Fishing - Open season for crayfish catching

The Tasmanian rock lobster (crayfish) season for waters outside the East Coast stock rebuilding zone opened to fishing on November 1.

Anglers are reminded to follow the rules and reporting regulations regarding catching crayfish.

The East Coast zone will open to fishing on December 6.

Striped Trumpeter fishing also reopened statewide last Saturday.

Squid season will reopen in the Southeast on November 14 after the Northeast zone opened on October 31. 

Recreational sea fishing licenses are available.

You'll need one to fish for Abalone, Scallops, Rock lobster (pot, ring or dive), Graball net, Mullet net and Beach seine net - but you don't need one to fish with a rod and reel.

Licenses are available online from fishing.tas.gov.au/licence or from Service Tasmania outlets.
The New Norfolk Licensed Anglers Association held its fourth trout fishing competition of the 2025/26 season last weekend on the Derwent River.

After postponing the event a week earlier due to unfavourable weather and river conditions, the decision proved a good one - allowing members a great opportunity to get out and catch some trout.

The weekend was warm and probably too calm, but overall, 20 trout were weighed in -  totalling 12.293 kg and averaging 0.614 kg.

For the seniors, I landed the best fish, taking the senior heaviest trout award with a nice sea runner that took a bait off the bottom - which weighed 1.639 kg cleaned.

I caught 14 in 19 hours of fishing, keeping four and two other better fish - weighing 1.503 kg and 1.123 kg.

Adrian Slater put in the hard yards as well and was rewarded with a nice fish weighing 1.488 kg, while partner Kirsty Chalmers had the next best weighing .984 kg.

For the juniors, Jayden Slater continued his good form, landing a number of fish - with his best weighing .907 kg.

It won him the junior heaviest trout award.

Nate Hepburn had one at .488 kg and Mahalia Robertson had another at .171 kg.

Father Tony Robertson was awarded the Mystery Weight award with a fish weighing .134 kg.

Adrian Slater won the average weight award with a fish weighing .620 kg, which was closest to the average weight of .614 kg.
After the negative impact of cormorant predation through 2024 and early 2025 on trout populations, the Inland Fisheries Service (IFS) completed some backpack electro-fishing surveys in rivers and creeks across the North East, North West and South of the state during January and February 2025.

The results were compared with surveys conducted in some of the same areas following similar cormorant events in the past.
In October, the IFS stocked some of these rivers with young trout to support population recovery.

A total of 370,000 one-gram wild brown trout fry (hatched out at the Salmon Ponds site and New Norfolk Hatchery) have been stocked into some of the most heavily impacted rivers in the North West and North East of the State.

Stocking began in early September 2025, with nine sections of the Mersey River selected to receive 180,000 fry.

Seven sites in the Leven River received 100,000 fry and three sites in the Meander River received 30,000.

In the north-east, a total of 60,000 fry were stocked across four sites on the Great Forester River and one area on the Brid River.

To give the fry the best chance of survival, the stocking sites with the best habitats were chosen - which were in a tributary of the main river.

The issue of cormorant predation is one that the Tasmanian trout fishery has faced before and history shows that brown trout populations do recover.

These fry stockings will help accelerate population recovery by complementing natural recruitment in some of the most heavily impacted systems.
Tip Of The Week- Don't lay your rod and reel on the ground.

Knowing better, I did this last weekend when fixing an issue with another rod and reel.

I walked backwards, stepped on my favourite rod and broke it.

All is not lost because I didn't break the top section, but the bottom end, which I can thankfully replace with the same-size bottom section from the same rod my nephew had after he broke the tip section off it a while ago.

Send in your fishing reports, pics and tips to valleyfishes@gmail.com

Tight Lines until next week.