president club 2011-2012

1

The Presidents club was formed at the beginning of the

2010/ 2011 fishing season by a group of people that

wanted to do just that......go fishing.

It was decided that in order to become a member of this “elite”

group of anglers only three rules would be applied.

Rule #1

You have to be willing to take on the role of President in

order to join.

Rule #2

You didn't take anything about this club seriously.

Rule #3

There are not, nor will there ever be..... any more

rules....

Inside this booklet is a reflection of that season...... enjoy.

2

2

Sarah Graham

See story on Page 158

3

From: ROSE MUIRHEAD

Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2011

Subject: Brushy Lagoon Report

Hi all,

Went to Four Springs yesterday for the final test run

of the Purdon.

On our way home we called into JJ's Bakery at Longford for a

coffee.

Whilst there, an Inland Fisheries ute and trailer pulled up out

the front with tanks on.

As they also came in for a coffee I happened to say to one of

them "Have you been dumping fish somewhere?" to which they

replied, "They had just been to Brushy Lagoon and released

some good fish in there.

Victor asked "Any big ones?"

They replied, “Rainbows up to 8 Kg."

It didn't take us long to decide where to fish today......

We arrived around 8 o'clock, I went out in the Purdon with my

Fly rod and Victor fished on the dam wall with a spin rod.

We were there a short while and Victor hooked a 17 LB rain-

bow, it took ages to get in because he has just re- spooled his

reel with 4Lb. braid and a 6Lb leader. Soon after, I had some

luck with a 10Lb rainbow which on the fly, takes a while to get

in!. To top it off Victor then hooked and landed a 20Lb rain-

bow ...which also took ages to get in.

What a day to start our season, would love to go back tomor-

row but Vic has to go to Lewis Marine to pick up his Hornet

which has been in getting it‟s yearly service.

See you all tomorrow arvo at Tooms.

Regards,

Presidents Vic and Rose.

4

August 5th & 6th 2011

Camp Tooms

Hi all,

Here we are home again cleaning up gear and reflecting upon

the President clubs first outing for the 2011 /12 season.

Thursday morning saw 5 Presidents head to Tooms Lake early

to ensure our usual camping spot. Thank goodness they did as

car after car came in on the Friday morning with the same idea.

The shorelines soon turned into “little cities” of makeshift

campers and tents. The bulk of our group arrived Friday after-

noon with a few more arriving on the Saturday, this pushed our

attendance somewhere between 25 and 30.

(continued on next page )

5

Inland Fisheries director (John Diggle) and marketing and com-

munications consultant (Sarah Graham) also called in for a cof-

fee and egg „n‟ bacon which was great to see.

Their visit was appreciated by all and it shows how accessible

these people are to the public, ( a rare, but welcome trait in

“government departments” now days!!)

“Mainland President” Kevin Wilkinson proudly shows John and

Sarah his mornings efforts.

Up to this point in time we had been spoilt in regards to the

weather with both a calm / warm Friday evening and Saturday

morning. Soon we were overseeing a “Spanish armada” of boats

heading out on the water in search of the first trout of the

season. Bait fishers seemed to be doing the best, with a couple

of rainbows landed in front of John and Sarah whilst we were

overlooking the lake enjoying the view.


6

At 9am most of our group had come in for breakfast and the

first of our fish were displayed. Kevin Wilkinson from Mel-

bourne faired the best to this point in time with two nice rain-

bow trout caught on soft plastics.

Plans were quickly being made as to” how to attack them again”,

but “then” the weather turned progressively worse.

We knew it was coming but hoped it wouldn't be that

bad ......unfortunately it was.

With no end in sight, the decision was made around three

o'clock, that as soon as the Weber lunch was cooked and eaten,

we would all chip in and within an hour we could be packed up

and on the road home.


Camp Tooms....before the storm.

7

This was really disappointing for us, as up to this point in time

the weekend had been a resounding success and everyone was

“as usual” having a ball.....but you can‟t argue with mother na-

ture.

President Kevin Wilkinson was declared our winner for the

weekend, taking home the $160 prize money (from the $10 en-

try fees) and also 10 packets of YEP lures donated by the How-

ard family for the biggest fish, (it weighed in at 2.14 pounds).

Well done Kevin!!

Kevin receives his prizes from Dale Howard (top photo) and Jim

Mckenna (bottom photo.)


Winners are grinners!!!

8

That‟s about it in a nutshell, a great weekend, unfortunately

cut short, ....but there is always next time.

My thanks to all that made the weekend so enjoyable and for

the spirit in which it was held.

Also a special thank you to Presidents Rose and Vic for the do-

nation of the marquee and for arriving on the Friday afternoon

to show us “dumb bums” how it all fits together.

I would also like to thank President Brian Allan for all the fire-

wood, President Mike Fry for the additional Weber, Presidents

Jim and Virginia for their help with the breakfasts and cooking

and last but not least my wife President Janet for the salads.

Our next outing date to be announced later (after it warms up

a bit !!), will be at Lake Leake, where hopefully the weather

gods will be a bit kinder to us.

Until then, we look forward to the President reports that will

“hopefully “ once again start to flow in as the 2011/12 season

fires up.

Until then, as Rex Hunt say‟s...good fishing to you all!!

President Todd.

9

President Tom with his first of the season

10

----- Original Message -----

From: "Leigh Carpenter"

Sent: Sunday, August 07, 2011

Subject: Lower Mersey River report

Hi guys,

Fished the Mersey Saturday from the road bridge at Latrobe

down into the tidal reaches.

Thank‟s to the recent stocking from the fisheries, the fishing

was good. I landed 6 between 1 to 2.5 pound on Berkley “smelt

pearl and grey “ 4 inch plastics, my good mate Andy mixed it up

lure wise and landed 1 so it's safe to say that they are a stand

out lure.

They look, “anything but a trout lure” but who can argue with

results? I lost 8 but can't complain, fish were holding in front

and below the rapids.

Text book locations were down where the river forks, not in

the deeper water, just below the bridge. This is where tradi-

tional fish are usually found, although things may change once

the weather warms and people start swimming their dogs, so

don't neglect this water in coming months.

Whitebait showing up already and 1 of the fish I caught was a

sea runner... so it will fire up more yet.

Tight Lines,

President Leigh Carpenter.

11


From Phil Zanetto

Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Subject: Lake Leake / Sth.Esk River

Hi all,

Fished the opening day of trout season with Bailey at Lake

Leake.

Arrived at Kalangadoo boat ramp around 10am, lake calm as a

mill pond.

Managed one small rainbow around 1lb in Kalangadoo bay, then

we fished The Big Timber shore and caught a 1lb brownie, lost

a couple more.

We then we headed up to the Snowy and caught six nice rain-

bows around 1kg each.

Missed and lost a few there, it was certainly fishing well.

Bailey also caught a nice size redfin perch, Lake high and a bit

discoloured in places, water temp was 7 degrees.

Last opening day here it was 3 degrees, so the fish were more

active today than at this time last year, that is for sure.

My brother Paul and his son Nathan come up for a fish as well

and managed a nice rainbow around 1kg but left early as Nathan

was a bit crook.

All fish were caught on soft plastics, Yeps and Berkley black

“n” gold‟s doing the damage.

We were back at the boat ramp around 4pm due to the heavy

rain that came around 3pm; the fish had been feeding on snail

and stick caddis.

The next day Bailey wanted to have a fish at the Sth.Esk river

(on the way home in the pouring rain), so he had a go at a couple

of spots for a couple of hours. (continued on next page )

12

Lake Leake / Sth.Esk River (Continued)

I sat in the car, but after Bailey caught a few I had to have a

go too.

We ended up with 13 nice browns around 1 to 1.5 lb, losing quite

a few as well.

All fish once again caught on softies, one fish had stomach full

of cockchafer beetles, a good opening to the trout season for

us.

Cheers,

Phil Zanetto

14


From: ROSE MUIRHEAD


Subject: Four Springs

Hi all,

Fished Four Springs today.

First hour without rain and a slight breeze and the next three

hours in heavy rain.

Victor landed three nice browns around the three lb mark. He

also put two back and got broken off, all in all, not a bad day.

When we arrived there, Becketts earth moving were putting

pylons in for the new jetty.

Dependent on the weather, we may give Lake Leake a bash

tomorrow.

Regards ,

Presidents Vic and Rose

mailto:[email protected]

15


From: ROSE MUIRHEAD


Subject: Return to Brushy Lagoon

Hi all,

Round 2 Brushy Lagoon.

Arrived around 8.30 this morning, it was a bit breezy but okay.

Victor took off up to the dam wall with his spin rod, I went out

in the Purdon with my fly rod.

After a short while Victor landed a 2 1/2 pound Salmon and

then topped it off with a 15 pound rainbow an hour later.

I had no luck, but tomorrow is another day.

We are off to Lake Leake!!

Regards,

President Rose.


16


From: Jim and Virginia McKenna

Sent: Saturday, August 13, 2011

Subject: Four Springs Report

Hi all,

Sorry for the lateness of this report but we have had com-

puter troubles, ....all fixed now it seems.

Went out to Four Springs on Tuesday, I was lucky enough to

catch my bag and Virginia caught two,... so we are on the board

for the new season.

All caught on soft plastics, “nothing huge”, all around the 2.5

pound mark, but good fish all the same.

Wishing everyone a great season ahead and we look forward to

"sending and receiving" President Reports as it unfolds and the

days get warmer.

Regards to all,

Presidents Jim and Virginia.

17


From: Janet & Todd Lambert



Hi all,

Had to drop my eldest daughter (Demi) off at her job in

Kingsmeadows at 6am this morning, so I thought, "as long as I

am up, I may as well throw the car topper on the roof of the

Navara and head out to Foursey‟s for a couple of hours."

Light southerly breeze, only around four cars there...(12 when

I left), all was quiet and very bloody cold!!!

Managed one,( my first of the season), a nice brown weighing

somewhere between 5 and 6 pounds.

Considered myself lucky to get that as the only other fish I

saw landed was by a bait fisher off the shore..a brown around 3

pounds.

I think weed is going to be a real problem here this year, I

fished with a 1/16th jig-head and still had to "clear my hook"

nearly every cast, didn't matter where I fished,... I found

weed.

That being said, it is probably better up at the dam wall

end,....... I didn't get up that far to find out.

Regards,

President Todd


18


From: Graeme Jamieson



Hi all,

Went to Four Springs this morning 16/08/2011, fishing off the

shore. I was in the water at 6am.

Around 6:30am I had a terrific run of around 100 metres be-

fore I could turn the fish, and then I had about a “ 10min

struggle” before I managed to net it in the dark, it was quite

exciting as I was there by myself.

I had to take the photo at home but I weighed the fish just

after catching it and it weighed 6.25lbs.

It was drizzling rain and very cold so I left to come home at

9:30am, quite pleased with my trip.

President Jamo

19


From: Phil Zanetto

Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Subject: Grants Lagoon Report

Hi all,

Bailey went to Grants Lagoon at Binalong Bay on Sunday after-

noon for a fish off the shore using softies.

He caught a couple of nice bream and a few small cocky‟s.

All were released, hope to head up the lakes this weekend with

the Dale and Trev Howard, that should be interesting,.. fishing

with “The Unit‟ ha ha.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

20


From: David Wescombe


Subject: 18 pound stinking carp!

Don‟t worry Adam Scurrah or John Diggle.

Pictures were sent forward from President Dave Wescombe of

Wagga on the mainland..... It isn't out of Crescent, Sorell or

anywhere in Tassie thank goodness lol.

One fish we hope to see "the last of here very shortly" if all

goes to plan!!!

21



Sent: Friday, August 19, 2011

Subject: Lake Leake Report

Hi all,

President John Dekkers and myself left home at 5.30 am this

morning with "high hopes" as we headed towards Lake Leake

for the day.

The plan was to meet up with fellow Presidents (and locals)

Rose and Vic around 6.45 am and between us all, see what we

could "terrorize" using both the soft plastics and fly rods.

As you all know, every trip is a different adventure and today

proved that point once again.

Turning off the Lake Leake road, onto the gravel, heading to-

wards the pub, we hadn't travelled far when we came across an

upturned vehicle (see picture below)...what a horrible feeling it

is when you come across something like this and as you get out

of your car you hope like hell no one is still in it,....luckily for us

they weren't,... the accident must have happened some time

earlier.



22

We then proceeded onward past the Lake Leake Hotel and

down to the local boat ramp.

What a mess the campground is in, (due to all the rain), and the

noise of the water going over the spillway was deafening, such

was its force. (Picture will show how full this Lake is,...it can't

get any fuller!!! ).

My advice, don't make any plans to camp here for a while or you

will find yourself up to your neck in mud!!.

The fishing?,...in a few short words, very ,very hard.

They didn't play the game at all today, we only managed one

fish between us all, a post spawning brown trout around the 2

pound mark, caught on a stick caddis.

Upon closer inspection, it's stomach contents were full of

them.. and nothing else.

A rainbow formed over the Lake around this time (see pic-

ture) but was unwilling to give up its pot of gold "fishing wise."


23

Wet fly's, plastics, all disappointed, the only other touch had

between us all was by Vic on a soft plastic, but unfortunately,

it got off to fight another angler on another day.

That's about it in a nutshell, time well spent all the same.

This Lake looks in tremendous buckle, the water clarity is quite

good and I am tipping around the end of September/early Oc-

tober, it will produce some fantastic fishing, especially once

the local fly life starts to get the fish looking upwards in those

fantastic wind lanes that this place is renowned for.

Personally, I think I will be giving it a rest until around that

time, but look forward in “keen anticipation” at what it will of-

fer us all down the track this season.

That being said, as you would have seen on an earlier Presi-

dents report, good bags are getting caught here at the mo-

ment, the Zanetto family proved that.

Perhaps it's just a case of right place, right time....or is it just

sheer ability Phil? Ha ha.

Kind regards,

President

Todd

24


From: Phil Zanetto

Sent: Friday, August 19, 2011


Hi all,

Had a look at Four Springs Lake this afternoon with Bailey.

It‟s the first time I have fished here although Bailey has “once

before” with Dale & Trev Howard, certainly is popular.

We arrived at 3.30pm and there would have been a dozen or

more trailers and a few bank anglers trying their luck.

We fished from the shore south of the boat ramp.

Bailey caught a nice brownie around 3lb, he also had a couple of

other hits, when he wound the softies in the tails were gone.

I had one hit and “one swirl "at the softie (right at my feet),

will be taking the boat next time.

We caught the fish on Dale‟s black “n” gold flappers.

PS, I have also sent some pic‟s from the Sth.Esk River in flood

near Fingal this morning.

The water was up to “floor height” of our 4wd as we drove

through yesterday afternoon.

Regards,

Phil Zanetto

25

---- Original Message -----

From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: Great Lake Report

Hi all,

Fished Great Lake today with Bailey, Dale & Trev Howard.

Got to Cramps Bay at around 10am to a calm lake, fished the

shoreline north of the Cramps bay ramp and then moved up into

Sandbanks bay.

All up, we caught 21 brownies between us, releasing quite a few.

Fish averaged around the 1kg mark, some only in ordinary nick.

They had been feeding heavily on worms, stick caddis & snail.

Have a look at the photo of the trout with worms coming out of

it‟s mouth, we lost several, had a lot of hits with many fish fol-

lowing the plastics right to the boat. We also had a nice bbq

lunch, Dale cooked up some mutton birds.

What a great bloke “the unit” is.


26

Most fish were caught near the shore, it was here that Bailey

& Trev got out of the boats, waded the lake edges and caught a

few more fish feeding over newly flooded ground.

We had to be careful motoring on the lake due to all the tim-

ber floating around.

Our fish were caught on Yep softies in various colours, one on a

hard body and a couple on Berkley black “n” gold T.Tails.

In a nutshell, ..we all had a ball on Great Lake today.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

28


From: gclong


Subject: Four Springs report

Hi all,

I fished Four Springs this morning.

Talked to Virginia , Jim and a “Gaylord bloke”, (All Presidents.)

I tried all the usual crap, only to find I have no ability.

I have been offered some, but the “offerer”, (Todd - Gaylord )

is low on the fish stakes himself so far this season.

"Anyway", by the end of the morning my score was one big

DONUT (= zero). Yesterday I fished Huntsman Lake with President Tom Dolega,

tailing fish about and some smutting fish.

There were that many people about we nearly had to take a

ticket just to fish the shore, (anglers everywhere).

Tom caught one 2.25lb cleaned and it had been feeding hard on

Corbie grubs.

A very good days fishing even though I caught none.

Regards,

President Gary Long.

Thank’s Longy, "Gaylord" will come good mate, ..I'm slow but

worth waiting for!!

(That's what I keep telling myself anyway.)....

Regards,

Todd


29


From: ROSE MUIRHEAD

Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011

Subject: Round #3 Brushy Lagoon

Hi all,

Arrived at Brushy Lagoon at 9.30 this morning, fog had just

lifted and there was a slight breeze (perfect).

As usual Victor went along the dam wall and I headed out in the

boat.

I had no luck but Victor managed a 5 LB Salmon.

We are off to Four Springs tomorrow, a friend of ours caught

a 10Lb brown there on Saturday.

Regards President Rose.


30


From: ROSE MUIRHEAD



Hi all,

Arrived at Four Springs around 7.30 and the lake was flat calm.

Luckily just after we got on the water the wind picked up.

Things weren't looking good until 9.30 when we caught the

first fish.

Vic landed 3, the best being a 3 1/2 lb brown and I caught 2 and

returned 1.

All fish were in good condition with stomachs full of nymphs

and snails.

That‟s all for this week, Victor is having a spell and I am going

up to Chris Bassano's for a Fly fishing seminar.

Regards,

President Rose.


31


From: Stuart Casey


Subject: Mole Creek Dam Big Brown Trout Trip.

Hi all,

Stu, Jamie and Patrick went to a Dam at Mole Creek today ar-

riving around 1:30pm. Had a 15 knot North- Westerly breeze

which was perfect for getting a long cast with light jig heads.

Jamie had a big buck brown within the first half hour weighing

nearly 9lb on a pearl olive t-tail. Fished till 4:30pm with Stu

catching a 7.5lb female brown five minutes before we went

home on a black “n” gold Squidgy fish.

President‟s Stu, Jamie and Patrick.


32


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: Little Lake

Hi all,

Fished today at Little Lake with Dale & Trev Howard, Jack

Seabourne and of course Bailey.

We arrived at Gunns Lake around 10am & walked over to Little

Lake due to the track being very wet, lake high and the water

icy cold.

Never the less we managed to catch 21 brownies between us.

Must be our lucky number as we bagged 21 at Great Lake last

Saturday. We all lost a few and had lots of hits.

Size of fish was around 1lb up to 1.5lb, finished fishing around

3.30pm.

Fish had been feeding mainly on stick caddis and were caught

on Yep softies and Dale caught a few on a gold bomber 3 inch

Galaxia hard body.

Weather conditions were mainly overcast, Southwest wind & no

rain which was a relief. Will try here again when things warm

up a bit.

PS Check "The Units" nice legs

out in photo below lol, sorry Dale

had to put the pic in!!.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO



34


From: gclong



Hi all,

Fished Four Springs yesterday for one, (a brown of around 3.5

pounds ) caught on a Woolly Bugger fly.

This morning I went out in "torrential wind and rain" for one

brown around 2.5 pounds caught on one of "Gaylord's" orange

bead- headed nymph patterns.

The fly was tied by Johnny Dekkers so I will give

“Gaylord" absolutely no credit in any way, shape or form in re-

gards to it‟s capture ... Ha ,Ha.

I was also fishing with President Tom Dolega who didn't man-

age one this morning, ( he usually goes pretty well ) and feel

this is his “just deserts” as it was he who assured myself that

the weather out here would be OK this morning.

He may be a pretty good fly fisherman, but as a weather fore-

caster....crap!!

Regards,

President Gary Long


35


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: Brumbys Creek

Hi all,

Braved the conditions late this afternoon in the pouring rain

and howling wind at Brumbys Creek with Bailey.

Fished the top weir and walked along levee wall using Berkley

black & gold t.tails and we managed one each, mine around 2lb,

Baileys 2.5lb in superb nick.

I lost one other and had another hit & Bails had one other

hit,...so a good little session.

Fish were full of scud and snails with very pink flesh.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

36



Sent: Saturday, September 03, 2011

Subject: Presidents outing at Four Springs.

Hi all,

A great day was once again held at Four Springs, with the

weather kind, but the fishing extremely hard.

Only three fish were presented for weigh in, along with a cou-

ple of “The one that got away" tales.

9am saw us all in for breakfast and it was great to catch up

with faces we hadn't seen for a while and also to welcome new

Presidents, Mark Bell and Ray Slinger.

I must make special mention at this point in time of Presidents

Jim and Virginia McKenna who "as always" rolled up their

sleeves and ensured everyone was fed in a timely fash-

ion...thanks guys, I am sure I speak for all when I say your ef-

forts were greatly appreciated.

Biggest fish of the day weighed in at 4.44 pounds and went to

President Tom Dolega who weighed this fish in at the 9am

breakfast and he was never headed throughout the day, it was

caught on a stick caddis imitation.

President Gary Long presented Tom with his first prize

of $160 cash at the 2pm finish. (See photos).

Once again, a very enjoyable day, Four Springs is definitely

hard work at the minute unless you are lucky enough to time it

just right. Thank you to all that attended and we look forward

to seeing you all at the next outing, wherever that will be, so

stay tuned!!

Regards,

President Todd (continued on next page )


38


From: Phil Zanetto

Sent: Sunday September 04, 2011

Subject: Upper Meander River

Hi all,

Bailey and I decided to give the Upper Meander River a go this

afternoon, not a bad way to spend Fathers day.

Arrived at our spot around 12 noon and fished until 3.30pm.

We caught 10 nice river browns, including one around the 5lb

mark, condition of this old boy not too flash, but a nice fish all

the same.

Others went from 3/4 lb to 1lb mark, all fish were released.

Lost a few and had many hits as well, all were caught on Berk-

ley black and gold t tail softies.

River running nice and clear, so we had a good afternoon.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

39


From: Dave Egan

Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2011

Subject: Re: Gippsland Opening Day

Opening Day on the Gippsland Streams.

It was with great anticipation we waited for opening morning

here in Gippsland. Some of the members of the La Trobe valley

Fly fishers even camped by middle Creek the Friday night be-

fore opening to get an early start. Even though I only live 2

Klms from the Creek I joined the boys for a few Rums and a

BBQ and we certainly had a great time. Saturday At 6 am was

cold, very cold with a good frost and the promise of a beautiful

day. I woke with a bit of a head ache and was distracted at

first by the wonderful news that Collingwood was slaughtered

the night before by Geelong. The day was off to a great start!!.

I noticed the campers were just dragging themselves out of

frosty tents as I headed upstream.

After the floods we had over winter, the creek was brand new

with new runs, gravel beds and pools. The water was cold and

clean but at this hour of day there were no fish rising. The

morning session was tough with few fish caught. Melbourne

member Bill Morris and I topped the numbers with 5 fish each

but our president James Hearne impressed with a fat 2

pounder, a real monster in our little streams. Lunch was a BBQ

at my Farm and James provided a huge feed of tasty Yabbies

for entree.



40

After lunch we split up and some fished one of my dams for a

while with everyone involved in a bit of “stocky” bashing. The

sun came out and as the temperature rose over 20, ants

started to hatch, a very unusual thing this early in the season.

We split up again and I went with Willy Stewart to the East

Branch of the Morwell River, The fish were keen and we picked

up 8 between us before it got cold and dark. The river was so

beautiful I went back today to the west branch of the Morwell

for another 11 fish. I ended opening day with 14 and 25 by the

end of the weekend. Most of the fish were around ½ to 1 pound

but Will and I managed a couple that weren‟t much bigger than

the fly. It has been the best opening I can remember “weather

wise” and it looks great for the rest of the season.

Tight lines .

President Dave Egan.

41


From: Dale

Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2011

Subject: Vale River

Hi all,

Trevor and I had a day fishing the Vale River today, what a

fantastic little river this is.

We arrived about 10.30, fished for a couple of hours and had a

ball.

There are plenty of small brownies here, as there are in all the

small streams around this area.

We will be going back in the summer for a look with the dry fly.

Regards,

Dale & Trev


42



Sent: Friday, September 09, 2011

Subject: Lake Plimsoll

Hi all,

Myself, Dale Howard and his son Trevor went to Lake Plimsoll

(near Tullah) today after the elusive Brook Trout.

Nine fish were landed and many things were learnt from the

experience. It is a trip we urge you all to consider at least

once this year, it can be done in a day quite easily, especially if

you share the driving.

Some fantastic pictures were taken and a full article about to-

day's experience & this water will be in the upcoming Tasma-

nian Fishing and Boating News... due out in a couple of weeks.

Sorry for being so elusive, but in fairness to Mike Stevens it

would be remiss of us to say much more before it‟s published.

As you can see from the photos, we had a ball!!

Regards,

President Todd



44


From: Stuart Casey


Subject: Great Lake Outing

Hi all,

Headed up to Cramps Bay on Saturday.

It wasn't pleasant at all, blowing 15 knot South Westerly's

with 25 knot gusts coming through, which made it bloody

freezing!.

We arrived at the boat ramp 1pm and left at 4pm.

Whilst fishing the Cramps south shore out of the wind , we

managed to pick up 5 fish, 3 browns and 2 rainbows.

All were caught on black and gold t-tails. Four fish were caught

with a bigger than normal size jig head in deeper water and the

other was caught trolling on the way back to the boat ramp.

Jamie caught 3 Patrick 1 Stu 1.

Presidents Jamie, Stu and Patrick


45


From: Phil Zanetto

Sent: Monday, September 12, 2011

Subject: Sth. Esk River

Hi all,

Fished the Sth. Esk River on Sunday afternoon with Bailey and

his mate Jack Seabourne.

Fished from 1.30pm and finished around 3.30pm, river running

clear and dropped to good height now, we caught 14 fish on

Dale‟s black and gold flappers, lost a few including “one beauty”

that would have been 4lb plus.

The fish caught, went from around 1lb to 2lb and were in really

good condition.

Fish had been feeding on stick caddis.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

46


From: Matthew Hayes

Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Subject: Cramps Bay ( True story!! )

Hi all,

President Matthew Hayes sent forward this photo taken of a

fish he caught from the shore at Cramps Bay recently.

Whilst cleaning it he found no less than 5 soft plastics in its

stomach contents, three with jig heads and line still attached.

He also noticed half a "black n gold t tail" with line coming out

of its vent.

As the fish was only a pound and a half in weight, it would be

very doubtful that it beat five anglers; the most likely explana-

tion we can put forward is that this brown trout was picking up

soft plastics that had been previously snagged by fisher peo-

ple, as part of its diet.

Cramps Bay fish are reported as being very slabby at the mo-

ment so perhaps there isn't a lot of tucker about in this area?

True story!!

Regards,

President Todd.

47


From: Rose Muirhead

Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Subject: Plimsoll

Hi all,

Fished Plimsoll yesterday and this morning.

Vic caught 4 and I caught one, all in good condition, we have

now arrived at the Highlands.

“Weather permitting” we will fish Tods corner in the morning

before we head home.

Regards



48


From: Matthew Oates


Subject: Great Lake

Hi All ,

Went to the Great Lake on the Friday of last week, arrived to

snow.

Managed to get out Saturday morning and caught 4 nice brown-

ies all down 4 colours on lead lines.

Couldn't get out Sunday due to the weather but did manage a

trip on the Monday morning, conditions reasonably good. Man-

aged to bag nine nice brownies ,these fish ranged between 2 to

3 pound all in good condition.

President Sid and Luke Oates


49


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: Lake Selina, Lake Plimsoll & Reece Dam

Hi all,

Had the pleasure of spending the day fishing with Dale and

Trev Howard and my son Bailey.

We headed off at 6.30am , arriving at Lake Selina at 10am,

what a beautiful little lake, fairly shallow around the northern

and western side, but deeper on the eastern shore which is

better suited to casting softies from the bank.

We fished here for around an hour and then we headed over to

Lake Plimsoll for a couple of hours and what a spectacular lake

this is, we managed to catch a few nice brookies at these lakes,

they were fat as footballs and very red fleshed, should make

great eating.

Fish had been feeding on Galaxias with fish caught on Yep red

rascals.

We then had some lunch and headed off to fish the outflow at

the Reece Dam, arriving to the pouring rain which did not let

up.


50

Fished here for a couple of hours and managed half a dozen

resident browns around the 1lb mark, we were hoping for some

big sea runners which come up to feed on Elvers and whitebait

when the water is flowing out of Lake Pieman,...maybe next

time.

The fish here were caught on softies using big jig heads to

keep them down in the fast running water, thanks for a great

day Dale (the unit) and I owe you one for doing all the driving.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

52

----- Original Message ----- From: Stuart Casey Sent: Sunday, September 18, 2011

Subject: Excellent St Helens Fishing Trip

Georges Bay, Grants Lagoon and Scamander River

We arrived at St Helens Caravan Park on Wednesday at 11am

and were on Georges bay at noon. The wind was blowing 20 knot

north westerlies with stronger gusts coming through so we

launched the boat at Akaroa. We fished wherever we could get

out of the wind, casting 1/8 jig heads with a wide range of soft

plastics. We caught 4 trevally (Stu 2, Jamie 2), 15 big black-

back salmon between 3 pound and 5.5 pound and a lot of other

bits and pieces. One of the highlights of the day was seeing

black-back smashing the surface, chasing a popper that Patrick

was casting.

Day 2

We put the boat in at the main boat ramp in St Helens at day-

light. We headed over to the same location from the day be-

fore because the wind was just as horrible. We did much the

same thing until lunch time picking up 2 trevally (1 Stu, 1 Jamie)

and a few black-backs. After lunch we anchored up and got a

good burley trail going. After that we caught a heap of garfish,

surprisingly another 12 trevally (Stu 7, Patrick 3, Jamie 2), 5

leather jackets and a heap of other bits and pieces.



53

Day 3

We had a bit of a sleep in and didn't get on the water until

10am. We put the boat in at Akaroa again; the wind was much

the same but was a lot warmer. Didn't do any good on the tre-

vally but had another great day on the garfish.

Day 4

Was a hot and calm day so we headed to Grant's Lagoon for a

run. Fished there for an hour and a half and only caught a few

small salmon and flathead. So we decided to pack up and head

to the Scamander River. We arrived at the Upper Scamander

boat ramp at around 11:30am and left at 2pm. We fished with

small soft plastics, Stu caught a 360mm Bream on the second

cast which he was stoked with for his first bream on softies.

Then he caught another 330mm and Patrick caught one much

the same for his first on a soft plastic.

All in all it was an excellent trip, between us we caught 17 tre-

vally, 113 garfish, around 25 big black- back salmon, 3 bream

and heaps of other small fish.

Presidents Jamie, Stu and Patrick.

54


From: ROSE MUIRHEAD


Subject: Lake Plimsoll

Hi all,

Just got home from Lake Plimsoll, persevered all day yesterday

in the wind and rain.

Paid off with a 5 lb Brookie on a Dan Dempsey “Slim Jim” fly.

Victor had no luck from the shore.

Got what I went down there for, I'm sure there are some huge

fish in this water.

Note the photo of the galaxia next to the fish, he had one in

his mouth and 6 more in it‟s stomach, all freshly caught.



55


From: Phil Zanetto

Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011

Subject: Macquarie River

Hi all,

Bailey and I headed out to the Macquarie river after work to-

day and fished from 4.30 to 6.30pm.

As we haven't fished here for a couple of years, we thought it

might be worth a look now that it has a good flow of water

again after a couple of years being effected by drought condi-

tions.

Bailey managed a couple of nice brownies around the 1lb mark,

he lost another around 2lb right at the bank, he was using hard

body‟s, both were released.

I caught a beauty on Dales black & gold Flapper around the 4lb

mark, we also caught a few perch, so it certainly was worth

the trip.

Heading to the highlands tomorrow so hope I will have some-

thing to report from there.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

56




Subject: Great Lake Report 1

Hi all,

Fished Great Lake today with fellow President Mark Tapsell,

weather sightly on the cool side until the wind abated around

2pm.

Cast soft plastics around the edges of Swan Bay and Tods cor-

ner.

Finished with five on the plastics, four of them were in very

poor condition with the only fish of quality coming from Tods.

At lunchtime we met up with Dale & Trev Howard along with

Darrell Wells for a BBQ, we then fished until 3pm before

heading home.

Dales crew seemed to fair a lot better than us for the day, but

as their report is coming, I won‟t say anymore.

As I write this I am not a “ big fan” for the Great Lake at the

moment, but Dale assures me that they did manage to catch

some quality fish today which is reassuring.

Regardless, time spent fishing with friends is always enjoyable

and worth the effort, I am sure you all agree.

President Todd


57


From: Phil Zanetto



Hi all,

Decided to fish Sandbanks Bay at Great Lake today, was going

to Bradys Lake but decided on Great Lake instead.

Bailey and I arrived at the Cramps Bay ramp around 10am and

headed to Sandbanks, we caught 14 brownies, releasing most

due to them being in fairly poor condition, it certainly was a

day for losing fish.

I can't remember a day where we lost so many and had fish

grabbing the softies but not hooking up, lots of follows to the

boat as well, frustrating stuff.

It was a great day anyway, a bit on the cool side with the sw

breeze.

Saw three Wedge Tailed Eagles which was a good sight, fin-

ished fishing around 6pm.

Fish were caught on Yep black and gold flappers.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO


58

From: Darrell Wells


Subject: Great lake report 3

I was invited to join Dale and Trevor Howard in the Highlands

and spent a fantastic day on the water with them. We arrived

at the Swan Bay around 11am and soon had the Express Cavalier

pointed in the direction of our first destination. This shoreline

fished very slow, so we shot over to another area which usually

produces some good specimens and we soon had 4 nice Browns

in the boat within about 20mins. We caught these on YEP Min-

nows in the Gold Bomber colour and Black & Gold Flappers.

Todd and Mark had just pulled ashore in the vicinity of us, so

we joined them for a cook-up and a cold brew and put together

a plan for the rest of the afternoon.

The conditions were almost too good mid afternoon as there

was very little wind to aid in getting a good drift along the

shorelines, but we plugged away in one of the popular bays pick-

ing up enough fish to keep us interested.



59

We then decided to head back to where we landed a few ear-

lier in the day and managed to land some lovely fish working the

deep drop-offs leading up to some nice flats of one of our fa-

vourite shores. I seemed to have had lost my mojo and Dale and

Trev put some very nice fish in the boat towards the end of

the session. One of these fish smashed Dale's Minnow in the

Spotted Aussie colour as soon as it hit the water, which was

only about 1ft deep at best, and the take was awesome to wit-

ness.

We ended up with 13 fish for the session and most were in

good to very good condition apart from about 3 and one of

which I landed was in absolute terrible condition! We usually

call the slabby fish "axe handles", but this one was more like a

butterknife from the head back!

All in all it was a fantastic day on the water catching up with a

couple of mates that I haven't had the chance to fish with in a

long time. Catching a few fish in-between the laughs along the

way was just a bonus. Thanks for a top day out fella's.

Cheers

Daz

60


From: Renee Oates



Hi all,

Went fishing on Saturday to Great lake, fished in a very light

south westerly managed to bag 5 nice browns and 2 brilliant

rainbows.

Had a rather poor hook up rate with over 20 good strikes but

most of them pulled off half way in. Fished out in the centre of

the lake.

Happy fishing

Presidents Matt, Sid & Luke Oates.


From: Renee Oates


Subject: Brumbys Creek Schools Competition.

Hi everyone,

I caught these fish from Brumbys Creek today in the schools

competition.

Atlantic Salmon weighed .75kg with a tag in it.

Rainbow Weighed 1.48kg cleaned 2 kgs uncleaned, both were

caught on Black “n” gold t tails.

Happy fishing,

President Luke Oates.



61


From: Phil Zanetto

Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Subject: Nth Esk River

Hi all,

Bailey and I headed out to the Upper North Esk river after I

knocked off work this afternoon, he sure is a pest lately, wants

to go fishing everyday and I am just about worn out but I said

ok again, ( what a sucker I am), “anyway”, we arrived there

around 5pm and fished to 6.30pm.

Bailey used hard body lures while I stuck with the softies, it

wasn't long until Bailey had some action, his third cast resulted

in a nice 3lb brown and a couple of casts later he was on again

to a smaller one around the 1lb mark.

He lost three others in a row jumping all over the place

and throwing the hooks, ending up with another 1lb brown.

I managed one brown of nearly 1lb on the black “n” gold T.tail.

Will have to get into some hard body's myself, saw a few taking

off the top, so the fly rod might have to come out soon.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO


62


From: Reg Travers


Subject: Arthurs Lake Browns

Hi all,

A nice brownie from the five caught at Arthurs last Saturday.

It was snowing and blowing but in spite, a very nice little trip.

The lake is very high; however on talking to a HEC man, he said

that it should start to drop as they are recommencing to pump

water into the Great Lake.

Regards,

President Reg Travers.


63


From: Phil Zanetto

Sent: Saturday, October 01, 2011

Subject: Sth Esk River

Hi all,

Had a fish out to the Sth Esk this morning with Bailey, arrived

there at around 10.30am and finished at 1.30pm, had to get

home to watch the AFL Grand final,.. just made it!.

We had a fabulous session catching 17 brownies; size was from

1lb to nearly 2lb.

Bails caught eleven on hard body‟s and I got six on softies,

( Black “n” gold Yeps) and Berkley‟s.

All fish were in really good condition and all were released, we

had a couple of double hook ups as well which was a bonus.

What a fantastic river the Sth.Esk is, always produces good

fish.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO


64


From: Dale

Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2011

Subject: South Esk River

G'day everyone,

Phil has been giving away a few of his secrets, so it was off to

the South Esk for a couple of hours for Trev and I.

We caught 8 lovely fish in various sizes, all in the one location.

They where caught on YEP red rascals, clear galaxid and the

rainbow ripper .

This a fantastic river to fish and I think a bit more exploring

will have to happen in the near future .....

Dale & Trev


65


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: Georges Bay Report

Hi all,

Just a quick report on the fishing in Georges Bay at St Helens

this afternoon.

Bailey had the pleasure of fishing with my brother Paul and his

son Nathan and had a good arvo catching bream, salmon, flat-

head and trevally on soft plastics.

Bailey caught his salmon on surface poppers, they had a go at

some flounder on Friday night but without success.

They saw some really big garfish, so it would be worth having a

go at the gars, ...maybe tomorrow.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO


66


From: Dave Egan


Subject: Gippsland Report

Hi all,

Our season started on the 3rd of September and as I have pre-

viously reported opening weekend was a beauty with 24 de-

grees and both Termite and Mayfly hatches. Things seem to be

getting better and better with a mix of warm days and some

good rain the local streams are fishing well. They muddy up a

bit after a good rain but quickly clear again when it stops. Af-

ter record rains and some good floods over winter the streams

are flushed of silt and gravel bottoms tend to improve both

mayfly and caddis hatches. The fish are fat and enthusiastic.

Our Lakes and dams are full and overflowing and fish are put-

ting on condition rapidly. Blue Rock and Glenmaggie Dams are

well stocked and producing some big fish on all types of tech-

niques including trolling and fly fishing. The La Trobe Valley fly

fishing clubs dams,(22 of them) are full and fishing really well

with quite a few 5 and 6 pounders caught already and with good

rains between now and Christmas it will be a while before the

Spud farmers start irrigating out of them.



67

For me personally, it has been the best start to a season with

105 fish caught in the first month including a couple of the

clubs 5 and 6 pounders. These numbers are nearly twice what

I get in the first month on an average year. It sounds like simi-

lar conditions in Tassie so I have booked my trip to Arthurs

from the 2nd to the 14th of January next summer in the hope

of dun hatches.

The La Trobe Valley Fly fishing club has elected me secretary

this year and I received the honour of being made a life mem-

ber.

Look forward to catching up with you all and your fish soon.

Tight lines .


68


From: Dave Egan

Sent: Monday, October 10, 2011

Subject: VFFA INITIATION TRIP

On Sunday the La Trobe Valley Fly Fishing club invited mem-

bers of the Victorian Fly Fishing Association for a fish and a

BBQ at our 22 Dams in Thorpdale in central Gippsland.

The weather was really bad with high wind and frequent heavy

showers but we had a good turn out and some really good fish

were caught and released.

I caught a fit buck brown of nearly 6 pounds 25 metres from

the car on the third cast of the day!

This fish leapt out of the water and put up a great fight be-

fore submitting to a photo. I did however discover you can't

swim in waders when the rotten log I was standing on gave way.

When I hit the bottom I also discovered you can't get out of

waders when they are full of water ten feet below the surface.

I was very lucky a branch connected to the log was stuck in the

mud next to me and with a great effort I was able to pull my-

self to the surface and after a 10 minute struggle finally

crawled up on the log.

All I lost were my sunnies and hat; it could have been a much

worse result!

Lesson is, I see a lot of people in boats in Tassie and they need

to realise that swimming in them is all but impossible.



69

One good thing was a great mate and ex- president of our club,

Fred Lewis, who has been in a serious battle with cancer for

nearly 3 years turned up in the afternoon and after a patient

wait spotted, hooked and landed a beautiful brown.

Fred is the guy in the classy hat.

Tight lines,

Dave Egan

(Secretary of the LVFF and President of the Presidents Club.)

70


From: Renee Oates


Subject: Great Lake Report

Hi all ,

Sid and Luke decided to go up to the Great Lake last Thursday

and managed to have a really good session, fished in the morn-

ing from 6 till 10 and bagged three, went in and had some lunch

and returned back on the water by 4pm bagging 6 beautiful

fish in 50 minutes from Haddens bay.

Went on to bag another one by 6pm.

President's Sid and Luke.


71



Sent: Friday, October 14, 2011


Hi all,

President John Dekkers and myself

headed out to Four Springs this morning armed with fly rods

and (in my case) "limited ability as usual.!!

We decided against getting up early, instead opting for gentle-

men's hours in order to attack our fishy friends.

At 10.30 am we found ourselves standing in the Four Springs

car park, boiling up a coffee before heading out to see what

the day would offer.

As we overlooked the lake we could see the odd "rise" here and

there along with a healthy number of red spinners flying reck-

lessly around our heads,..the day held promise.

Within 5 minutes of launching the boat, we had one brown of a

couple of pounds in the esky and had ''lipped " and missed four

others.

Upon seeing us land this fish, one of Johnny's mates floated

over and asked what we were using as he had been there since

early morning with nothing to show for his efforts.

Naturally a couple of Orange Bead Head nymphs were handed

over and "Wayne" managed two nice rainbows using this fly and

the method that we showed him to fish them with.

Isn't that what its all about?.. Wayne doesn't normally catch a

lot of fish at Four Springs apparently, so it was great that (in

some small way at least) we were able to assist this older gen-

tleman gain his a smile from ear to ear as he proudly displayed

his catch to us later on in the day.



72

As for us?, we managed four, including a couple of leviathans

both landed and lost.

We should have had our bag limit each as we lost a couple that

spat the hook when they jumped, we also missed many on the

strike,..... excuses, excuses, excuses.

I must also make mention of the fantastic Porterhouse Steak

we cooked up "onsite" for lunch that we brought from Presi-

dent Phil Groves from the Sausage shop at Perth ,... do yourself

a favour and get some of that into you!!

YUM,YUM,YUM!!!.....and that isn't cash for comment either!!

Every now and then, you have a day, although not over memora-

ble "catch wise", but all the same, will stay in your thoughts as

a fantastic experience with great company for years to come.

Today was one of those day‟s.

Thanks Johnny boy!!!

Regards,

President Todd

73


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: St.Patricks River

Hi all,

Had a look at St.Patricks River late this afternoon with Bailey,

he was supposed to go fishing with Dale and Trev but Dale was

a bit crook so that was the end of that.

When I arrived home around 5pm, Bailey made me take him to

the St.Pat‟s River instead, so off we went.

Arrived there around 6pm and fished until around 7.30pm, we

caught 8 nice little stream brownies, all on softies that we cut

down to suit the smaller sized trout in this area.

We had lots of hit's, follows‟ and lost a few, certainly a nice

river to fish close to home.

All fish were released.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO


75


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: Great Lake

Hi all,

It‟s me again with a report from the Great Lake today.

Bailey & I went to the Nineteen Lagoons to fish a couple of

lakes that I haven't fished for a few years but it was blowing a

“bloody gale” so we decided to fish the Great Lake from the

shore using softies as an alternative.

We ended up with seven brownies; fish were caught from

Boundary Bay and Tods Corner.

Fish from Boundary were in really good nick with very pink

flesh, but the ones caught from Tods were slabby.

We kept three and released the rest, fish were caught on Yep

black and gold flappers and a couple on Berkley Black “n” Gold

T.Tails.

We still faced strong North West winds here but it was a bit

more sheltered than the Nineteen Lagoons area.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO


77


From: Leigh Carpenter


Subject: Mersey River

Hi Guys,

Fished the Mersey River this afternoon from Lovett‟s flats,

down river.

The river here has great access with many excellent rapids and

runs and despite being fished heavily, it is still fishing pretty

well.

I waded out just enough to allow me to cast to the other side

and twitched a Pearl Gulp back across river. I caught 6 lovely

little river fish and lost 4 more in a couple of hours.

Although not big fish, they were great fun to catch.

Tight lines,

President Leigh.

78


From: Dale


Subject: Trevallyn Tailrace

Hi all,

Trev and I went to the tailrace at Trevallyn for half an hour

after tea tonight, not many moving, plenty of whitebait and a

big seal.

We removed a "very heavy" set dead line, I think he must have

been trying to catch the seal, (about 50 lb line, 2 big sinkers

& 2 very large baits) .

I caught one on a new hard body lure, silver on top and a yellow

belly, (new colour, no name as yet), the fish was released.

Dale & Trev

PS, SORRY ABOUT THE PICTURE QUALITY COULDN'T GET

THE FLASH TO WORK.


79


From: Belinda & Grant Kemp

Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Subject: Lake Fyans

Hi all,

President Grant, first time story from the mainland.

Went fishing last weekend to Lake Fyans at the foot of the

Grampians National Park.

Fishing was very slow until a strong North West wind of about

30 to 35 knots came through and action came from a deep drop

off along the main rock wall in about 12 foot of water.

I was using YEP TASSIE TACKLE. “Mud Dumps” very slowly

along the bottom for very good return of 4 rainbows and 2

browns.

Great weekend, great scenery and great fishing.

Tight lines to all Presidents.

President Grant Kemp.


80


From: Dale

Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2011


Hi all,

Trev didn't want to go to school today (lol), so Mike Stevens

and myself decided to take him to Little Lake to see if we

could help him catch his first fish on a fly.

Well, he achieved that before we even wet our lines and were

standing around having a pre-fish coffee! To top it off he

landed another 4 before the day was out.

All up between us we caught 17 for the day only bringing three

home and releasing the rest.

A word of warning, as you can see by the photos, ...snakes are

about everywhere, seemingly after the frogs that abound

around the lakes shoreline, also you have to walk in from Gunns

Lake as the track is just a pile of mud and you will get bogged

if you try to take a vehicle in, our suggestion is to do the 15

minute walk in.

Dale & Trev Howard


82


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: Little Lake Report 2

Hi all,

Went up to Arthurs Lake on Saturday with Bailey and his mate

Jack Shennan.

We intended to have a fish from the shore at Cow paddock Bay

as Dale told me they were catching some nice fish in that area ,

but we found it was like “tent city” with people camping every-

where.

Longford fishing club must have had a competition on there,

along with other anglers from all over the place.

Talked to two fisho‟s and they had 30 trout on Thursday & Fri-

day caught close in on softies, but we found on most of the

shores, the boys could not wade as the water was too high.

We then decided to go to Little Lake as Dale and Trev had a

good day there last Thursday.

Had a good afternoon catching 15 brownies on softies and hard

bodies, keeping half a dozen and releasing the rest.

Some fish were a bit lean on and some not real pink, but others

were in good nick and really red inside, the boys had a good

day, especially Jack who hasn't caught many trout before, he

loved it up there.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

83


From: Brett Woodberry


Subject: Arthurs Lake / Great Lake

Hi all,

After working afternoon shift Friday night- got an early knock

off and headed straight to the Great Lake to stay, ready for

an early start to fish Arthurs Lake on Saturday morning.

Upon arriving there at 8.00am, the water looked very murky

and stirred up but the day looked very promising. After having

a report from Dale Howard (President) to fish "Cow paddock"

and Flemings Bay, we made a bee- line straight to the top of

the lake to try plastics and hard body lures. After three hours

with no success (only had two bites and one follow) we decided

to go trolling instead. This move provided us with four nice fish

in good condition.

Sunday morning we decided to fish the Great Lake as we had

stayed there for the night.

Hitting the water at 7.00am it wasn‟t long before we had our

first fish. A nice brown trout in good condition of about 2 Lbs.

The next two hours saw us catch another two brownies of simi-

lar condition and slightly larger in size. All these fish were

caught on lead line trolling, four colours on home-made cobra

lures.

Although the number was not high for the amount of hours

that we put in for the two days of fishing, we certainly had a

great time out on the water.

Regards

Brett Woodberry

President


84


From: Dale


Subject: A hard day at work.

Sometimes we all need to take a moment away from our jobs to

relax and do the things we enjoy, it‟s even better if we can do

it while we are at work!

Today we fished the Tamar River, Saxon creek, and the Rubi-

con River.

Truck driving is a hard job but someone has to do it.

Dale & Buster.


85


From: "Mathew Gill"

Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Subject: Mainland Report

Me and Frankie today at Hume.

Water temp 22.3

Heaps of schooled up Yella‟s just couldn't get them to bite

anything!

Lot‟s of Redfin as well.

86


From: Darrell Wells

Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Subject: NW Coast Report

Hi fellow Presidents.

I recently spent four days up the North-West Coast with my

wife and two children to do some maintenance around out prop-

erty at Forest. After catching up with a mate (Marcus) who is a

local on Friday night for a sensational BBQ, we put together a

plan to hit the salty brine early Saturday morning to chase a

few different species on relatively light tackle.

So, we had the little 'tinnie' launched at around 7am Saturday

morning and with the high tide just about to turn and run out,

we decided to target some Australian Salmon to begin with.

The action came thick and fast, as soon as the lures hit the wa-

ter! The first reef we hit was holding plenty of small sized

'cocky‟s' and after short play with these little fella's we moved

to another area where the sized increased and there were

some real horses amongst them! The average size of the

Salmon coming aboard was around 1-2kg which were putting up

an awesome account for themselves on the 1-3kg Lox rods and

4lb braid/leader. The Pearl White YTT Flapper was banging the

Salmon cast after cast and was the stand-out soft plastic on

this species. After giving the arm a bit of a rest, I pulled the

5wt fly rod out for a run and went to battle with some quality

Salmon which were smashing my freshly tied Deceivers with

gusto!



87

A short clip of some Salmon on fly..... http://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=GVb0LHqVCbA

After all this action it was time to find some Calamari which

are fairly thick around the Coast at present and once we found

a good patch there were more thumping Squid around the boat

than we could keep up with! My first one to come aboard was a

monster that would have easily went 3kg's and took quite a lot

of coaxing back to the boat after it huge bursting runs on the

light tackle. By the time we had a good amount for a feed the

tide was almost at it's lowest and it was time to hit our next

species- Bluespot Flathead.....

Marcus took me to some of his favourite ground to target

these awesome fish and I was blown away! We first hit a sand

bank which would have been no more than 2ft deep at best

and consistently pulled magnificent fish up to 58.5cm which

really go off on the light gear and the long powerful runs in the

knee deep water was nothing short of amazing. We then moved

to another location around some racks to look for the elusive

80+cm models and although I'm sure we hooked some in the

ball park of this size we weren't able to land them due to them

pulling the hooks! We also landed some impressive Sand Flat-

head whilst chasing the 'Blues'. The most productive SP on the

big Lizards was by far the Red Rascal YTT Flapper.

So all up we had an awesome day on the water and brought

home a sensational fresh feed of two of the best eating flesh

in the sea!

Cheers

Daz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVb0LHqVCbA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVb0LHqVCbA

88

NW Coast Report ( continued )

89





Hi all,

It seems we had an impromptu Presidents outing at Four

Springs Lake today, with Presidents Dale and Trevor Howard,

myself, John Dekkers, Rose and Vic Muirhead, Rob Soward

and Dan Dempsey all having a fish here.

The day promised "so much" .. being overcast and drizzly along

with a slight breeze, perfect conditions for a huge dun hatch

at some point throughout the day.. we thought.

Unfortunately for us all, this failed to eventuate with the

hatch being small and spasmodic at best.

Most of us seemed to catch one or two but we had to work very

hard for them.

It was great to catch up with you all at the boat ramp come

day's end, have a chat and most importantly, to pilfer Donna

Howard's lovely blueberry muffins out of Dale and Trevs boat

before departing for home....yum yum.

As I often say, a fish is a bonus.

Regards,

President Todd


90


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: Brumbys Creek

Hi all,

Just a quick report from the top weir at Brumbys creek.

Bailey and I fished from 6pm to dark, walked the levee bank

and caught three browns and dropped another.

Bailey got two on hard body's and I caught mine on the Yep

black “n” gold flapper, size was 1lb to nearly 2lb and in good

nick.

Fish had been feeding on stick caddis and snails, saw a few

working on top,.. right on dark.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO.

91


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: Scamander River, Georges Bay

Hi all,

Report from the Upper Scamander River and Georges Bay at

St.Helens.

Have been working down at St.Helens last week, so Bailey

caught the bus down on Friday to have a fish with me on the

weekend.

On Saturday we fished for trout in a nice little river way back

in the hills at Upper Scamander, I think it runs into the Sca-

mander river, anyway, we fished here for a couple of hours and

caught some nice little river browns on softies, a bit of “bush

bashing” to get to the good spots, but worth it.

Later that day we went and hooked up the Stacer and headed

up the Scamander for some bream action, caught a dozen on

softies and hard body‟s, most of the action was way up the top.

On Sunday we fished Georges Bay at St.Helens and had a ball

catching salmon, we could have filled the boat up as they were

that thick, but only kept four to eat.

Salmon were caught on softies, poppers and hard body‟s, all

other fish on the weekend were released.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO


92

Scamander River, Georges Bay (continued)

93


From: Matthew Hayes

Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Subject: Top End Trip

Hi all,

President Matthew Hayes has just returned from a trip up

Darwin way, not sure exactly where, but he sent this photo

through tonight.

He has promised some more photos / details when he gets

them all sorted.

If this photo is anything to go by, they obviously had a ball.

Regards,

Todd

94



Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2011


Hi all,

Fished Four Springs for a couple of hours this afternoon, wind

was a pain in the bum, coming in from all directions.

Hardly any duns on the water, 4 cars in the car park and ball‟s

of algae are starting to appear throughout the lake,

especially at the southern end.

It's nearly "game over" here for a while I think...

(As is expected around this time each season).

I did manage two from "very limited" opportunities, the one

pictured below was about 3 pounds and I also landed another

around the 1.5 pound mark.

Only saw two other fish rise and they were only "oncers."

Fish landed were caught on the orange bead head hung 2 ft un-

der a dry fly.

Regards,

President Todd


95



Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011

Subject: Lake Leake

Hi all,

Just returned home from Lake Leake.

Apart from yesterday afternoon (where the wind got a bit wild

for a time), it was fantastic weather for camping.

Fly fishing “early morning” seems to be the best bet here at

the moment, although President Jim was talking to a fellow

camper who had a great day a fortnight ago on duns in the Big

Timber area around midday, where he landed 7.

We only saw a couple of these “little sail boats” on the water

for the whole time we were there, ants, caddis moth, smut and

brown gum beetles the predominate terrestrials that we saw

floating on the water in our fishing sessions and there wasn‟t

really enough of them to keep the fish looking up on a consis-

tent basis.

When we did find a fish locked into a feeding pattern though,

they readily took my Klinkhammer dry or the orange bead head

positioned 2 foot under it using 6.4 pound Rio fluorocarbon

Tippet.

President Jim was talking to well known (Fingal Valley football

identity) Craig Woods, who did very well on the Saturday morn-

ing using the pattern pictured.

He landed four very nice rainbow using this fly before having

to head home, he even broke one off his fly line for Jim to

copy which is testament to the generosity of the bloke.



96

Lake Leake (continued)

This pattern is fished the same as the Orange bead head under

a dry fly.

It looks orange in the picture but the colour is actually a “deep

red”, with a black head.

Soft plastics struggled for those having a go with them, but

South Australian Peter Hubbard (camping beside us), landed a

nice brown and a huge Perch (see pictures ) on Saturday eve-

ning, whilst anchored to some trees opposite the boat ramp

(dam wall end).

He also lost a rainbow estimated at around 4.5 pounds at the

net when his knot came undone ..so perhaps it is a case of

“right place, right time” in regards to their usage at the mo-

ment.

The brownies are still a little under- done “condition wise”, but

they do seem to be improving and there are plenty of small

rainbows to drive the fly fisher nuts still around.

Some are so small and with myself “striking so hard” one flew

out of the water and hit me in the chest...hmmm,...”must ease

up a bit” on that methinks!.

That aside, there are also enough decent sized ones mixed

amongst them to keep one on their toes!!

To finish this report and for no other reason than to be pedan-

tic, I have included a close up picture of President Jim

Mckenna‟s soft plastic bag,...what an absolute disgrace!!! ( lol.)


Lake Leake (continued)

This pattern is fished the same as the Orange bead head under

a dry fly.

It looks orange in the picture but the colour is actually a “deep

red”, with a black head.

Soft plastics struggled for those having a go with them, but

South Australian Peter Hubbard (camping beside us), landed a

nice brown and a huge Perch (see pictures ) on Saturday eve-

ning, whilst anchored to some trees opposite the boat ramp

(dam wall end).

He also lost a rainbow estimated at around 4.5 pounds at the

net when his knot came undone ..so perhaps it is a case of

“right place, right time” in regards to their usage at the mo-

ment.

The brownies are still a little under- done “condition wise”, but

they do seem to be improving and there are plenty of small

rainbows to drive the fly fisher nuts still around.

Some are so small and with myself “striking so hard” one flew

out of the water and hit me in the chest...hmmm,...”must ease

up a bit” on that methinks!.

That aside, there are also enough decent sized ones mixed

amongst them to keep one on their toes!!

To finish this report and for no other reason than to be pedan-

tic, I have included a close up picture of President Jim

Mckenna‟s soft plastic bag,...what an absolute disgrace!!! ( lol.)


97

That‟s about it in a nutshell; we met some great people whilst

camping and will return there again soon. I‟ve tried to be as specific as I can in the hope that perhaps it

will help a few President‟s catch a couple when next fishing

here.

It isn‟t an easy water by any means, but it is rewarding should

everything come together on the day !!.

How did everyone else go this northern Tasmanian long week-

end?

Kind regards,

President Todd

98


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: Great Lake, Lake Augusta West

Hi all,

Had a trip to Great Lake and Lake Augusta West on the week-

end with Alan Donohue, Bailey and Jack Seabourne.

We fished at the Great Lake on Saturday afternoon in very

bright sunny conditions and landed a few nice browns, Dale

Howard wanted us to try a new softie for him which is a 2.5

inch black & gold paddle tail called “Devils tongue”, and it

worked well in the Great Lake and in Augusta, catching several

trout.

We also caught a couple of nice ones in the middle of Great

Lake on the dry, this fly consisted of an orange hackle with red

tail which I tied especially for fish cruising in the waves, it

works well and very visible which is good for me as my eyesight

isn‟t what it used to be!!.

On Sunday we fished Augusta West, blowing a bit when we ar-

rived and was blowing a good 35 knots when we left, still, we

caught some nice fish, two being rainbows, fished here from

9am till 3pm, so all up we caught 16 trout.

Back at the shack later that arvo we had some Fallow deer out-

side our window which was a sight, the boys couldn't believe

how close they were.

Anyway, we had a great weekend, would have loved to fish to-

day as the lake was calm as, but had to get back early.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO


100




Subject: Lady Lake

Hi Guys,

Took a stroll up Higgs track Saturday to have a look about and

of course had to wet a line, the walk up the mountain is just un-

der 4 km and a bit testing but the scenery is breathtaking, it

took myself and Ally 1 hour 45 minutes to get up and 40 min-

utes to get back down.

As you can see in the photo's there is a great little hut there

that would make a great base camp for fishing the Chudleigh

Lakes region, will being doing that later for sure.

Lady Lake is maybe 100 meters long and wide and has a creek in

and out, the water is crystal clear so needs to be approached

very carefully, I only fished it for half an hour, because I

spent too much time exploring (I was like a kid in a candy

store) and failed to turn a fish but did see 3 rise, would love to

have been there on evening, maybe next time will spend the

night and wander a bit further the next day.

Worth a look guys,

Tight lines,

President Leigh

101


From: "David Wescombe"


Subject: Hume

Hi all,

One of our mainland Presidents ( David Wescombe) and his

mates have had recent success on the Yellow belly perch

and they sent forward some photos.

Nice fish guys!

regards,

President Todd

102


From: Dale


Subject: Leven River

Hi all,

Trev and I had a couple of hours fishing the Leven River on

Sunday after a tip off from a mate at work.

The first fish caught was on the first cast of the day and it

just got better from there!.

We had several double hook-ups and were both using hard body

lures in a short & sharp little session.

We ended up catching 15 with hits and losses every 5 or 6

casts.

As you have probably gathered by now, Trev and I love heading

off to experience some of the many fantastic waterways this

state offers and after fishing this place, we would rate it up

there with the best of them.

Another unexpected bonus that we came across, was the sight

of a freshwater lobster walking along the river bed.

We found most of the area (that we were fishing in at least)

was shallow enough to wade and even though we only covered a

very small part of this river on this trip, we are determined to

change that next time.

I can‟t emphasise enough what a great little river this is, as it

seems to be teeming with trout.

All fish caught were browns.

Regards,

Dale and Trev


104



Sent: Saturday, November 12,

2011

Subject: Lake Leake

Hi all,

Mike Stevens, myself and retired IFS Inspector Viv

Spencer went for a drive to Lake Leake today.

Given the black sky that hovered above our heads this morning

around 7.30 am, we were mindful that it may well have been

just "a boat towing exercise" and there stood a good chance of

us all not even wetting a line.

Upon arrival around 9am we boiled the Billy and cooked up

breakfast on the campground BBQ before hitting the water

around 9.30ish.

As Viv had to be home by 1pm, we only fished for a couple of

hours but this short and sharp little session yielded two lovely

rainbows. (See picture).

One rainbow gave a fantastic account of itself and was in su-

perb condition, the other was not as good "condition-wise" but

was acceptable just the same.

With the often fickle Lake Leake weather constantly improv-

ing from the time the boat was launched up until we left, I

doubt one could have scripted the day any better.



105

Speaking for myself (and I believe Mike as well), we never tire

of hearing Viv's many fishing anecdotes about the characters

he has met over his many years whilst working as a senior in-

spector, he is a born story teller that has you laughing from

the time he gets into the car until it's time to say goodbye.

The morning went far too quickly for my liking....but there is

always next time.

Regards,

President Todd

106


From: Phil Zanetto

Sent: Sunday, November 13, 2011

Subject: Sth.Esk River

Hi all,

Bailey and I fished the Sth.Esk river for a couple of hours this

afternoon, we were supposed to have a fish with Dale and Trev

today, but looking at last night‟s weather forecast for state-

wide rain, I canned it for Bailey and myself.

After staying home doing chores but seeing no rain, I said to

Bailey “we will go and have a look at our favourite spot on the

Sth.Esk later this arvo.”

We caught 12 nice brownies from 1lb to nearly 2lb, releasing

all.

They were caught on softies and hardbody‟s.

The river level has dropped a lot since last time, so we were

able to wade a lot more.

Bloody forecast is always out of whack!!

I reckon Dale and Trev also went for a fish somewhere.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

107


From: Dave Egan


Subject: Praise for the Orange Bead Head Nymph

Hi all,

The season here in Gippsland continues to be fantastic with

lots of rain and humidity, there have been plenty of Ant and

Termite hatches as well as plenty of Mayfly and Caddis action.

After a particularly big storm last week the local streams have

been high and muddy but it hasn‟t stopped the fish rising when

the Termites hatch and the dirty water only makes it easier to

sneak up on fish. Even when they are not rising the fish have

been easy to see nymphing just under the surface.

The Orange Bead Head Nymph introduced to me last year at

the Cow Paddock on Arthurs by Jim Allen has been deadly in

situations like this. It seems to have a universal attraction

working equally well on both dam and river fish. In a similar way

I have had huge success this season using a size 16 soft hackle

wet with a tiny orange tag. For those Presidents who tie your

own fly‟s, it is simply orange floss tag , grey rabbit dubbed

body and three or four turns of grey Partridge neck hackles

which I purchased from MO Tackle via mail order.

Till I see you in early January,

Tight lines.



108


From: Dale Howard


Subject: Liffey River

Hi all,

Today the Liffey was the "chosen river" to fish,.. following a

nice sleep in.

We left home at around 1pm to fish the upper reaches (up past

Bob Brown‟s place).

A nice little river to cast a line into, we landed 7 little browns

in about an hour, all were released.

Regards,

Dale & Trev

109


From: "David Wescombe


Subject: Great weekend at Eucumbene

Hi all,

This weekend we went to Eucumbene.

Most fish were caught on Sting Lures and Crick hopper Lures.

The biggest trout was over 6lbs with many caught for the

weekend.

It was a great weekend at the Lowlands fishing comp.

Photo's attached.

President Dave

110


From: Stuart Casey

Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011

Subject: Lake River

Hi guys,

Headed to the Lake River (Big Den) yesterday for a fish.

Landed 8 browns under size, lost another 3 and had heaps of

follows.

The river was very low but managed to catch them all on small

plastics and jig heads,.. mainly on Gary Glitter.

Had a great time.

President Stu Casey


111




Subject: Coles Beach

Hi Guys,

Took the kids down the end of Coles Beach road, (on the rocky

point), to try to catch a feed of squid over the reef.

Just as the sun disappeared behind Don Heads they came on

the bite and we landed 10 good size one's in around an hour us-

ing squid jigs.

Good fun on trout gear and the kid‟s had a ball playing with

these funny looking creatures. Good time to start stocking up

on some for bait while they are running hot.

Tight Lines President Leigh

112


From: "Craig & Marianne Douglas"


Subject: Arthurs Lake

Hi all,

Not always easy to organise a weekend camping and fishing with

a young family and Tassie's fickle weather, especially when

yours truly forgets the sleeping bags....

Anyway, when Daniel (6) connected it was all worthwhile!

President,

Craig Douglas

113


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: Great Forester River

Hi all,

Bailey and I decided to head to the upper Great Forester River

for a fish yesterday afternoon.

As soon as we arrived and started to fish, down came the rain,

heavy at times.

We stuck it out for nearly an hour, caught half a dozen and

called it quits.

Caught all fish on softies, river got really dirty from the run-

off, we will go back another day when the weather is better.

Nice river to fish though.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

114


From: Darrell Wells


Subject: Testing new YTT products.

Hi all.

I recently spent a couple of awesome days on the salty brine

with Marcus (Edge tracker) testing out the new range of Yep

Tassie Tackle soft plastics, with some pretty awesome results.

Friday, we only had a small window of opportunity as the

weather was against us with high NE winds and a lot of heavy

rain. We studied the radar for while late in the morning and

saw a brief break in the weather approaching, so we loaded up

and shot over to one of his favourite haunts. The next hour or

so resulted in some fantastic fishing. Within the first few

casts I had soon smashed my previous PB of 56.5cm with a very

solid 67.5cm specimen, which fell to a Black & Gold Mud Skip-

per.

Next cast after some high fives and hand-shakes I hooked into

what I thought was a small Gummy, but it was another rather

large lizard. Once I got it to the surface in-between it‟s huge

runs, the beast was on the brag mat, measured 71cm and was

soon released. Great fun on the 1-3kg Lox rods.


115

Saturday, the weather had broken up a little and we were able

to get a full day on the water. We started off by targeting

some Sambo's as I was keen to hook a few on the little 3wt.

Unfortunately they seemed to be a little scarce, but I managed

a few around the kilo mark on the 3wt and Marcus landed an

absolute donkey on a pearl white Flapper. The big 3kg+ Black-

back had the big fella moaning and groaning throughout the

dogged fight!

Once the tide had reached the desired level, we began chasing

more Lizards and this time I managed to land a few average

size ones on the 5wt. The wind had started to increase so we

continued targeting them on SP's and had any amount fish be-

tween 50 and 65cm's coming aboard.

One highlight was throwing a Black & Gold Mud Skipper to a po-

laroided Gummy in about 2ft of water and actually managing to

land it in amongst the structure all around us! It was a pretty

insane battle on the 1-3kg Lox.... my forearm is still burning!

An awesome coupla sessions. Catch ya soon.

Cheers

Daz

116


From: Roland Richardson


Subject: Weipa

Todd - I know Weipa well, spent 5 years there in the Eighties,

and yes, the fishing is stupendous. As a matter of fact I and

some family members are tentatively planning a nostalgic trip

back there mid next year, may or may not happen, hope so.

President Roly.

Below are some more President Matt Hayes

photos.........


117


From: Mick & Cindy Emmett

Sent: Saturday, November 26, 2011

Subject: Tangle with a Tiger on the Macquarie...

G‟day all,

I haven‟t had many chances to get a lot of fishing in this year,

but on Friday (after looking out the window all day at the glori-

ous weather) I jumped in the car after work, packed in my fly

rod and went for a look on the Macquarie near Cressy.

It was about 6pm when I got on the river. The evening was

still pretty warm (high teens) so I decided not to pull on my

thigh high waders, even though I had put them in the car (I

usually always wear them in the unlikely event that I get too

close to a snake)… I guess in making my decision not to wear

the waders I considered stuff like “the water was low – no

need for wading”, “ it was too hot” and “I had never seen a

snake on the stretch of the river I was going to fish”… So off

I headed wearing my Blundstones and fairly light weight cotton

trousers…

The wind had picked up a bit, so I was walking fairly quickly to

get to a spot about 2km from the car that I knew would be

fairly sheltered and maybe I could find a spinner or two over

the water. I was following a pretty well defined track that fol-

lowed the river about 1 ½ foot wide in grass about 2 foot tall,

and like all fishermen, I had my eyes on the water looking for

the sign of a feeding fish…

I‟ll pause hear and say that I‟m sure most of us have at one

time or another have had the experience of standing on a bent

stick that flicks up and hits you in the leg; it can make pretty

solid contact, and you can guess what‟s just happened without

really worrying about it… well this was different…


118

Tangle with a Tiger on the Macquarie... (continued)

I knew I hadn‟t stood on a stick, as I felt nothing under my

foot, but I felt a thump in the right shin, like the sensation of

being hit by lump of meat (something that was only semi-solid)…

“That was odd” I thought, and after taking another step or two

I casually glanced behind me wondering what that was…

What I saw was the fattest snake I have ever seen in the 10 or

so years I have been in Tasmania, moving away from me diago-

nally across the track… What I said can‟t really be written, due

both to the audience reading this, and the fact that I don‟t

know how to spell some of the words I said… (words that in-

clude characters such as #@*&!)...

I honestly don‟t know how long it was, as I couldn‟t see all of it,

but the words we have all heard “easily thicker than your wrist

– more like you forearm” is the only way to describe it . Also, I

didn‟t see its head, and am assuming (given its size and colour)

it was a Tiger – but I could be wrong though. I did see enough

to know it wasn‟t an eel… I have seen many large snakes while

fishing in Tassie in places like the Nineteen Lagoons areas and

around St Clair, but nothing I have seen comes close to this

one…

My immediate thought was “The snake is now between me and

my way back to the car… how do I get past it”… The last I had

seen of it, it was heading to the water, so I “goose stepped” at

Olympic pace in about a 20m arc on the opposite side of the

track (through long grass) back towards the car… (I had al-

ready decided in about a nanosecond that fishing was over for

that day…).


119

It was only after about moving 50 metres past the spot where

I‟d seen the snake that the thought occurred to me that I had

better pull up my trouser leg and have a look at where I felt

the thump. I didn‟t know what to expect, and my heart was still

leaping out of my chest… I guess I was surprised that

I couldn‟t see any tell-tale puncture marks or traces of blood.

I moved on a bit and realised I was still well over 1 ½ km from

the car, so had another look just to reconfirm it had missed

me, as I had a long way to go – still I saw no sign of it having

tagged me.

On the way back to the car I walked out of the long grass close

to the recently ploughed crop – my nerves totally shot… Can you

imagine what my reaction was when a hare bolted from its hide

less than 3 foot in front of me!!! (I used those #@%! words

again…).

By the time I got back to the car I figured: “I‟m back at the

car‟ – I‟m not foaming from the mouth, no dizziness, no head-

aches, no soreness, I‟m not dead… it must have missed me..”.

( continued on next page )

120

Tangle with a Tiger on the Macquarie... (continued)

What have I learnt?

a) I was very lucky!

b) Don‟t leave your mobile phone in the car (I‟d have been in all

sorts of trouble if it had tagged me being that far from the

car)…

c) Spend more time looking where you are stepping than at the

water

d) There are BIG snakes living near the Macquarie

e) If you have taken the time to put waders in the car – wear

them

f) If „Goose Stepping‟ ever becomes an Olympic sport I‟m in,

as I‟ve already got the world record…

g) To those that say “if you are bitten by a snake – stay

calm”…You Are Dreaming!!!

I‟ll be back on the Macquarie as soon as I get another opportu-

nity, but if you see me there, I‟ll be the guy wearing waders!!!

PS: For the record… No Fish (but about 15 beers when I got

home – and a couple more checks of the leg)…

Cheers. Mick.

121


From: Grant Kemp


Subject: Yep Tassie Tackle Lake Fyans Comp

G‟day All Presidents

Finally a report about how the Comp went. A great weekend

had by all with lots of fish caught (thanks to the Yep plastics

we used). 60 adults and 19 juniors entered the comp. Fisher-

man were impressed with the prizes on offer and the kid‟s

were rapt that they all got to take a sample home. Weather

was on our side with temps to 26 and light winds over the two

days. A few yarns were told over a few drinks, getting bigger

and better as the night went on and into the morning.

The Angling Club were very grateful for what the Howard fam-

ily donated through their Yep Tassie Tackle sponsorship and

thought the trophy was tops.

Here's hoping it will carry on over many

years.

Regards

President Grant Kemp

HORSHAM VICTORIA

122


From: Darrell Wells

Sent: Saturday, December 10, 2011

Subject: Little Stream Session

Howdy fellow Presidents...

... was kicking around in the shed last night, just whipping up a

few flies and sipping down a few coldies (as you do) and got a

urge to head out with the 3wt for a little bit fun on some of

our special waters we are lucky enough to have right on our

doorstep. I only had limited time up my sleeve as a medical for

up-coming work had to see me back in town later in the morn-

ing.

I thought I would drop in a bit below where I normally start on

this headwater, and I wasn't disappointed. Although some of

the Browns were a little smaller on average than further up the

system, as usual they're colours and markings make up for what

some may lack in size! And, hey, It's not the size of the fish I

fish these waters for, it's the peace and tranquillity one is

treated to just being out there.

So the little 3wt (I really need to get me a 000wt for these

streams) was locked and loaded with a #16 Stimulator and

pretty much every run and likely looking lie I dropped it in pro-

duced a hook-up or a missed fish from maybe my over eager-

ness, but I love it when you present the fly to these feisty lit-

tle fish 3 or 4 times again after missing the hook-up and they

just smash it due to it pissing them off!


123

I made my way up through the tight 100 odd yards of over

grown flora and picked up half a dozen or so nice little speci-

mens. Didn't snap many pics, just made the most of the oppor-

tunity I had and had a bit of fun. The 2hr session probably saw

a couple of dozen Gucci little Browns come to hand, which is

probably on par for these rich, fertile waters we have mean-

dering through the scrub all over this wonderful State....

I recently grabbed a little tripod for my compact digital cam-

era and thought I'd give the slow shutter speed pics a whirl on

my way out on one of the larger sections of river I passed....

Hope you enjoy the pics....

Cheers

Daz

124


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: Great Lake

Hi all,

A quick report from the Great Lake.

This afternoon Bailey, Jack Seabourne and myself went looking

for a suitable camp site on the western side of Great Lake so

that we can spend a few days fishing there over Xmas.

So, although this wasn‟t a fishing trip, we threw the rods in as

we “ had to have a few casts, ”.. while we were there.

I caught a nice 3lb brown, had two other hits and the boys had

a couple follow their plastics in.

Fish was caught on black & gold T.tail and released.

We only put in half an hour and caught my fish where some

dirty water met the clear water around a point.

Wind was blowing a good 20 knot northerly.

Haven't been fishing much lately as I have been too busy.

That will change over the Xmas break.....

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

125


From: Mick Goss

Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2011

Subject: Dads Group Report

Hi Presidents,

Thank you all for the fantastic stories /photos over the 2011

season year..Awesome getting the emails. Thank you Todd &

Janet for passing them on.

My apologies for not sending stories in for what we at the Dads

Group Family have been doing over the last few months.

Took small group fishing at Scamander River, with one young

chap catching his first Bream.

My first 2 Trout for this season 2011/12 came from Brushy

Lagoon. That was also the first time I caught anything at

Brushy. One small hip-up, decided to celebrate my first Brushy

trout with a swim" falling in, clothes, camera and all off the

Dam wall" he he

Day down at Beauty Point jetty, with the Dads Group Fam-

ily. Catching and releasing small Flathead & Mullet, Kids

enjoyed their day, oops Big kids did too.



126

Dads Group Report (Continued)

Xmas just around the corner, I'm already planning the next

fishing and camping trip for the Dads Group Family for the

2012 year.

1. Day fishing trip to Beauty Point, 2nd week of Jan.

2. Then the big 4 day camping/ fishing trip to Bridport

Caravan Park in the 1st weekend in Feb 2012 with 10

adults/ 21 Children will be attending.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

President Mick Goss

Dads Group Family

127


From: Dave Wescombe

Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011

Subject: Lake Mulwala

Hi all,

President Dave Wescombe sent forward these pictures from a

recent "and very wet" trip out to Lake Mulwala.

Regards,

President Todd

128


From: Dave Wescombe

Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2011

Subject: Mulwala 2

Hi all,

A few small ones, lost two good ones that had a bit of weight

behind them!

President Dave.

129




Subject: Mersey River

Hi Guys,

Went down the mouth of the Mersey River this afternoon to

check out what the warm water has bought in.

Hit the water around 7:30 till 9pm, (should have made a night

of it but had to get the kids home). Caught 2 draft board

sharks which the kids loved, not me so much, and a couple of

snapper which put a smile on my face, they fight great and that

tell tale head shake gets the adrenaline pumping. All fish

caught on squid with just a standard paternoster rig.

Tight Lines.

President Leigh

130


From: Rob Soward

Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011

Subject: Arthurs Lake Report

Finished school yesterday so snuck up for a bit of a look

around, had heard mixed reports about the Cowpaddock so, like

all fisho‟s, had to investigate for myself.

Didn‟t have a lot of time and am a bit over the weatherman

joker- the forecasts never match reality!! Weather websites

all said cloud so I went up for a look and found mainly sun!

Saw a few duns and a few “oncers” of smallish size. When it did

get cloudy there was not a lot doing. I picked up a small fish on

an orange bead head nymph that I released. Fished the bead

head under a Klinkhammer for about another 2 hours for not a

touch, varying the depth of the nymph.

I went loch style and almost immediately picked up a pounder

on a claret dabbler. Another half an hour or so and nothing do-

ing until I hooked and landed a beautiful 2 pounder, fat as mud

on a possum emerger. A pleasant outing but very quiet.. Spoke

to three others with ones and twos; too much sun was the ver-

dict.

A few boaters can do with some etiquette lessons too- I was

fishing a drift and caught my first one and suddenly had a boat

right next to me for company; could have cast into his boat!

Rob Soward


131


From: Rob Soward


Subject: Arthurs Lake report- part 2

After the weatherman roulette of yesterday I thought they

would have to get it right today- checked no less than 3

weather websites and saw the word cloud a lot along with the

cloud picture , saw the temperature and thought u beaut!!..

On arrival at the Jonah Bay ramp it was "spot the cloud"- the

forecasts never match reality!! Weather websites all said cloud

so I went up for a look and found even more sun than yester-

day! We can put folks on the moon but can‟t get the weather

forecast right?? .. Grrrrrrrrr

Saw 2 duns for the day and only two risers, both of which I

caught - got the first fish a lively pounder on a brown klink-

hammer and the second fish a lovely 2 pounder with golden

flanks on a possum emerger. Todd's not going to like this but I

fished the orange bead head under a Klinkhammer for about 3

hours for not a touch, varying the depth of the nymph as I did

yesterday! My nymph has swum more than Ian Thorpe has in

the last day with no result! [Notwithstanding the small one I

let go yesterday]

I went loch style and never looked like it... too bright. An-

other pleasant outing but very quiet... spoke to two others at

the ramp who got a few on plastics but nothing on the fly. Be

warned too- a bloke told me he had some fellows appear when

he was about to walk down to his boat looking at his gear-

might be the snoozers who swiped the gear a month or so ago.

Rob Soward


132


From: Tony Morecroft


Subject: Lake Eucumbene

Hi all,

A few pictures sent from a friend fishing Lake Eucum-

bene NSW.

The small Kangaroo was found swimming in the middle of the

lake, it had been chased into the water by wild dogs and kept in

the boat until it recovered.

It was then released later in the day.

Cheers Tony.


134



Sent: Sunday, December 18 2011

Subject: Arthurs Lake today

Mark "n" Todd's “ most excellent adventure".

Hi all,

Mark Tapsell arrived at our place at 8.30 this morning and

hooked onto the Lambert family‟s boat, it's known to us as "the

Olympic torch" aptly named, because, like the Olympic torch, it

never goes out!!

OK, it's an old line but still a good one, don't you think?

We arrived at the Pumphouse bay boat ramp around 9.30 ish,

after Mark missed the turn off and drove straight past.

I was quick to inform him of that very fact!!

Once we did the big "u bolt", a hundred or so metres up the

road and after "eventually" arriving at our destination (lol ), we

were greeted by a strong north westerly wind blowing straight

in on us of around 15 knots, not ideal for launching and obvi-

ously most others felt the same as there was only one other

car and trailer parked in a very vacant area.

As it turned out, we needn't have worried as the launch proved

uneventful and after a short while we were on our way towards

the Cowpaddock, we only saw about half a dozen boats for the

whole day.

Mark decided to fish a team of wets, I fished my orange bead

head under a dry, (yawn, how unusual I hear you all say), but

hey, "if it aint broke, don‟t fix it"... is my motto!

( continued on next page )


135

In a nutshell, Mark finished with four and I finished with

three, and between us we both had probably a dozen more on

for a couple of seconds before pulling the hooks after a series

of "head shakes".

It was quite challenging in the wind, even though the photos

may make the weather look calm, believe us, it wasn't!

A couple of snags on the BBQ, along with a couple of scotches

and a couple of beers, (in moderation of course) finished up

what turned out to be a great day.

Saw a couple of duns, and quite a few stonefly on the boat as

we had lunch, but only saw two trout rise and take something

off the top for the whole time we were there.

President Rob is correct in saying that it is indeed hard going

at Arthurs for the moment, but in a couple of weeks I reckon

that will all change for the better!!!

Thanks again Mark for a great day.

Regards,

President Todd

136


From: Darrell Wells

Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2011

Subject: Bream on Top..

Howdy fellow Presidents......

So, after not being out to have a crack at a Bream in over 8

months, I finally got to do so over the weekend.

I headed down to Hobart on Friday to pick up Isaac and head

up the coast that night to chase some Bream with surface lures

on Saturday. By the time Isaac knocked off work Friday arvo

there was no need to rush to get up the coast as we were only

camping to get an early start for the following day. We decided

to have a little session on the Derwent targeting a few on Vibe

lures.

Whilst there, we received a call from my mate (Rob) that he

had already arrived at our spot and there was heaps of Bream

stacked up on the pylons, but would wait until we arrived so I

could have first crack at them.... Top bloke isn't he!

When we arrived, he wasn't wrong as there were some very

nice fish working the area, some of which Isaac said were the

biggest he's seen in the Derwent (so they must have been big).

I rigged up with the ever reliable Cranka Vibe in ORT and

dropped it in the vicinity of some fish that were rolling on the

pylons and it got hammered on the drop and I got absolutely

rogered over, under and around the Mussel encrusted pylon!

I'm surprised I stayed connected for as long as I did to be

honest.

(continued on next page)


137

So back on with another vibe and this time an almost locked-up

drag, I managed to pull one out of the same hole and Rob was

into a nice fish right beside me. I moved over to another pylon

and hooked up to another nice fish. This one took me around

pylons, some chain and steel cable and had my braid stitched

around the jetty resembling a spider‟s web, but still managed

to land it with some help from the boys whilst I was hanging

from a pylon with one leg like a Monkey! :lol: Team effort that

was!

We ended up landing 6 or so nice fat Bream before the fish

went quiet as the tide slackened. That was a good little Bream

fix just there, but the best was yet to come...... It was great to

finally meet you Rob, and look forward to fishing the comps

with you. ;)

After heading over the River to hook the Hornet on, we made

our way up the coast and arrived at around midnight. The plan

was to 'swag it' but with the bit of rain we got on the way up it

was too wet so we slept in the car, if you could call it sleep! We

awoke at around 5am to an awesome sunrise, rigged our rods

and made our way to one of Isaac's favourite spots to fish the

flats with surface lure and fly. Straight off the bat the fish

were on and we had a good number of fish coming to the boat.

We then decided to try our luck with the fly with some pencil

poppers I had tied up. The Bream were all over them 'boofing'

them left, right and centre and at times our fly's were getting

thrown about 6 inches clear of the surface from the savage

attacks. The only problem was, we couldn't get a solid hook-up

and therefore was able to land any, but man it sure was excit-

ing. If you think its exciting surface fishing with lures...... you

should try surface fly's! UNREAL!

(continued on next page)

138

We decided to go back to surface and hard body lures after an

hour or so and moved up the system a little further where we

could fish the flats and channel drop-off at the same time, and

man the fish were thick and some crackers amongst them, too.

I continued fishing surface lures along the edge of the drop-

off, while Isaac fished in the drop-off with hard body lures,

both swapping and changing our technique throughout, and she

was on for a good couple of hours or more! The stand out sur-

face lure was the (Pontoon 21 Loco Perrito) they were bow-

waving over to them from 20ft or more and absolutely smash-

ing them, an awesome sight to see! We ended up pulling the pin

at around 2pm I think it was, as the stiff NE wind had got up.

All up it was an incredible morning's fishing with big numbers,

average size of around 36-37cm and some bigger ones to 41cm

with the odd squeaker thrown in.

It was indeed an awesome session and I can't wait to get back

down to the Derwent for another crack at them.

My Bream fix is now sorted..... Onya Rhonda!

Cheers

Daz

140


From: Mark Tapsell


Subject: Lake Augusta

Oh what a day!

Arrived at Lake Augusta at 8 am this morning to find the most

perfect conditions a bloke could ask for on his Christmas “wind

down”.

Over the space of the morning I managed to net 19 fish wading

the shore, all in lovely condition.

All were browns, not a rainbow to be seen.

Fish were caught on a parachute dun with a small nymph sus-

pended about 6 inches under it, I dropped a few fish too.

That being said, I never had one refusal and can‟t wait to get

back up there.

All fish were caught wading, (which by the way have a leak

right in the crotch), this is very "refreshing" at 8 am!!

Merry Christmas to all and tight lines.

Regards.

Mark

141


From: Rob Soward


Subject: Arthurs Lake Report

PRESIDENTS LAMBERT AND MCKENNA LOOK AWAY NOW-

YOU ARENT GOING TO LIKE THIS.

Went to the Cowpaddock again on a forecast of cloudy- you

guessed it, sunny on arrival. Some cloud did appear later on in-

termittently. I put out the trusty brown nymph under a Klink-

hammer and fished away for about 2 hours for nothing. I didn‟t

see a dun and only saw the odd splashy oncer- maybe 5 or 6 in

total. After this fruitless nymph work I changed to a loch style

rig of a possum emerger on the point and a claret dabbler fur-

ther up the line- got 4 in under an hour. All blind- they just

hammered the fly. Interestingly I saw bugger all moving fish,

only 2 duns for the session and none of the fish I caught, I

saw. I did cover two fish I saw rise and they were clearly just

oncers and I didn‟t catch them. Fish were all between a pound

and 1.25 but “fat as” and orange inside. They also loved the

weed that is prevalent and got me into that on my light gear.

Spoke to two other boats with 5 anglers on them and they had

one fish between them. I‟m also hoping no presidents were

fishing off the shore in the Cowpaddock yesterday- 3 blokes

were fishing and by the noise they made they were either miss-

ing or losing a few..The cry of " oh no..f#%#$%k was heard a

few times! hahaha

Merry Christmas and enjoy your time with your loved ones.

Rob Soward

142


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: Lake Leake

Hi all,

Had a fish at Lake Leake on Friday afternoon with Trev & Bai-

ley, had to go down to St.Helens, so we decided to have a go

there on the way down.

Arrived to a flat calm lake, very warm, saw some fish moving on

top, got the fly rod out this time and caught four “smallish”

rainbows and lost four others, fish caught on emergers.

Trev caught a brownie and a nice bowie around the two pound

mark on hard bodies and Bailey caught one rainbow on a softie.

Fishing died off later in the day when a cold front came over

from the east.

Hope everyone has a great Xmas.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

143




Subject: St Helens Report

Hi,

Merry Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR to all Presidents.

On a trip to St Helens over the Christmas, we had the usual

home cooked Christmas dinner and Boxing Day holiday but

wasn't to know these were going to be the best days for fish-

ing , whilst we were there.

On Monday night I went to set my craypot but got beaten by

a strong south easterly wind, so the Cray got to live another

day.

On Tuesday I awoke to the same wind so decided to fish the

bay instead.

Found a good patch, bagging some good flathead of around

the 35cm + near the cliffs, then caught some nice cocky

salmon trolling, along with a couple of whiting on the bottom,

further up the bay.

Caught up with my mate Mason Paull and his son Daniel, they

also had been fishing the bay netting some very nice Trevally

of the 40cm+ and good Bream 32cm+ all on plastics.

Had a lovely few days away and thoroughly recommend where

we stayed at Queechy Cottages, fully self contained cot-

tages that welcome fishers with boats.

Just let them know you have a boat so they can allocate you a

spot with enough room to park, right beside your cottage.

Until next time TIGHT LINES,

Brett Woodberry

144


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: St.Helens

Hi all,

Just got back from St.Helens, spent a couple of days fishing in

Georges Bay and Grants Lagoon with Bailey, my brother Paul

and his son Nathan.

We caught a few salmon and a couple of grass whiting over

some sand flats, Nathan lost a really big bream right at the

boat.

In Grants lagoon we caught some big trevally, bream and flat-

head and also got around 10 dozen prawns from here on Tues-

day night, also attached a picture of a nice Thresher shark

caught up the coast from shore, pics may not be very clear as

they were taken from a mobile phone.

Heading to lakes tomorrow for a few days so should have a re-

port from there soon.

Almost forgot, they are catching plenty of albacore off

St.Helens at the moment, one report is of 35 albies caught

near the cliff and at the 100 metre mark yesterday , also at-

tached a couple of pictures from some mates who had a snap-

per fish near Whyalla last week.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

146


From: Dave Egan


Subject: Tassie trip

Greetings fellow presidents,

My mate Darrel and I are lucky enough to be visiting you from

the third of January till the 14th.

Young James can‟t come this year as he recently had a car ac-

cident and is still recovering from some nasty injuries. Our

main agenda is to stay at Jonah Bay at Arthurs and meet and

greet as many of your wonderful browns as we possibly can.

It would be great to catch up with any other Presidents while

we are there, especially Jim, Virginia and Todd and his family.

To save $ we put our 12.8 foot tinny on top of the car but as

Daz and I are getting long in the tooth we can no longer manage

to put the trailer on top of the boat on top of the car as I have

done in years past. We do like to have a look around at some of

the other lakes and a trailer makes the job heaps easier. If

anyone knows where we could beg, borrow, steal, hire or maybe

even buy a trailer that would take our tinny we would love to

hear from you.

As I get older and am close to retiring I would love to leave a

trailer in Tassie as it would make visiting more frequently eas-

ier and cheaper. After an unbelievable start to the season here

in Gippsland the fishing is getting more challenging as the wa-

ters of our streams clear and warmer. I‟m really looking for-

ward to our visit and hope to see you all on the Lakes some-

where.

Tight lines,


148



Sent: Sunday, January 01, 2012

Subject: Lake Augusta .

Hi all,

Mark Tapsell rang me yesterday afternoon and asked if I

wanted to join him in a wade at Lake Augusta this morning.

Since both of us are running on a very tight schedule, it was

decided that he would pick me up at 6.30 am and we would be

back by 2pm, (not ideal hours to guarantee finding an insect

hatch but we decided to take our chances just the same).

Upon arrival at Augusta and following a quick feed of egg “n”

bacon, we found a sheltered bay nearby and managed to pull up

six nice browns on a Klinkhammer dry fly, we also had a break

off and a few missed on the strike to add to the excitement.

What a fantastic sight it is to see the golden shape of a fish

working its way towards you and you “just know” that your fly

will be the next one engulfed.

Thanks Mark, I can't wait to go again when able.

Regards,

President Todd


149


From: Phil Zanetto

Sent: Monday, January 02, 2012

Subject: Great Lake report

Hi all,

Fished Great Lake on the weekend with Bailey & Jack

Seabourne.

We managed to catch 16 trout, three being rainbows, caught

fish on dry fly and a few on softies.

Some nice fish were taken out on the middle of the lake on my

Orange dry.

“Shark fishing” out here is fantastic!, all visual, polaroiding fish

cruising up wind lanes and taking the dry,...can't beat it.

Bailey caught two browns and a rainbow, (his first trout at

Great Lake on the dry), he was rapt and he also missed a few as

well.

The boys loved camping up there, weather was great, very hot

& mostly sunny with northerly wind, ideal for shark fishing

can't wait to get back up there.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

150




Subject: Mulwala

Hi all,

President Dave Wescombe forwarded these shots from a re-

cent day‟s fishing at Mulwala, he managed 13 cod with only five

legal size.

Well done mate, looks like you had a ball.

Regards,

President Todd

151


From: Roger Mies

Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2012


Hi all,

Rob and I decided to head for Arthurs yesterday and fish

“gentleman‟s hours” - the weather looked perfect for a big dun

hatch.

We arrived at 11am and conditions were perfect around Bra-

zendale Island– warm and overcast with a light breeze from

the north.

No fly life on arrival so we thought we would fish wets until the

duns came “on” – which never happened. Not a dun was seen all

around the Island at our traditional hotspots. Our only dry fly

work was when we caught a couple of sippers in close in some

sheltered water.

We wondered if things may have been better in the Cowpad-

dock where the water is shallower?

A good day was had regardless and we left the lake late after-

noon with 8 ranging between 1 - 2 and half pounds. All good

condition and orange flesh,.. apart from one “eel”.

Cheers

Roger Mies


152


From: Stuart Casey


Subject: Waterhouse Fishing Trip

Hi guys,

Headed to the shack at Blackman's Lagoon on Wednesday and

stayed through to Sunday. Headed out on Blackman's in the

tinny for a couple of hours, bagging a 3lb brown trout in good

condition on a black and gold T-tail.

On Thursday, Jonny and I headed out on the sea in the after-

noon at South Croppies. We caught 58 flathead, 3 undersize

gummies and a squid in a 3 hour stint.

On Saturday, four of us went out at South Croppies. We could

only manage a dozen flathead in very calm conditions and a cou-

ple of pike, but caught 4 calamari, sighting them with our Po-

laroids when they were close to shore.

On Sunday, four of us launched off Blizzard's Landing. The

weather wasn't much chop but we got 10 big pike before the

weather got so bad that we had to go in.

All in all we had a great holiday and ate heaps of fresh fish.

President Stu.


153


From: Al & Barb Anderson


Subject: Bruny Island

Hi all,

Just a note on a trip over the New Year. Had a few days at a

mates shack at Bruny and while we did not exactly clean up, we

managed a couple of crayfish and a few feeds of flathead, so

not too bad.

Small shark in the pot made things interesting for a while.

Weather was great,…. but boy it can be a busy spot.

Cheers President Al


154



Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2012


Hi all,

Janet, my son Jacob and I headed up to Arthurs Lake this

morning and met up with Presidents Jim and Virginia

Mckenna for breakfast.

As usual, we had the egg n bacon "pre - fish" cook up, along

with a cup of coffee before heading out to the Cowpaddock

around 9.30ish.

Saw one solitary dun on the water for the whole day and only

two fish rise.

We were joined by around 8 or 9 boats only on the water, and

it was a struggle from start to finish.

The only thing landed in our boat was Jim's hat that blew off,

(see picture) and a small one that was caught on Janet's third

cast of the day, and promptly released.

Janet had another, ( jump and spit the hooks at her) of around

a pound and a half in size and Jim lost four without any being

landed..... (Not happy Jan! was our Jim.).

That was about it really, only saw one other fish caught whilst

on the water.

Back at the ramp we found that another boat managed two for

the day and President Dave Egan‟s boat had landed one.

Arthurs is indeed a mystery at the moment it seems.

Oh well, there's always next time, can't win them all and

we enjoyed the day regardless.

Cheers,

Todd


155


From: "David Wescombe"


Subject: Mulwala

Dave Wescombe and his mate had a great outing yesterday,

with 15 cod landed and 4 over the 60 cm mark.

156


From: Reg Travers


Subject: The Penstock

A few days before Xmas I spent several most enjoyable days

at the Penstock, mainly by myself, and as such had the luxury

of deciding where and when to fish.

As we all know fishing at the “P” can either be full on or full

off, there are days however when it is sometimes “in between”.

Over the week I struck it all. Bright sky and windy being the

main order of the day.I did manage to say hello to one or two

fish most days, but as you know with a size limit of 420mm

there were few to get really acquainted with.

I did however have one special friend in a certain area, with

whom I struck up a special relationship, hooked him 4 times to

be broken off 3, and to have him straighten a hook on another

occasion.

My last morning saw me say “hi” to him again, but sadly the

meeting was all too brief.

I have had a report from a friend that this fish may have since

been caught and reputed to have been around the 7/8 lb mark.

My hope that it was not killed, but it may be a forlorn hope.

One consolation is that via a very good friend, I was given the

task of caretaking a very nice bottle of single malt whiskey,

and I‟m afraid to report I failed that task dismally. Are well,

that‟s fishing...

Happy New Year to all my fellow Presidents, and tight lines.

Pres., Reg Travers


157


From: Peter Hubbard


Subject: My Tassie Trip

Hi all,

My trip to Tassie was an amazing experience although it took

me a while to adjust to the camping side of it, I also had the

problem of trying to look after my little dog which I will not do

next time.

I enjoyed the few days at Lake Leake with you all and actually

caught up with Jim & Virginia at Arthur's. I had intended to

send you some photos but I lost them all when my phone played

up.

Having received your most recent mail about Arthur's,

I thought I must tell you that I had a ball up there catching

some 50 Browns for the 3 weeks that I was there. You may

know a bloke who spends the entire summer there called Jim or

“Ferret”; we became friends and spent most days‟s bank fishing

with Mudeyes. I bagged 5 fish on four occasions with a few

topping the 2 lb mark and one nice fish that went close to 3lb.

I lost one beauty well over 3lb which wrapped me around a log

by jumping over it and swimming out the other side. While I

was there an avid fly-fisher caught one in the Cow Paddock

that weighed in at 5 lb. The weather was cold but bearable,

some mornings the temperature was minus 3 to a max of about

12 degrees. We had snow on 4 separate days and having a

shower in the morning was a bit like going to the dentist with

the only enjoyable part actually being under the shower.

I will be back next year around early October for about a

month so I do hope we can catch up while I am there.

Peter Hubbard


158


From: Graham, Sarah (IFS)


Subject: Western Lakes

Hi all,

There‟s a lot I could say about the attached photo! I could say

it took us days of scrub bashing, boulder climbing, hard slog

bushwalking to reach this remote shallow body of crystal clear

water, located somewhere in Tasmania‟s Western Lakes wilder-

ness fishery. But really, it wasn‟t too far to walk and the going

wasn‟t that tough. It was definitely worth the effort to get

there and the rewards were so much sweeter.

The day I caught this beautiful brown trout was the first in a

series of warm days up on the Plateau, right at the end of 2011.

It was around midday and we were beginning to bake beneath

the high altitude sun surrounded by alpine shrub and sparse

shade. We‟d searched a number of nearby waters in the morn-

ing, scanning the shallow lake edges for torpedo shapes and

spotting the occasional rise in deeper waters. My much more

experienced fly fishing buddy had already polaroided and

caught several good sized trout on the dry, so I was deter-

mined to keep moving ahead of him and be first to scout some

virgin water.

Then as I rounded a small bay, I spied a likely shape from be-

hind a spikey bush – a lovely hunk of fish within easy casting

distance. The fish seemed oblivious to me as I snuck close to

the water‟s edge, hand covering my shiny fly reel as I found a

suitable perch from which to cast.

(Continued next page)


159

Cast to him, quick!” cried my buddy, who was approaching rap-

idly from behind, having seen what I was fixed on. I knew my

mate was fully prepared to take the shot if I didn‟t get my line

out first, so I cast as fast as my novice fly fishing fingers

could manage.

Two false casts and my bright fluorescent fly line fell neatly on

the water in line with the unmistakeable outline of the fish. But

to my dismay, the leader folded back on itself and the spinner

pattern dry fly landed in a gentle flop on the wrong side of the

fly line.

I held my breath. Time slowed and I watched in stunned silence

as the fishy shape swam beneath the bright fly line – com-

pletely undeterred – and gulped the fly. I was mesmerised, the

movement of the fish and the whole thing seemed surreal.

“He‟s taken it! Strike!” cried my friend, so I did. I felt the de-

lightful jerk of the fish and its satisfying weight on the line. I

kept the tension on and calmly played the fish amidst the ex-

cited calls from my fishing coach. It wasn‟t long before I‟d

landed this very nice fish, one of Tasmania‟s pure wild brown

trout. I held my trophy briefly and thankfully for this photo

before letting him swim away to carry on with life.

I could say that I‟m an intrepid hunter of fish, a fly fisher;

that I polaroided this trout, cast to him and caught him, and

that I knew exactly what I was doing. But the truth is that I‟m

just lucky, a beginner in the right place at the right time with a

good friend to show me the joys of fly fishing in this magnifi-

cent corner of the world.

There‟s a whole lot to be grateful for living in Tasmania!

Cheers

Sarah

160


From: Roland Richardson

Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Subject: Brushy Lagoon

Hi all,

Finally have something to send to you.

As you know, my son Jeremy is down here to do a spot of fish-

ing, we haven‟t done very well.... until today!

We headed out to Brushy Lagoon arriving there about 7 am,

launched the boat and powered around with the electric, no

other boats on the water and 2 guys fishing on the dam

wall. Using all types of lures, but mainly soft plastics, we went

back and forth along the wall and circumnavigated the lagoon

with not a touch - the 2 guys on the wall had been there for

hours and had nothing. There had been quite a bit of activity

with large fish jumping and boiling, but they weren't interested

in our offering.

About 11.30, trolling, Jeremy got a hit on a Berkley grub in

pumpkinseed and landed a large Atlantic salmon, an hour later,

another hit on the same lure, another large Atlantic.

It was very frustrating to have the sounder beeping madly with

dozens of fish underneath, but they weren't interested.... lot‟s

of weed below, but very little showing on the surface, water

extremely clear. When we headed back to the ramp, about a

dozen large fish (probably salmon) were bunched up in the nar-

row section but were spooked when we approached. All in all a

good outcome as today was Jeremy's last day, he heads back to

Sydney tomorrow.

Wishing all Presidents a great 2012.

Tight lines ...... Roly Richardson.


162




Subject: Lake Augusta

Hi all,

Went to Lake Augusta again today and met up with Johnny

Dekkers and Wayne Sheppard.

Arrived around 10am and fished until around 2.30pm.

Johnny landed two, broke on one, broke his Sage rod and lost

his landing net in the lake.

I landed three, put one back ,(too small) lost two and found

Johnny's landing net in the lake.

That about sums the day up, not enough blue sky to Polaroid

very well, but any day fishing is a good day.

regards,

Todd


163


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: St.Helens & Shark at Garden Island

Hi all,

Just got back from St.Helens where I had a fish with my

brother Stephen.

I was tied up doing chores at the shack yesterday, so today we

went out for about 4 hours for a good feed of morwong, we

were after a stripy, but it was not to be this time.

We then went for a troll at the 100 metre mark for some alba-

core and boated three.

Conditions early were ok, but it blew up later on, had reports

that the 100 metre mark is where most fish are being caught

with things quiet on the shelf.

Also had a report of a marlin that was seen “free swimming”.

At Bicheno albacore are being caught on the 100 metre mark in

big numbers also heard of a yellow fin being hooked there but

it was lost at the boat. (Continued next Page)

164

St Helens & Shark at Garden Island

( Continued)

At Garden Island today (in the Tamar river), my wife Sue took

Bailey for a fish with softies from the shore.

He caught some salmon and when cleaning the fish he noticed a

large shape coming towards him, it was a shark.

He says it was a Great white and it was cruising up and down

the shore, they took some pictures and although they are not

very clear, I send them on anyway.

Awesome sight and I think Bailey nearly pooped his pants, he

reckons it was around three metres long.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

165


From: Dave Egan


Subject: Tassie 2012

G‟day fellow Presidents,

My mate Darrel and I have just got home from another enjoy-

able but tough trip to Arthurs and Lake Leake. Unlike you lucky

locals who can pick and choose your days we have to take what

we get and make the best of it.

Our first evening on Arthurs was a good one with warm

weather and a light breeze. We didn‟t have to travel far to

spot rising fish taking caddis right in front of the camper at

Jonah Bay. A quick session saw 9 fish to 2 1/2 pound boated

and we thought we were in for a great trip. Alas the weather

had other ideas and from then on it blew and got cold for most

of the trip. One or two evenings we found a sheltered bank

with caddis feeders and caught a couple but the Duns were a

non event.

After a tough 5 days with more wind and cold weather on the

way we headed for Lake Leake and the warmth and comfort of

the Pub. There was very little insect life on Lake Leake so we

resorted to flogging wets in the waves with some success in-

cluding a couple of three pounders.

There was a lot of casting between fish except for one small

purple patch where I caught 3 quick ones mid morning in Chock

o log bay.



166

Tassie 2012 (continued)

Redfin Perch were a constant hassle except for the last night

when Darrel landed a nice one of 2 pound. The Elizabeth River

had been fished heavily before we got there and we only man-

aged a couple of small Browns on a day when it was too windy to

fish the lake. Between us we managed 28 trout for 10 days but

the numbers don‟t tell the whole story with 9 of them caught in

the first hour and a huge amount of casting between fish from

then on. I‟m sure things will improve but the Duns on Arthurs

remain a mystery when even in ideal conditions there were very

few about.

Still looking forward to the next trip and as always hoping for a

couple of good days in a row.

Tight lines and wet nets,

President Dave Egan .

167


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: Lake St. Clair

Hi all,

Fished with Bailey, arriving on Saturday around 11.30 am until

8pm, fished in the Derwent Basin and around the Frankland

beaches area, what a fantastic spot to fish, scenery out-

standing and no crowds (as we were the only boat on the lake).

Caught 8 brownies from 1lb to 2.5lb, all on dry beetle patterns,

lost a few as well.

Bailey caught his first trout on the fly here, he is doing a great

job with the fly rod at the moment.

We saw a lot of fish chasing the dragon and damsel fly‟s but

they are very hard to catch, most of the fish we caught were

feeding on gum beetles, we saw a few right in close feeding so

I dropped Bailey off on the shore and he caught the best fish

of the day, a 2.5lb brownie.

He was absolutely rapt, all fish were in good nick and very

strong fighters, nice colour inside as well, weather very hot

and sunny.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

168


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: Great Lake

Hi all,

Fished Great Lake on the way home from St. Clair today, ar-

rived there around 10.30 am and fished until 2.30pm.

Caught 6 browns (all released), out in the middle on beetle pat-

terns and emergers, certainly were some good wind lanes out

there.

When we left the lake we counted 16 boats fishing for the

“shark feeders”, conditions were calm and sunny when we

started, but blowing a good 15 to 20 knots when we left.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

169


From: Mick Goss

Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2012

Subject: Upper Scamander River

Hi fellow Presidents,

Just arrived back from the Upper Scamander River from 2

nights of bream fishing.

Attached are photos of some of the bream caught over the 2

nights, the biggest was 40 cm by Danny, Mick‟s coming in at 38

cm and Bailey‟s at 37 cm.

Most bream caught were between 30cm to 40 cm.

Cheers,

President Mick Goss

170




Subject: St Helens / Scamander River

Hi all,

A bit breezy at today's St.Helens Tasfish.com Grand Slam

Competition but my information is that a couple of teams con-

taining Presidents, faired very, very well in it....congratulations

to them.

Hopefully we will get a few photos and reports later.

As for us, the kid's had a fun day catching some "monsters'

out of the Scamander river (and promptly releasing them),

whilst also having a bit of a dip off the jetty.

regards,

President

Todd

171


From: Dale Howard


Subject: Grand Slam

Hi everyone,

Trev, Bailey and I had a great day at St Helens today fishing in

the Tasfish.com Grand Slam.

We didn‟t manage a win but we did catch all 3 required species

of a Trevally, Bream and Salmon, (The required “Grand Slam”).

A big thanks‟ goes to Mike Stevens for putting such a fantastic

event on and for making all of us who are “learning to bream

fish with lures” comfortable enough to fish with the big guns.

We will return next year with much more knowledge (I hope!).

Thanks‟ also to Todd, Janet and family for doing the barbecue,

I am sure Mike would have appreciated it, as it gave him a lot

longer to not catch fish.( Lol)

Regards,

Dale, Trev & Bailey

Ps, GO Jamie‟s Boat!!

172


From: Dave Wescombe


Subject: Decent "Lizards"

President Dave Wescombe with a few decent "lizards" caught

on a recent mainland outing.

173




Subject: Great Lake Fishing.

Hi all,

With having Friday off and an extended weekend, I decided to

go to the Great Lake to try my luck, as it goes my luck paid off.

Arrived at the lake at 6.40 pm, by 6.50 my luck started.

First fish, a 2.5 pound brownie, by 8.45pm I had 6 browns and

2 rainbows all in good condition between 1.5 and 3 pound.

This kind of kept me busy, winding in fish along with netting

and driving the boat at the same time.

I battled on and was happier than a kid with a new toy know-

ing I was having one of those days when the fish were going for

“my lures” and not everyone else‟s.

Saturday came, having 8 fish in the esky on ice; I decided to

take the morning off and waited for one of my friends to ar-

rive.

We started fishing at 6pm and by 9pm (between us) we caught

another 7 browns of similar size and all in good condition.

Most of the fish landed were feeding on gum beetles and large

mozzie looking flies.

Talking to some other boats, there was a lot of fishing done

with not a lot of success;

I guess you could say I had a really good weekend.

Until next time,

Tight lines, Brett Woodberry.

174


From: Donna Morehouse


Subject: George's Bay and Grand Slam

Hi all,

Headed to St Helens Caravan Park on Tuesday and came home

on Sunday. Fishing was quite “tuff in the bay” only catching 8

trevally, 4 bream and lots of other bits and pieces.

All trevally were caught on a wide range of plastics and bream

on Yep hard bodies. We tried swimming a wide range of hard

bodies but the Yep hard bodies were the only ones that would

work.

On Saturday was the Grand Slam. I caught the trevally in the

first five minutes which was a great start, then a salmon just

size an hour later. Then we caught a weed whiting, mullet, flat-

head and leather jacket which are all worth 10 points each.

With 10 minutes of the comp to go Donna snared a nice bream

giving us a score of 128 points.

With a huge shock, we found out that we came third in the

comp and we all had a great day. Thank‟s Dale for supplying

everyone with a hard body which contributed to us winning the

third place trophy.

Presidents Jamie, Stu, Patrick and Queen Donna.

Team Hornet


175

George's Bay and Grand Slam ( continued )

PS / Once again the boys were pretty happy I was fishing with

them - the numerous lure changes (they make them in such

pretty colours!) two or three major knots (nothing a pair of

scissors didn't fix) and a snag or two and losing a monster fish

(I'm pretty sure it was a Kingfish - the boys didn't seem to

agree - but I was the one holding the rod when it went crazy)

all seemed trivial once I had caught the Bream: and was pretty

amazing considering the horrid reel they had me using - so have

put in an order for a new one - I'm thinking a Diawa Certate.

176


From: Mark Tapsell

Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2012

Subject: Woods Lake Report

Hi all,

Just received a report from President Mark Tapsell as he was

making his way down the mountain from Woods Lake.

Mark told me there were 3092915693451264 duns on the wa-

ter there today but the fish were only "onceing" and this made

for hard fishing.

Never the less he finished up with four and his mate caught

two, their condition was excellent with good coloured flesh so

they should lend themselves to good eating.

Wind was calm one minute and blowing the next, but a great

day had all the same.

Thanks for the call Mark,

Cheers,

President Todd

177


From: Dale Howard

Date: 5 February 2012

Subject: Mako Magic

Hi all,

Trev, my mate Rodney Hilder and I headed off to Port Sorell

with high expectations of catching a Mako shark on Saturday.

We left the boat ramp at 7 am and headed for a reef 11 kms

out.

Upon arrival at our destination we soon started working on the

burley trail after that, it was a waiting game.

Shortly after all this, I caught an arrow squid and put him on as

" live bait", within minutes the water exploded under it and the

reel started screaming, I grabbed the rod, had 2 winds and he

was gone.

I was very disappointed but at the same time, still felt confi-

dent that we may yet get another chance.

It only took ten minutes and another Mako that we estimated

to be around 10 kilos in size, arrived on the scene and immedi-

ately took the bait.

I picked up the rod and he was gone as well!

By now I was feeling that we had missed our chances and it was

all over as the wind was now starting to get up.

Nevertheless, we kept “bottom bouncing” for the next hour.

Whilst the wait continued, we kept catching cod, squid, mor-

wong and a small gummy shark.

All of a sudden, away the rod went again but this time I let him

go a bit before sinking the hook in... and this time it was on. (Continued next page)

178

Mako Magic (Continued)

Feeling the hook, he did a magnificent jump and somersault and

it took a while after that to get it to the boat but once it was

there it was excitement all round, as this was our first ever

Mako.

He was probably about 50 kilos.

About 10 minutes after we got ourselves sorted out from that

little episode, a big blue shark (about 100kg) started cruising

around the boat so Rodney caught him and had a bit of fun.

Dale & Trev

179


From: Stuart Casey

Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Subject: Smithton trip

Hi guys,

Headed to Smithton on Friday for a buck's party fishing trip.

We put two boats in the water at 3pm and fished until dark.

We hooked into around a dozen nice size gummy sharks,

an elephant fish and three 5kg snapper.

It was definitely one of the best fishing trips I've ever had.

Thanks Norm and family for the accommodation, the awesome

food and everything else.

President Stu.

180



Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2012

Subject: Lake Leake report

Hi all,

Sorry for the lateness of this report.

President John Dekkers and myself left home early, (4.30 am)

on Thursday morning with the aim of giving my 12ft car-topper

its first run and to perhaps "christen it" with a fish.

The upside of this trip is that the boat went very well, but the

downside is that the fishing didn't excite.

We arrived right on daybreak, with fly life and wind lanes, al-

most nonexistent.

Frustrated, we decided to head up near the mouth of the

Snowy River and missed two opportunities whilst fishing in the

shallows, they were to be our only chances.

When drifting around this area, we noticed some floats

stretched between some sticks and thought we had stumbled

across a graball net, Adam Scurrah from the IFS was about to

get a phone call!

Upon closer inspection , we soon saw that it was a large Fyke

net used for catching eels, in fact "the eel tanker" was at the

boat ramp with an empty boat trailer hooked up to it, when we

returned to our car.

(Continued on next page)

181

Lake Leake report (Continued)

Cormorants are about there in droves, with about 30 spotted

whilst they sat sitting on the eastern shore of the island, dry-

ing their wings and looking very happy with themselves.

I would like to think they were only taking the Perch, (but real-

ism tells me otherwise).

Not one fish was spotted rising the whole time we were there.

On the upside, the lakes water clarity is back to being crystal

clear again and we could see the bottom easily through our Po-

laroid's as we drifted about. If I am to return this season, I think I will go back at evening

time and throw a few soft plastics around with the

kid's...perhaps a better option?

That being said, a decent caddis or midge hatch that could hap-

pen there at any time, would no doubt produce the great sport

that we have witnessed in the past, it is for that very reason

we keep returning....

Regards,

President Todd

182


From: Dale Howard


Subject: An afternoon fishing on a small stream.

Hi all,

Trev and I went exploring today in the upper reaches of a

river.

We spent most of the day looking about and found a couple of

great camping spots on the river‟s edge.

There were lots of small creeks running in to the main river,

some of them are so narrow you could step across, (if there

wasn't so many fish to trip you over!.)

We had a few casts and caught a few nice little fish.

A big thunderstorm rolled in about 6pm and the large pool we

were fishing in came alive with rising trout, what a wonderful

sight!

Fishing wasn't the plan today, more so a recognisance mission

ready for the onslaught next time, which is not too far away.

Dale & Trev

183


From: Dale Howard

Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2012

Subject: Huntsman Lake

Trev and I spent the afternoon on Saturday fishing Huntsman

Lake.

We arrived at 12.30 to a perfect overcast day with high ex-

pectations that some fish would be rising.

After a slow cruise around the lake, not one fish was spotted,

so it was away with the fly rods and out with the hard lures.

We started drifting along the western shore of a very low lake,

3rd cast and there was a small fish of about 3/4 of a pound in

the boat.

From then, until “go home time” at 7.00pm it was one hit after

another with 19 fish boated for the day, we were getting hit‟s

every five or six casts.

Fishing in about a metre of water, all the fish were caught on

the Yep gold bomber and yellow peril.

A mate was with us and he trolled cobra‟s all afternoon. ending

up with 6 fish.

All the fish were in very good condition and all a pound and un-

der in weight.

Dale & Trev

184


From: Dave Wescombe

Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2012

Subject: Mulwala

19 and 9 over 60cm

President Dave Wescombe

185


From: Kevin Wilkinson

Sent: Thursday, 23 February 2012

Subject: Enthusiasm

I may not be a smart man but one thing I do know, as a born

and bred Victorian, is that the fishing in Tassie beats the home

land variety hands down.

And with that thought in mind, I was happily employing the nau-

tical skills of TT-Lines to help me traverse the distance across

the strait to get into some serious fishing action. Something I

had not been able to enjoy since my most recent (and conspicu-

ous) visit in August to Toom‟s whereby, I am happy to recount,

that I divested many of the locals of their hard earned in a

short but sweet encounter for the opening season.

I set out on the Thursday overnight journey with all of the ex-

citement of a young boy going out on a first date. You know,

high expectations but not really knowing what I was going to

get!

In tow, was a workmate who had never encountered the won-

ders of highland lakes fishing let alone using a fly in the proc-

ess. So the first morning was started with a lesson in the ba-

sics for my travelling companion.

A few tips and some practice and he was ready (and willing) to

tempt some of the fish out of Arthurs.

Now I always believe enthusiasm is ¾ of the way to success. If

you have enthusiasm, you are willing to try in spite of the ad-

versity that inexperience poses. (Continued next page)

186

Enthusiasm (Continued)

Now when I say I am not a smart man, I mean that in most

parts about the water craft skills that I possess above the lo-

cals that live and breathe the waters of Tasmania. Never the

less, my own enthusiasm was about showing the “new guy” how

it was done.I had talked up the prospects of Tasmania's fish

and the waters in which they are abundant.

And with that, headed out with confidence that I would be able

to extol the virtues of my experience gained from almost ten

years of annual visits to this spot.

With some amount of frustration at the ease at which casting

knots can occur, my colleague seemed to spend more time undo-

ing knots than anything else. But one thing is for sure, he

quickly became expert in that art.

I still think that getting casting knots is a mandatory lesson in

how to improve your cast.A short venture into Hydro Bay on

the first day, offered promise of all that had been discussed

prior. The water had the right amount of riffle, the breeze

was at our back (albeit easterly) the sun was refused a shadow

to cast across our targeted water as it meandered slowly up-

ward behind the clouds. Casting an eye across the water did

not reveal any of the fish of which I spoke.

Was that a slight hint of doubt I detected in my colleague's

eye? Ah to be so new at fly fishing!

187


Keep in touch with your line. Keep your eye on the fly. These

were the sorts of helpful tips I provided to the learner. Mind

you, I was beginning to think that he just wanted to fish and be

free of the ongoing lesson.

I wanted him to do well and I wanted to show him how well he

could do.

I left him to his own device while I set about locating, luring

and deceiving one of those prize Arthurs browns. Show him

how it's done! The wind was not of the same consistent

thought. It tended to blow east, then south, then north.

Frustration soon overcame my enthusiasm.

Without a hint of a rise and no tug on my line I started to real-

ise the frown that crept over my brow.

“This is not right, there should be fish here. Everything says

that this is the place to be” We revisited the water with sev-

eral drifts but no reward was ours.” Do you think we should

move to towards the edge?” my fine friend offered.

“No! They will be in about 4 feet” I offered in expert tone.

With the fickle wind pushing us in, we ended up within about

six metres of the shore. My student seized this as an opportu-

nity to cast an unknotted line at some bushy shoreline.


188


I think I'm snagged” I thought I heard him say.

“No wonder” I thought “fishing so close to that scrub!”

“I think I've got something!” was his exclaim.

Realisation soon took hold and he was managing a brown of rea-

sonable proportion.

“Don't get to eager” was my advice. “Play him out”

A short battle ensued and the fish was landed. The result re-

vealed a foul hooked fish of about 2lb.

The dry had been the target but the wet dropper was pinned

into a pectoral fin and fishing line circumvented the fish.

“A fluke” my friend advised.

But I felt obliged to reassure him that it doesn't matter how

he got it, it was still a good catch. Now I would like to take

some responsibility for his joy, in that, I did provide him with a

skill and I did encourage his technique and I did deliver him to

where his prize lay.

But while I could take some credit, I couldn't take his smile

away.

There is some unforgettable joy that comes with catching your

first fish on the fly. That feel of the fly rod, unlike any other.

189


The way the fish is played and the sheer exhilaration and relief

of getting it in the net.

This was a memory maker. Something of which I was more than

happy to be part of and in reality, (for me) was a bigger prize

than the fish.

A bit like that first date that goes just the way a young man

would hope!!.

On other days we tried plastic and bait, we tried Augusta, Pen-

stock and more of Arthurs.

The rest of our trip was fishless.

A few good opportunities were lost at Penstock but there is no

victory in talking about the ones that got away.

Especially since I had a witness that caught the only fish for

the trip.

Now I look forward to the charitable nature of my island

friends again in August and a repeat of the last years opener.

I am sure my friend won't need much encouragement to join

me.

Tight Lines

Kevin Wilkinson.

190


From: Phil Zanetto



Hi all,

Bailey and I headed off to Little Lake today as Bail‟s wanted to

try out his new “Wildfish” 6 weight fly rod, ... so away we went.

Arrived there around 11.30am and fished until 4pm.

We had a ball catching 27 brownies on dry‟s, beetle patterns

and emergers.

Bailey caught 15 of them, what a top effort, as he hasn't been

fly fishing for very long,.. fish were going off!

We released all but two fish, (promised dear old mum a couple)

and had a real bonus today as I caught two fish at the same

time, one taking the point fly and another taking the dropper.

Landed both too, that doesn't happen very often.

There were a few others fishing alongside us, three boats and

three anglers wading.

Certainly a day Bailey won't forget in a hurry.

Cheers Phil Zanetto

192


From: Dale Howard

Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2012

Subject: Always a river somewhere.

Hi everyone,

Trev abandoned me today, preferring to go to the pictures .

I thought this would give me a chance to ring a couple of mates

and sneak to a river for a couple of hours.

After a couple of calls it dawned on me that no one loves me, so

off I went on my own , I only fished for about an hour arriving

at 6.00.pm .

This spot was a new destination that I had been told about ear-

lier in the day and it took some finding, but once uncovered,

was well worth the search.

After a short walk downstream, I started working my way back

up, fishing the fast water, my 3rd cast landed a small brownie.

He was quickly photographed and released.

193

Always a river somewhere. (Continued)

A quick cast in anticipation for the next one was had and with

this “very next cast” he arrived, another smallish but nice

brown. I caught one other on in this run, before deciding to

walk up to the next piece of fast water.

First cast and I was on again.

Darkness was on the way and dinner was on the table, along

with a 4 am start for work the next morning, so with that in

mind I made the decision that this little session was over,... but

I will return soon!

Landed 6 fish for the trip.

Dale

194




Subject: Lake Leake Report ( Presidents outing )

Hi all,

Approximately 15 Presidents converged on Lake Leake for this

weekend‟s get together.

As expected, the fishing was quite hard but the rewards were

there for those that persevered and had a bit of luck on their

side.

It was great to see a few new faces attending and hopefully

they enjoyed themselves as much as we did their company.

I had to leave early today to attend my mother‟s birthday

party but with a few Presidents staying on, no doubt a few

more fish will be caught here, before the long weekend is over.

The weather was fantastic and I would like to give thanks to

the new caretakers that went out of their way to help us, the

Lake Leake hotel for the fantastic counter meal last

night along with our "new found friends from the mainland" who

camped beside us all and joined in the festivities.

As you can see, some decent fish were caught,... mainly on soft

plastics.

195

Lake Leake (Continued)

The lake has many small browns in it at the moment, (around

the 500 gram mark) and all were in excellent condition.

At a rough tally I think we threw back about 14 between us all.

That, along with the crystal clear water that we have-

n't witnessed here for quite a while ( given recent years of

drought), fill us with optimism that this lake is fast returning

to its former glory.

I well remember only a couple of short years ago, when healthy

3 pound fish were the norm.

Hardly a fish was spotted on top, apart from one window of op-

portunity when a small gum beetle fall prompted a couple of

fish to stick their heads up, but as a rule, most fish seemed to

be staying deep and there was hardly any insect life to

be spotted on the water.

That being said, a quick look at a couple of fish‟s stomach con-

tents revealed a lot of jassids... so they must be taking “off

the top” occasionally.

Further examinations revealed that "very small snails" were

their main diet at the moment though.

Once again, a fantastic couple of nights, thanks to all in-

volved and we will definitely do it again next season.

Regards,

President Todd

(More pictures next page)

196

Lake Leake (Continued)

197




Subject: Rapala Competition winner announced.

Hi all,

The winner of a box full of Rapala lures was drawn at the Lake

Leake Hotel last night.

All the entrants were placed in a very expensive "draw con-

tainer" ..namely an empty BBQ shape box. (see photos at-

tached).

To be "completely independent of the process". I asked Bar-

bara McCloud to draw the winning name,...Dale Howard.

Congratulations Dale, and once again, a sincere thank you to all

the Presidents that entered the draw by sending in a report or

photo.

Hopefully we will have another competition like this next year.

A big thank you must also go to Rapala Lures and Mike Stevens

for the generous donation of this great prize.

Regards,

Todd


198


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: Lake King William

Hi all,

Fished Lake King William on Saturday with Dale, Trev, Bailey

and Jack Shennan.

What a fantastic session we had, catching 60 trout between us,

losing and missing dozens more.

We started fishing around noon and finished at 7pm.

Fish were caught on Dale‟s Yep black & gold flappers, various

Yep hard bodies a couple on black & gold t.tails.

Trev & Bailey even caught a few off the shore on the dry fly.

Conditions were ideal for the softies, S.W breeze around 10 to

15 knots with some cloud cover.

Condition of fish was excellent, they fought hard and weighed

from 1lb to nearly 2lb with only a couple being rainbows.

Lake down a bit but that certainly didn't affect the fishing.

Most fish were caught drifting through the trees and drifting

close to shore, casting towards the shoreline.

A day the boys won't forget in a long while.

Have a report from Lake Augusta today, will send report on

that shortly.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

200


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: Lake Augusta West

Hi all,

Fished Lake Augusta West today with Bailey and Jack Shen-

nan, on our way home from Lake King William.

S.W wind blowing about 15 to 20 knots with sunny periods.

Caught 13 fat trout, one being a rainbow which Jack landed.

All fish caught on softies, Bailey & Jack had a go with the fly

rod,... but not this time.

We had plenty of hits, follows and lost several, lake very low,

with the motor hitting the bottom of lake bed a few times.

We kept these fish as we wanted a few for the smoker and we

have been releasing most of the fish we had previously caught

on other trips, as you can see, a top weekend was had.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

202




Subject: Swansea report 18/3/2012

Hi all,

Went to Swansea this morning, leaving home at 7am, home at

3pm with our quota.

Sorry, not a lot of pictures, but I was flat out cleaning fish and

didn't get a chance to take many photos.

Johnny Dekkers, Jim and Virginia Mckenna along with my son

Jacob, never gave me a chance to lift my head from the fillet-

ing board whole time we were there.

A great day, plenty of fish about, spent with good company.

What more could you ask for?

By the way, tea tonight was sensational.

Regards,

Todd

203


From: Dale Howard


Subject: Mersey River today.

Hi all,

Work all weekend prevented Trev and I from heading off too

far up until this afternoon, so as soon as I knocked off we

drove up to the Mersey for a look.

Waders on, and a quick walk downstream for about a kilometre,

working our way back up to the car.

3rd cast for Trev and he was on, possibly the same fish I

caught last time as it was in the exact the same spot.

It didn‟t take long for me to catch up to him, after a few more

steps, I was on as well.

This continued all the way back to the car, with us catching 11

for this little session, including 2 nice rainbows.

All the fish were returned so they could move back to their

spots ready for our next trip there.

Dale & Trev

204


From: Mick & Karen Byrne


Subject: Tuna trip east coast

Hi all,

Went after a few tuna off the coast at Bicheno today, had a

great day out in the salt for a change.

Boated over twenty albacore with a couple of mates along with

a good feed of quality flathead. The weather was quite good

with a slight south east wind blowing but also quite bright, all in

all just a great day with plenty of action....catch up soon.

President & ( Lake Leake) caretaker Mick

205


From: Phil Zanetto

Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2012

Subject: Nth Esk River

Hi all,

Bailey and I went deer shooting this morning & on the property

we were on, the Nth.Esk River runs through it.

After we finished hunting we decided to give it a go, only

fished for an hour or so as it is very hard to access the river

due to it being very overgrown around the edges.

Following a bit of “bush bashing” we found a couple of clear

spots suitable for a few casts.

I caught one of around 2lb, lost another about the same size,

and a couple a bit smaller pulled the hooks.

Bailey had one of around the 3lb mark follow his hard body in

on three occasions,... but would not take.

Caught mine on the black and gold t.tail, will give it a good go

next time.

At the moment, I think we are heading to lakes tomorrow so I

will give you a report tomorrow evening of how we get on.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO.

206


From: Janet &Todd Lambert


Subject: Mersey River today.

I received a phone call from Dale Howard yesterday, and in his

usual unmistakable fashion he stated, “whatcha doing tomorrow

robot?”

(Don‟t ask about the robot name), “because if you like, I will

take you and our young blokes to one of my special spots on the

Mersey for a couple of hours” he said.

Being fully aware of his success rate on this water and given

the fact that he was willing to share this secret little oasis

with us ... I was quick to say yes!

After picking the key up from a local farmer, we made our way

to the water‟s edge, only to find a mass of land locked Galaxias

in a pool of water, (see picture), there were that many of them,

that when we approached, some jumped clean out of the water

and onto dry land, in panic.

We thought it best to leave them undisturbed and left immedi-

ately.

207

Mersey River today. (Continued)

I could go on about the day in small detail such as this but we

were there to fish, and fish we did.

Using Dale‟s Yep hard bodies, my son Jacob, Dale‟s son Trevor

and “us old blokes” started walking this stretch of the Mersey

casting upstream into every ripple and back eddy, to see what

it could reveal.

All of us had a couple of takes but it was Dale that handed us a

fishing lesson for the day.

I don‟t know how many he had on and lost, let go, or whatever,

but he kept three fish only, one for the farmer and two for my

mum.... I was obviously incapable!

A great couple of hours spent with “the unit” and the boys as

always.

Gee the legs are stiff though, not used to this wading!

Regards, Todd

208


From: Phil Zanetto


Subject: Lake Crescent

Hi all,

Went up to Lake Crescent today and fished from 12pm to

3.30pm with Bailey.

Had heard reports that some good fish had come out of it in

October and November around 2 to 3 kgs , but we also realised

that a lot of effort went into catching them.

We had wanted to have a crack at it for some time, but today

we went home fishless, only having a couple of hit‟s on Dale‟s

Yep hard bodies for our efforts.

Water still very discoloured.

We tried all around the front of the marshes and around the

island.

Don't think we will be rushing back in a hurry, sent some pic-

tures of the old shacks down the southern end.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

209



Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Subject: Laughing Jack & King William report.

Headed out to Lake King William yesterday with Dale and Trev

Howard, leaving home at 6.30am.

On the way, and since we were going past it, we thought we

would have a look at Laughing Jack Lagoon as we had never

been there before.

There are a couple of pictures of Laughing Jack in this report,

the water seemed quite low and its clarity quite muddy.

First impressions? As I say, we only fished it for an hour, man-

aging a nice brown of around 2.5 pounds; I did like the look of

this water though.

They tell me the fish that you catch out of Laughing Jack are

some of the nicest tasting around, so I will have to cook mine

up and test that theory for myself. I envisage someone trolling

lures here would do quite well on occasions, and we did see the

odd fish rise.



210

Laughing Jack & King William report.

(CONTINUED)

Not a lot of opinion can really be forwarded though when you

have spent just a short while on it,... like we did.

Lake King William

This place seems to be the flavour of the month following a

couple of President Phil Zanetto‟s reports.

I know, (speaking for myself and least), it fired interest up on

this water and yesterday, although we had to work hard early,

it produced yet again.

We caught fish on most methods, fly, soft plastics, with Dales

Yep hard bodies seemingly the lure of choice as every second

cast either had a grab, a follow or a hook up.

This water is absolutely insane!

There are a lot of small fish in there, but if you wade through

them, there are also a lot of decent ones, as you can see from

the photos!

211


(CONTINUED)

Dale had “one horse of a fish” follow his lure right to the boat,

and it tied itself in knots snapping at his lure, but sadly it

missed time and time again and eventually slunk back down into

the depths.

A lot of our fish were around the 1.5 to 2 pound mark.

Plenty of duns and jassids on the water along with a huge cad-

dis hatch as we headed in.

In one bay, the water was literally moving with fish.

I was dropped off back at home at around 11pm, it was a long

day, but it has to be when you travel a couple of hours “each

way” to get there.

I am keen on a Presidents camping trip at King Willy next year;

it is indeed a fisherman‟s oasis.

One can only imagine how thick the insect hatches must have

been in the warmer months.

We were pinching ourselves yesterday, perfect warm weather,

surrounded by snow capped hills, fish rising to insects and lit-

erally going off!

It is nearly April isn‟t it?


212


(CONTINUED)

To finish, I know I plug Dale‟s lures a lot, and it is true he is a

good mate of mine, but I have to say, his hard body lures are

dynamite here compared to everything else we tried on the

day, I don‟t know the models, nor do I care, the lures you see in

the fishes mouth are the lures that caught the fish and you

can be sure that I will have them in the boat next visit here,

that is a fact!

How many did we actually catch? Around 40 I suppose, hard to

tell, we let a lot of small ones go.

We lost around the same amount as well, when they jumped and

spat the hooks.

It is rare to witness the exceptional trout fishing that is read-

ily available at this place, yet you hardly ever see a boat...

Regards,

President Todd

214


From: Reg Travers

Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012

Subject: Sweet & Sour

Hi Todd,

On a sweet & sour note that I read your report on K/W, disap-

pointed because I was there the day before you & party ar-

rived. Would dearly loved to have caught up with you all & had

I known of your plan I would have camped the night there.

It was blowing a bit too much for me that day, (Monday) and

being by myself , what with the showers & a few white horses,

decided reluctantly go to Bronte. Spent a couple of nights

there (caught 3) & another one at a venue that I have driven

past thousand's of times, but never ventured into...

( “Wayatinah “. )

Fished the tailrace, caught a beautiful 3 lb. bow. (Sorry no

photo) first on a soft plastic. Thanks to Dale.

Wayatinah is very full & thankfully I missed all the stumps and

logs and have resolved to go back again next season. The facili-

ties at the caravan park are almost identical to Lake Leake.

All the best for now, hope to catch up ONE DAY!!!

Pres. Reg T


215



Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2012

Subject: Four Springs Report .

Hi all,

With today‟s weather being as good as it was, I decided to

head out to Four Springs for a couple of hours.

I arrived at 9.30 am, and to be honest, with it being that late

in the morning, I didn‟t expect much in the way of any fishing

action. Upon arrival, I was soon to realise my first mistake,... I

didn‟t bring my fly rod.

I had thought about it, but “reconsidered” with the logic that

all the dry fly action was nearly over for the year. Since strip-

ping wet fly‟s doesn‟t excite me too much nowadays, I thought

I had made the correct decision.

Plenty of Duns and heaps of Red spinners about, with the fish

interested! “Hmmm” goes to show how much I know!

Anyway, I flogged away with soft plastics for around an hour

without even a touch and was thinking about heading home

when I remembered I had a couple of Dales Yep Hard bodies

left in my tackle bag from Lake King Willy the other day.



216

Four Springs Report . (Continued)

Within 5 minutes I had a lovely rainbow of around three pounds

beside the boat but as I had the drag set a “touch too heavy”,

he pulled the hooks just as I was reaching for the net.

Ten minutes later I hooked another that gave me a good run

for my money, but with the reset drag, I didn‟t make the same

mistake twice!

A brown of a couple of pounds followed not long after.

I was back home again at around 1.30 pm wondering what could

have been, “if I did in fact”, bring my fly rod but still thankful

that I managed a couple, all the same.

Will head back there early one morning this week.

Hopefully the fly rod will get another bend in it yet? ....before

the season closes.

Regards,

Todd

217



Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Subject: Four Springs Part 2

Hi all,

As stated in my previous Four Springs Report, I headed

back to Foursey's today with the fly rod.

Hopes were high that I would be in for a good day as I thought

there was plenty of cloud cover and enough humidity to spark a

hatch.

In a nut shell, although there were a few red spinner and

duns still about, they were nowhere as thick as they were the

other day.

I fished a nymph deep for a rainbow of around three pounds

and a brown of around 2 pounds.

When things were quiet, I trolled a hard-body around for a lap,

for one strike and no lure... (Don‟t know what happened there?)

as the drag turned a bit and then all I had on... "Was nothing".

Don't know if the fish rolled in the line and broke it off or it

was just a bad knot on my behalf.

Anyway, about five boats on the water most were fly fishing,

one boat had two, the other fly fisher had three and the trol-

ler had three.

All had tales of broken lines and big fish lost.

Cooked up a cuppa and a BBQ whilst out there and all in all, had

a great day.

It's true; I didn't exactly set the world on fire, but who ca-

res?

Regards,

Todd

218



Sent: Friday, April 06, 2012

Subject: Little Lake Today.

Hi all,

Headed up to Little Lake today with Mike Stevens for a short

and sharp little session.

Fished with Dales "Yep" hard bodies and Berkley T- Tails.

Landed a dozen, keeping ten for Easter fare.

Egg n Bacon rolls, freshly cooked trout, coffee, and a couple of

scotch's "onsite", capped off a great afternoon.

Regards.

Todd

220



Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012

Subject: Anglers Reach Easter

Hi all,

We had a great weekend at Anglers Reach. There were eight

fish caught in a day and a half ranging from 350 g to 2kg.

They were caught on copper cow bells , lead core and flat line.

Attached is a photo of the one of the fish.

Dave.

221


From: Dale Howard

Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012

Subject: Weymouth

Hi all,

We were invited to Weymouth for a couple of days over the

Easter break to stay at a friend‟s shack.

The plan was to go after some flathead on the first day and a

Mako the next.

We arrived about lunch time on Friday and got the gear ready.

As luck would have it, Mark Tapsell showed up at the shack as

well, and as he fishes this water regularly we thought we would

be in with a good show of getting onto a few.

So off we zoomed to his spot and as soon as we put a bait

down, 2 flathead were caught, then a cuttlefish, a few gurnard,

... then nothing.

Mark assured us that he had a backup plan in the form of a

“secret spot” where the black back salmon always hung out, we

weren't disappointed, birds working and fish everywhere!

We quickly produced our soft plastic rod‟s and had a ball,

catching one after the other on the red rascal ready rigged!

John Daw was so excited he was trying to steal the fish by

stuffing them into his pockets (see pictures) hence his new

nickname is now “pockets Daw”.

Unfortunately though, that was the end of the weekends fish-

ing, the bad weather made sure of that.

Dale & Trev

222


From: Jim and Virginia McKenna

Date: Saturday, April 14, 2012

Subject: Four Springs Report.

Hi all,

Jim and I headed out to Four Springs Lake on Friday, arriving

there just before lunchtime.

It looked promising with a bit of chop on the water, but there

were only a couple of boats on the lake and they said they

weren‟t catching anything.

Anyway, we decided to give it a go and about an hour later I

landed a small one of around 1 pound in weight, trolling with a

Yep hard bodied lure.

We then headed over to the dam wall and whilst Jim was

changing his lure, I had a cast, at first I thought I had a snag

(and I also thought Jim won‟t be happy with me!!), but it turned

out to be a nice fish of about 3 and a half pounds.

I was very happy but Jim wasn‟t as it was 2 fish to me and zero

to him.

“But of course, not to be outdone”, he landed one about 2 and

half pounds and then another of about 2 pounds whilst spinning.

We had a lot of hit‟s spinning around the dam wall and it

seemed the place to be.

It turned out to be a good day after all!

Regards,

Presidents, Jim and Virginia.

224



Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2012

Subject: Mersey River today

Hi all,

Headed back up the Mersey this afternoon with Mr “Hard

body Howard" and his son Trevor.

This was my second trip with them to this particular spot and I

have come to the conclusion that Dale only brings me along to

carry and clean his fish.

Once again he caught 99 percent of the 11 landed; he sure has

this water sorted!

As for me, I am sitting on the computer licking my wounded

pride and find myself calling him “the great one”.

Oh dear.....

Regards,

President Todd

226



Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Subject: Moorlands Beach

Hi guys,

Fished Moorlands Beach on Sunday from 10am till 6pm.

Finding it a tough day, coming off a week of “daddy day care” I

was up for a challenge and took the strong northerly in its

stride only to land 1 flathead at 2pm of 29cm.Fishing beside a

gutter I kept my hopes high as the tide started to rise a bit

and my burley trial started to bring in the fish. I did not cast a

rod from 2pm till 3pm, just burley and had lunch.,

Conditions were still tough but I found a surprise in store.

From 3pm till 6pm I found 6 more flathead up to 53cm and 8 to

10 more salmon between 2.5 to 3.5 pound along with a small

gummy and a ray. I had to pull my second rod out of the water

for a while as I could not keep up. The day started off very

bad and the thought of giving up did cross my mind, but my

perseverance paid off. Great day out in the end, went down

the end of Moorlands beach road and walked around 2km along

the beach until I found the gutter that hugs the shoreline in

tight to the rock line.

You will find it if you go there. Good to get out again.

Tight Lines

President Leigh Carpenter

227


From: Dale Howard

Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012

Subject: Huntsman Lake

Today Trev, my dad, (Geoff) and I had a very hard afternoon

fishing at Huntsman Lake.

When we arrived it was bright and sunny, not a ripple on the

water.

As previously stated, we worked very hard for two (and 3 oth-

ers on and lost).

A nice big black cloud along with a breeze came and I thought

this would improve things, but that was it.

Not another touch all afternoon.

Dale & Trev


228


From: Phil Zanetto



Hi all,

Decided to take Bailey and his mate Nathan Vanderspeck up to

Little Lake today for a final fish before the season ends next

weekend. Arrived around noon and we fished till 3.30pm.

We caught 18 beaut little browns from 3/4lb up to 1.5lb,

caught on softies and hard bodies. Conditions were mainly overcast with low cloud covering the

lake at times, when this happened fish seemed to go off the

bite, but when things cleared the action was fast.

Only kept three for the boys to eat, two boats on lake as well,

track very wet on the way in.

CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

229




Subject: Four Springs today

Hi all,

Headed out to Four Springs with my son Jacob this afternoon

for a bit of a troll around in the hope that we might pick

something up.

No such luck, not even a tap.

Ran into President Jamie Morehouse on the water and their

boat lost an estimated four pounder at the net.

When we left them, they had nothing to show for

their efforts as well, but were still trying,... so hopefully

things picked up.

A fly fisher had one of around four pounds back at the boat

ramp, caught stripping wet fly‟s, he told us that he had

also lost another.

IFS were out there checking licenses and booked one boat

for speeding (over the 5 knot limit).

Wet, cold, nothing outstanding in this report, she‟s nearly

“game over” for this season methinks.

Cheers,

Todd

230

Thank You.... To all the wonderful Presidents for sharing your season with us

so that this book “could again”,...become a reality.

Hopefully it‟s publication will also help inspire a few more of us

to put pen to paper (for future editions), as we now look to-

wards the 2012/2013 Tasmanian trout fishing season.

Bragging may not bring happiness, but no

man having caught a large fish goes home

through an alley. ~Author Unknown

231

Many men go fishing all of

their lives without knowing that

it is not fish they are after.

Henry David Thoreau

232

The End

president club 2011-2012

Documents

fishing season

presidents vic

group of people

presidents club

tooms lake

president clubs

role of president

presidents head