Bream lurk in murky water
WITH the weather conditions again being all over the place, so too is the fishing around the state.
Murky water owing to runoff from snow melt and rain in some estuaries is still inhibiting fishing. However, some species relish brackish water as indicated by the amount of bream captures that are occurring at places such as Scamander and Little Swan wick on the East Coast.
Anglers fishing along banks tell of some good specimens around the 38-40 cm mark laying doggo under overhanging tea tree and pine tree branches and a couple of “keepers” were full of sand worms and beetle larvae. Most of the fish taken by one angler were landed by using soft plastics and vibe lures.
Boaters told of some great action in the River Derwent, near the Tasman Bridge, on small cocky salmon and couta.
Around Betsey Island, flathead up to 40cm are being caught and calamari have been taken but poor visibility makes it hard for fish to spot lures and bait. The same anglers tell of captures of King flathead near Bull Bay in about 12m of water but they had to work hard to get a few.
Good trout are being taken from near the Bridgewater Bridge, Masons Point and Limekiln sand whitebait are about in these areas but are patchy.
Once the water clears a bit, we should see the bait move further up into the freshwater salt wedge.
Below the Huonville Bridge, bream and some good sea run trout, as well as Atlantics have been landed over the past week.
Many fish are being taken on soft plastics and the pearl colours are accounting for a lot of fish. While a few schooled up salmon have been reported to be on the move at Spring Bay near the Batman Bridge.
Anglers casting blue- coloured soft plastics told of some jaw dropping moments on the plastics when a larger fish took the lure.
All the action there happened at the top of the tide which is usually the case in most rivers.
Up on top, namely Woods Lake, anglers putting in the hard yards during wild weather recently reaped the rewards with some fish over 1.2 kg being landed.
Bronte Lagoon is also fishing well with some anglers chasing midge feeding fish with flies. A party of anglers fishing from a boat managed 15 nice fish while trolling with
Rap al a lures in the brook trout pattern.
The 2020-21 rainbow trout season, which opened on Saturday, October 3, is shaping up to be a good one.
Lake Rowallan opened and anglers fishing here have the chance to catch the $10,000 tagged brown trout that has been released into this water.
Tasmania’s rainbow trout waters include: Dee Lagoon; Junction Lake; Lake Meston; Lake Rowallan; Lake Skinner; Lake Youd; Mersey River, above Lake Rowallan; River Leven, upstream of Loongana Rd Bridge; Weld rivers (both North and South).
Most of the waters are fairly remote and lakes Junction, Meston, Youd, Skinner and the Mersey River, above Lake Rowallan, are waters that you need to walk to but they are great fisheries that offer a range of fantastic fishing opportunities.
Dee Lagoon is an accessible lake on the Central Plateau. It has good access with two formal boat ramps, one of which was recently upgraded. There are also a number of informal boatramps.