Early season trout tips

FISHING

WITH the trout season about to open, I thought we’d focus on early season prospects and look at water levels amongst some of the more popular trout waters.

As one would expect at this time of the year, quite a few of the West Coast dams are overflowing, but surprisingly, some Northern waters are very low.

Little Pine Lagoon, Shannon Lagoon Penstock are all spilling, but Woods Lake is 2 metres below full.

In the upper Derwent Valley, Lake King William is nearly 4 metres below full but Dee Lagoon and Pine Tier are overflowing.

Arthurs Lake is nearly 2 metres below full and Great Lake is 13 metres from its full capacity.

Tooms Lake is, at the time of writing, 2 metres below full. Activities at Tooms Lake, opening weekend, this year will draw quite a crowd with an onsite competition and other festivities planned.

For those who prefer solitude, Wood Lake might be worth a visit — but snow and cold conditions just may put a dampener on fishing exploits there.

Great Lake would be a good option, as you could at least light a fire to keep warm.

A standout early season water in the North is Blackmans Lagoon on the Waterhouse road near Bridport.

This early season water produces some thumping fish and with the Inland Fisheries Service tipping in some 1000 adult fish just this year, it is sure to continue to fire.

Blackmans is a shallow lake and deep diving lures will get you a heap of weed, so shallow runners are an option. The soft plastic fishing here can be awesome.

So too, at Four Springs where often on opening day, it’s standing room only.

Some 5000 adult fish (a lot triploid, or infertile) have been stocked into this water and I’m sure many will be caught.

Rosetrevor Reservoir in the state’s south hasn’t received any fish since late 2018 — and they were 1000 brown trout fry. Most of the stockings into this lagoon have been high numbers of fry and fingerlings with the majority being diploid and a few triploid released as well.

Craigbourne Dam received some 2300 fish so far this year with the majority being 1500 rainbow triploid trout at 500 grams.

These fish should grow exceptionally fast and of course, the Atlantic salmon stockings of late make for interesting fishing.

Know the rules

THE Inland Fisheries Service has released some rules that we should all be aware of and you should check for further information in your guide that came with your license.

The bag limit is the number of fish you can keep in a single day of fishing.

The size limits are how big, or small, the fish must be, to be kept.

Bag and size limits can change from water to water: check your water in the A to Z of waters, by downloading the InFish App or the Tasmanian Inland Fishing Code. Any fish in your possession at a water counts towards the limit for that water.

Measure fish, other than bream, from the tip of the snout to the fork of the tail. Measure bream from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail.

You should measure fish as soon as you catch them and return if undersized.