Fly fishing Tasmania

I recently spent a week fly fishing in Tasmania with members of the Sydney Fly Rodders club. I discovered Tasmania offers world class trout fishing and I will certainly go back again.

As a relative novice to fly fishing for brown trout in streams, I hired a guide for my first day’s fishing. It was worth every cent – what my guide taught me that day set me up for the rest of the trip.

Here’s my three key takeaways on fly fishing techniques for Tasmanian rivers:

1. Look for sections of the river where the bubble trail is moving at walking pace – the trout like this strength of flow. Once you find a stretch of river like this, make soft casts and ensure your dry fly floats at a similar speed to the bubbles.
   
   
2. Use long leaders with light tippets of no more than four pounds – I tested the theory with six pound tippet and a standard nine foot leader, caught far less fish and learned my lesson.
   
   
3. Forget long, majestic casts – you’re not auditioning for A River Runs Through It. Use short, accurate roll casts to work the water in front of you with a grid system (eg. cast to 10 o’clock, 12 o’clock and 2 o’clock). When you’ve worked the grid, take three slow steps forward and repeat.

Here’s a video I produced showing the highlights of the trip. I hope you enjoy watching.