Little Pine Lagoon

Targeting browns around the edges

Lubin Pfeiffer

Little pine lagoon in Tasmania’s central highlands is one of Australia’s best land-based fly fishing lakes. It boasts an incredible head of wild brown trout and is very accessible with grassy banks and easy wading. Over the last few years, I’ve been lucky enough to experience just how good ‘The Pine’ can be from the shore and thought I would share some of my tips and techniques so hopefully, you can go and experience some of the absolutely fantastic fishing on offer!

Where To Fish

Once you arrive at the lake, there are a few places to start looking for fish. There are car parking spots at the ‘Shacks’ which is at the northern end of the lake. This is the first entrance you will pass as you come from the Great Lake end of the road. From the shacks carpark, you have access to both the right-hand side of the Pine which from the islands out front, right around to the other side of the river bay is non-boating and dedicated to shore-based angling only. If you walk towards the left, there is a long run of deep undercut banks with small bays right around to the break wall at the other boat ramp. This area is home to some large brown trout that love to cruise very close to the edge, especially during dawn and dusk periods. Heading further along the road towards Bronte Park, you will pass the entrance to the main boat ramp. This is a great area also with access to the Eastern shore all the way to the dam wall. This area is easy wading and has patches of penny weed dotted along the shore for a fair way out and the brown trout just love to cruise through this as they search for food. Again, the banks are grassy so you can easily walk the edge while looking for likely areas to cast a fly. Further down the road is the last parking spot on the lake at the base of the dam wall, The area gives you access to the ‘Untouchables’ shoreline and the Senators rock area which are regular producers of both tailing fish close to the edge and also mayfly feeding fish.

Gear For Fishing The Lake

I like to keep things pretty simple when searching the shore of Little Pine Lagoon simply because I think it is much easier to cover more water when you’re not weighed down with heaps of gear. The fish are pretty predictable with what they will eat also, so needing a stack of flies and lines is simply not necessary. That said, you will want a couple of options to get the job done depending on what time of day you are there and the conditions you are faced with at that time. A good set of chest-length breathable waders is a must because being able to wade out some distance will give you the best chance at landing a fish. Not only by covering more water or getting out to where the fish may be rising during a hatch but also by dealing with the wind that is often blowing across the lake. I like to wear a vest that has some tippet, flies, dry fly floatant and a spare fly line in there so I can change something if I need to or re-rig if I happen to get broken off by a fish (it certainly does happen with the quality fish in the lake). If you’re fishing during the day, then a quality pair of polaroid sunglasses is a must. I cannot emphasise more that good sunglasses will catch you more fish. Sometimes you might see a shape cruising just under the surface, or a fish that follows in but doesn’t leave a boil and sunglasses are the only way you’ll know and be able to present a fly to these fish. I’ve been using Tonic’s with a green mirror lens and also the copper photochromatic lens both of which open up a whole other area of the lake cutting the glare being able to see well into the water.

A good wet weather jacket and warm clothes are also a must as the weather can change pretty quickly on the Pine and the last thing you want is to get freezing cold when you are a long walk from the car. You will also fish much more effectively when you are comfortable. The good thing about a vest is that the jacket can be kept in the back pocket if you are not wearing it but it’s there for when you need it. Fishing from the shore

I like a 9ft 6wt rod. I’ve used both 9ft and 10ft rods extensively but prefer the 9ft for shore-based fishing, of course, this is just personal preference and both will get the job done well. I take one reel with me which has a weight forward floating line on it and on the end of the floating line I have a braided loop attached. I take a spare spool that has a fast intermediate line on it. A fast intermediate line will sink at about 1.5 inches per second and is a great choice for streamer fishing from the shore. I also like to have some 3X tapered leaders with 2mm micro rings attached for dry fly fishing. If you’ve never used micro rings before I strongly suggest you check them out as it will make your tapered leaders last ten times longer than tying your tippet on the standard way. My tippet for the lake is usually 0.20mm fluorocarbon but I will also take some 0.18mm or 0.23mm depending on what the weather is doing. When it’s super calm you may need to go lighter but if it is super windy and the water has some colour to it then going heavier is a good option.

What Flies For The Pine

I keep my fly selection very simple for the lake as I usually don’t change too much during the fishing session. There are so many fish in the lake that if you have a fish that you can see that is refusing your fly, there will be another ten close by that you can move on to. For my dawn and dusk fishing, I like to use a Claret Body Para Dun in size 12. This represents the mayfly that hatches on the lake very well. I tie them with both a natural CDC post and also a high vis pink post just so I have a couple of options depending on the light at the time. When it’s bright, I’ll go the natural post, but if at any time I’m finding it hard to pick up where my fly is, I’ll change to the pink posted one which is much easier to see when the light is bad. I’ll also take some unweighted claret nymphs in size 12, and also a few Claret Dabblers in size 12. When it comes to streamers, I like to take a small selection of both bright and more natural colours. Some favourites being a Shrek, Magoo, blob and gold sparker. I’ll have the Shrek’s and Magoo’s with both gold

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and orange beads. Another great streamer is a black straggle bugger which I like to tie with a silver bead. All of these flies are in size 12 and I always try to tie my tails pretty long so they have lots of movement in the water. As anyone reading this that fly fishes regularly would know, there are literally thousands of flies you could use that would work on the pine. This is just the small selection of ones that provide regular success for me.

How I fish The Lake

There are a couple of ways I will fish the Pine from the shore depending on what time of day I am there and what the weather is doing at the time. The biggest piece of advice I can give as far as where you should start to look for fish is to pay attention to which shore the wind has been blowing on to.

There is no other lake that a foamy shore is more important to take notice of! So with that in mind, I always try and fish where the wind has been blowing into as this is where a large portion of the food will be and the fish will be looking for it. If it is early or late in the day, I will fish a single dry fly attached to a three-metre tapered leader with around one metre of tippet on the end very close to the edge on a floating line. Fanning short casts within three metres of the bank blindly covering the water. Sometimes casts within 100mm of the edge of the lake will produce fish as a lot of the banks along the lake are undercut and will be more than half a metre deep which is plenty deep enough for a big brown trout to cruise along. I usually let the fly sit for 30 seconds or more before taking a few steps and recasting in a slightly different spot. I’m always looking for rising fish to cover while doing this but blindly searching this way has produced a stack of big browns for me wading the edge. This technique I have found is most effective during low light periods or when there is a hatch on the lake.

If the wind is up and it is during the middle of the day, I prefer to fish a couple of streamers, either on an intermediate or floating line. This is where waders are a must because you want to be casting back towards the edge of the lake and not out into it. As I said, the browns will be hunting along the foamy edge. So when I am fishing streamers, again, I will always fish whatever bank has the wind blowing on to it.

You want to position yourself a comfortable cast from the bank and then fan your casts as you take a few steps to the side after finishing the retrieve. Effective retrieves can be anything from the standard mediumpaced straight-pull to very fast and also rolly poly. You never quite know what the fish may want on the day so keep mixing it up until you find out what it is. I’ll use straight leader made up of 0.20mm fluorocarbon about four metres long, with about two and a half metres to my first dropper and then about one and a half metres to my point fly. I say ‘about this long because there is no real set length you need to stick to and often working out what you find most comfortable to cast is better than following someones else’s exact formula. The use of a braided loop on both your intermediate and floating lines means that you can easily swap this leader between the lines.

If it is shallow and calm, I’ll fish a floater, but if the wind is really blowing and the water has some depth, I’ll always opt for the intermediate. For streamer fishing, I like to have one bright fly on the top dropper, either a blob or sparkler and then the more natural pattern on the point. That way you can get the fishes attention with the bright one and then seal the deal with the natural one. Don’t be fooled though, you will catch heaps of fish with bright sparkly flies on the Pine. The biggest thing for me that I may do differently to Little Pine regulars is I try to cover as much water as possible to find feeding fish.

What really amazes me about Little Pine Lagoon is its consistency to produce quality brown trout year after year. There is never a trip I go to Tassie without spending some time wading the edges of the lake and hopefully, after reading this article you will go and find out for yourself just how good the fishing can be!