Fishing - Weather allows for brown trout spawning runs

What a difference a week makes in Tasmania, with its unpredictable weather.

Warm and mild conditions paved the way for an arctic blast right after the end of the 2025/26 brown trout season, which, mind you, is great for our brown trout spawning runs.

The Inland Fisheries Service recently reported that the annual brown trout spawning has started at Liawenee Canal on the Great Lake.

Over the past few months, both the IFS and Hydro Tasmania have been working to prepare Lake Augusta for the annual spawning run, and despite the dry conditions, every available inflow to Lake Augusta between February and April was carefully managed and maintained.

This paid off in the timing of water releases into the Liawenee canal during the cold weather back in early May, resulting in perfect conditions to stimulate trout movement for spawning.

Thousands of brown trout were said to have moved into the canal and up to the spawning trap.

Trout taken by the IFS will be used to stock fisheries that have no or very little natural trout recruitment, with staff also collecting fertilised brown trout eggs to be incubated at the New Norfolk and Salmon Ponds hatcheries.

The first 200,000 eggs were collected last week, with more to be collected over the coming weeks.

Once hatched, the fry will be stocked into various waters later in the year.

The IFS will be stocking waters throughout the off-season, and to keep track of what goes where, watch the IFS website or the InFish app.

Trout Weekend returns in 2026 during October, now aligning with our wild rainbow trout spawning runs rather than Brown trout, with water flow and weather conditions more reliable during October to host the event.

Trout anglers chasing resident, estuary and sea-run trout from the open boundaries of the Derwent and Huon Rivers are reporting catching some smaller fish along with some Black Bream.

Seals have been working the Derwent River within the open boundary, and I'm concerned they may be impacting trout populations.

The Dee Lagoon and Lake Mackintosh are the pick of our waters open until the end of May. Lake Meadowbank, Craigbourne Lake, Great Lake, Brady's Lake, Tungatinah Lagoon, Lake Binney, Lake Pedder, Brushy Lagoon and Lake Burbury & Barrington are also good open all year round waters.

Remember, there's plenty of tagged trout worth cash still swimming in all year-round fisheries, so it makes sense to target these areas for the win.

Game fishing for Southern Bluefin Tuna has improved during the first few weeks of May, with anglers reporting lots of school fish being caught.

Waters of Storm Bay, Dart Bank, Cape Queen Elizabeth, Cape Raoul, Tasman Island, South Bruny and Pedra Branca have all been mentioned to hold fish.

Broadbill Swordfish, Marlin and Yellowfin Tuna catches have slowed, but they're still out there if you're prepared to persist.

Following fishing reports is always worthwhile, but "prospecting" or looking around for fish and signs of them is also rewarding.

Sometimes, the best bite times in any fishing are when you first find some fish, which can also become "flighty" or cautious with lots of boats/anglers working in the same area.

Squid fishing is reliable for both boat and land-based anglers, with some good catches coming from places like Eagle Hawk Neck, Opossum and Adventure Bay.

Australian Salmon are everywhere and available to anglers fishing from boats or from the shore.

Big schools of salmon have been harassing baitfish, and if you find the birds, you'll also find the fish.  

Tip Of The Week- Hydro Tasmania advises that Butlers Gorge Road (from the Lyell Highway turn-off) will stay closed 24/7 until mid-July.

Mossy Marsh Dam, Clark Dam, the lookout, boat ramp and campground won’t be accessible during this period.

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

Tight Lines Until next week.