Tassie in October
Tassie in October
Planning a DIY trip to Tassie in October. Any advice on places to go for fishing will be appreciated.
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Sam de Beer
- Posts: 54
- Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 5:09 pm
Re: Tassie in October
Rudi,
You cannot go without using Greg French’s “Trout Waters of Tasmania” 2011 as a guide. You will get all the information you need from the book. Do your homework and plan your trip carefully. Don’t try to spread yourself too thin – you’re just going to waste precious time. When you arrive there and you buy your license, go to a tackle shop and ask them for the excellent free maps they have on all the important waters – chances are that they will give you some hot tips on top of that.
Decide what you want to do – lake fishing, stream fishing, river fishing, estuary fishing or saltwater fishing and then take gear and rods for just that. You can get away with a #4 – 6# rod on the rivers and lakes and an 8# will do just dandy in the estuaries and ocean. Floating lines will do in most cases.
They have about ten popular wet flies and nymphs and about ten dries that they swear by, and it seems to me these flies work better than the rest of the flies in your fly box. Tie them or buy them. Wether you are lake fishing, river fishing or stream fishing you are going to need waders and wading boots and a good pair of polarising glasses. Remember to clean all your gear very carefully before and after because it will be checked and you may be asked to wash your stuff in the airport before they will release you.
Guides can be prohibitively expensive, because of the insurance premiums they have to pay in case something happens with you. Share information and tips at the fishing shops and in the camp sites.
The roads in Tassie are narrow and very windy – don’t think if two places are 200km apart it is going to take you two hours to drive it – prepare for much more – you’ll be lucky if you can average 70km/h.
Prepare for any type of weather – we had heavy snow on the central highlands in August and we had very hot days south of Launceston and on the east coast. The rain on the west coast and on the Gordon River in particular was spectacular – came down by the buckets – we couldn’t drive in it, let alone fish.
Their pinot noirs and rieslings are excellent, as are their cheeses and fresh food – veggies, meat and oysters. I don’t know about accommodation because we used a campervan, which was very reasonably priced. Camping varied between free and about $30 per night, depending on what you wanted. If you are renting a car, you can get away with a two wheel drive sedan or van – you don’t need a 4x4.
Lastly, fishing in Tassie is tough, regardless of what people say or what you see in DVD movies. Prepare yourself for it.
Kind regards
Sam
You cannot go without using Greg French’s “Trout Waters of Tasmania” 2011 as a guide. You will get all the information you need from the book. Do your homework and plan your trip carefully. Don’t try to spread yourself too thin – you’re just going to waste precious time. When you arrive there and you buy your license, go to a tackle shop and ask them for the excellent free maps they have on all the important waters – chances are that they will give you some hot tips on top of that.
Decide what you want to do – lake fishing, stream fishing, river fishing, estuary fishing or saltwater fishing and then take gear and rods for just that. You can get away with a #4 – 6# rod on the rivers and lakes and an 8# will do just dandy in the estuaries and ocean. Floating lines will do in most cases.
They have about ten popular wet flies and nymphs and about ten dries that they swear by, and it seems to me these flies work better than the rest of the flies in your fly box. Tie them or buy them. Wether you are lake fishing, river fishing or stream fishing you are going to need waders and wading boots and a good pair of polarising glasses. Remember to clean all your gear very carefully before and after because it will be checked and you may be asked to wash your stuff in the airport before they will release you.
Guides can be prohibitively expensive, because of the insurance premiums they have to pay in case something happens with you. Share information and tips at the fishing shops and in the camp sites.
The roads in Tassie are narrow and very windy – don’t think if two places are 200km apart it is going to take you two hours to drive it – prepare for much more – you’ll be lucky if you can average 70km/h.
Prepare for any type of weather – we had heavy snow on the central highlands in August and we had very hot days south of Launceston and on the east coast. The rain on the west coast and on the Gordon River in particular was spectacular – came down by the buckets – we couldn’t drive in it, let alone fish.
Their pinot noirs and rieslings are excellent, as are their cheeses and fresh food – veggies, meat and oysters. I don’t know about accommodation because we used a campervan, which was very reasonably priced. Camping varied between free and about $30 per night, depending on what you wanted. If you are renting a car, you can get away with a two wheel drive sedan or van – you don’t need a 4x4.
Lastly, fishing in Tassie is tough, regardless of what people say or what you see in DVD movies. Prepare yourself for it.
Kind regards
Sam
Re: Tassie in October
Hi Sam
Awesome feedback – much appreciated. I will definitely have a look at the guide you mentioned.
I will be chasing trout and equal on the list is some top highlands Pinot!
We will be hiring a Campervan. Any specific places you can recommend?
Thanks and cheers
Rudi
Awesome feedback – much appreciated. I will definitely have a look at the guide you mentioned.
I will be chasing trout and equal on the list is some top highlands Pinot!
We will be hiring a Campervan. Any specific places you can recommend?
Thanks and cheers
Rudi
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Sam de Beer
- Posts: 54
- Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 5:09 pm
Re: Tassie in October
You're welcome Rudi. If you want to do lake fishing I would recommend Bronte Park - you'll be in close proximity to many great and famous lakes.For rivers and streams I think Longford, Cressy or Deloraine would be equally good, depending on the locals' recommendations at the time.
We rented our camper from Apollo and we were very happy with it - just outside of the airport in Hobart. But we saw campers from Tassie tours or Tassie campers or something like that and they looked really good.
Sam
We rented our camper from Apollo and we were very happy with it - just outside of the airport in Hobart. But we saw campers from Tassie tours or Tassie campers or something like that and they looked really good.
Sam
Re: Tassie in October
Thanks Sam - something to look forward to.
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David Coombes
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2012 12:50 pm
Re: Tassie in October
Be careful about the insurance cost for hire vehicles as there was an excess of $3500 on my hire car when I went in February.
October will be cold in The Highlands and Bronte can be very cold.Have had 5 trips in 9 years and yes the trout are not easy but the rewards are there. Polaroid as much as you can and don't fall into the trap of constant blind flogging as you will spook more fish than you see. The Greg French book is the Bible for all areas BUT try and limit the places you want to fish as it takes a long time to understand Tasmanian trout fishing. Go to ifs.tas.gov.au and get you licence prior to going there and also reseach as much as you can.
Any help needed send me a pm
Magoo
October will be cold in The Highlands and Bronte can be very cold.Have had 5 trips in 9 years and yes the trout are not easy but the rewards are there. Polaroid as much as you can and don't fall into the trap of constant blind flogging as you will spook more fish than you see. The Greg French book is the Bible for all areas BUT try and limit the places you want to fish as it takes a long time to understand Tasmanian trout fishing. Go to ifs.tas.gov.au and get you licence prior to going there and also reseach as much as you can.
Any help needed send me a pm
Magoo
Re: Tassie in October
Cheers for the info David - we will be going the end of October beginning November so hopefully the weather will be a bit better then.
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Brad Yates
- Posts: 102
- Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2012 7:32 am
Re: Tassie in October
I did polaroiding on Arthurs in Feb and it was awesome. But the icing on the cake was doing the tyenna river. I went with a local guide in that area and he was really good and down to earth. Best of all he was priced good too- much cheaper than the highlands. The size of the fish were small but numbers were unreal as was the scenery. If your going DIY, invest in some good waders and warm clothes and fish small indicator style dries like klinkhammers and run a small nymph behind it a metre or two. A short little 4 or 5wt would be tops there but I fished a 9ft 6 wt and it worked fine. Most casts were 5m, often had no line out past the tip and sometimes had to shoot out 10m or so.