners hovering over the water. So the sight fishing can be epic. With this style of fishing, I usually go with a 12ft 4X leader with a 6lb tippet attached, about a metre long. To the end of this, I will attach a single dry of either size 12, 14 or 16 red or black spinner. If your first presentation gets ignored, you can represent your fly to the next fish and add some movement to give it some life. You can add movement by just lifting your rod tip until your flies start to skate across the surface hopefully inducing a take. If the doesn’t work downsizing or changing the colour of your fly is the option.

Targeting dun feeders

Unlike stone flies, damselflies and dragonflies that will crawl up the bank, a log or rock to hatch, duns will emerge through the water column. Even out in the middle of the lake where there is no structure whatsoever. Whilst they are emerging, they are in a very venerable state and trout will lock onto them as they don’t have to chase these emerging duns. Duns have a sail ship-like wing and get pushed around a lot in the wind. When this is happening, I find the place to fish is the shore where the wind is pushing in too. Often this is where you will find the majority of fish feeding on them. For a dun feeding fish, I like to again use a 9ft 4X tapered leader with a one-metre long section of 6lb tippet to my first fly which would usually be a highland dun, then about a 60cm section of tippet down to my point fly. My go-to point flies are either a Possum Emerger or a Shaving Brush. These flies usually get the job done for me.

Fussy trout when duns are hatching

There have been many frustrating times on Penstock where there will be duns on the water and fish breaking the surface, but they just wouldn’t take the dry for me. In these situations going subsurface can be a game-changer. My favourite way to fish under these conditions is by using a team of nymphs with a floating line, retrieved using the figure of eight retrieve. For this technique, my leader consists of a 9ft tapered leader to a short dropper with my first fly. This fly will usually be an unweighted claret nymph, or sometime I’ll put a stick caddis on. Then on the point, I would put an orange beaded claret nymph on. Sometimes using something flashy on the dropper also works well. The technique is quite simple. I don’t like to fish a full cast, as a medium cast gives you better control. When the flies land, I like to give them a few big strips to get in contact with my flies and then slowly figure-eight my flies towards me. Another way to fish a fly subsurface is with a dry dropper set-up. Using a 9ft tapered leader to a larger more buoyant dry such as a big highland dun, I’ll hang a small claret nymph underneath it with a short dropper about 30cm long. The claret nymph can either be unweighted or have a small orange bead. The weight doesn’t need to be any more than a 2.5mm bead under the dry of you may sink it. Adjusting your dropper length to the point fly is also important to getting regular takes. Sometimes 30cm will work and other times you may need to go a little deeper.

Gear for the lake

For bank fishing on the lakes, a 5 or 6-weight fast action fly rod is a great choice. The rod that I have been using for about the last year is the Temple Fork Outfitters LK Legacy 9 foot 5 weight. I pair this rod with an Orvis Clearwater Large Arbor reel. The Scientific Angler Amplitude Smooth Infinity WF 5 F is the line I love.

Increase tippet size

Penstock is known for its rather large brown and rainbow trout. So upping your tippet size is sometimes important. Because the lagoon is shallow, and all the fish can do is run, they put a lot of pressure on your tippet so if you’re a 4lb fly fisher, upping the tippet to 6lb or 8lb is a good starter. I’ve lost plenty of fish in Penstock from breaking them off and I’ve heard a heartbreaking story of someone hooking up on a fish being on for a few seconds and the fish jumped about a metre out of the water before broking the line. The fish would proceed to jump another 11 times in a big ark with one fly still in its mouth and the second fly trailing behind all the while showing everyone how big he was!

There’s plenty of amazing habitats right around the lake.

Great place to visit

With the reopening of trout season, Penstock will be high on my must-visit places this season. Regardless of whether you have a boat or not, it is such a great place to fish. There’s plenty of access and lots of big fish, what more could a fly fisher ask for!