Fishing - A fortnight until trout season begins

Excitement is building for the start of the 2026-27 Tasmanian Brown Trout Fishing season in just over a fortnight.

Opening weekend is always looked forward to by Tasmanian trout anglers, with preparations in full swing for what will hopefully be a great start to the new season.

Recent cold weather, with more rain and snow falling this week, will freshen up systems, and huge high tides have also breached some river banks.

Before the weather front, a little bit of fresh flow moving through the Derwent and Huon Rivers/estuaries saw sea run and resident trout start to feed more.

The fresh, colder water also pushed seals back down the Derwent, which freed up fish to feed more.

At this time of year in the Derwent and other estuary-based rivers, baitfish and other food are scarce for trout, and the first runs of juvenile lampreys provide a huge post-spawn protein boost for them.

Without knowing about the approaching super high tides and the incoming weather, I decided to put in last week, hoping that some trout would come on the chew.

In the lead-up, I'd fished long hours at night over 7 trips, only landing a handful of trout, but I also felt fishing had to fire soon.

I fished three nights in a row for over 7 hours each time, and I caught and released 18 trout.

All trout were caught on soft plastics fished deep and slow on an outgoing tide, with the best fish, a male, weighing around 2.4 kg.

I caught this fish twice in two nights, and I also caught and released another decent one twice in a week.

Similarly, improved fishing has been reported at the open boundary between the Huon and Leven Rivers.

Although more resident and "slob" or estuary fish are being caught at the moment, expect more fresh "chrome" sea runners to enter both systems after the tides and conditions settle again.

Anglers fishing other open waters, like Brady's Chain, have reported catching some stocked brown and rainbow trout on bait (worms, grubs, and Power-Bait), with trollers having some success using lures at depth.

Brushy Lagoon, Lake Meadowbank, Craigbourne Dam, and Huntsman Lake have also reportedly given up some trout last week.

The Inland Fisheries Service continues to stock waters with trout in the lead-up, with good numbers of Triploid Rainbow Trout released last week into Curries River Reservoir (1000), Four Springs Lake (2000), Big Waterhouse Lake (250), Blackmans Lagoon (250), Dee Lagoon (870), with all fish weighing around .700 kg.

The IFS also issued a warning during the week about protecting wild spawning trout in Tasmania.

The closed seasons for brown and rainbow trout are put in place to protect spawn and spawning trout, and as a reminder, it's an offence to disturb any spawn or spawning fish, or any bed, bank, or shallow where any spawn or spawning fish are.

The definition of 'disturb' includes 'agitate' or 'unsettle', which means people are not allowed to enter the water or place any objects in the water around spawning grounds or fish.

People can watch spawning fish from the riverbank at a distance, but if fish show signs of becoming unsettled or start moving away, you're too close and should move farther back.

From 1 July, a penalty unit is worth $213.00, with fines of up to 10 penalty units applicable if people are caught doing the wrong thing.

Anyone who sees any illegal activity in our inland waters can contact the IFS on 03 6165 3808 or 0438 338 530, or by email at infish@ifs.tas.gov.au.

Tip Of The Week- Look to use lures that run deep and send out a lot of vibration when fishing in dirty, cold water.

Tailed soft plastics work especially well and can also be fished closer to the bottom, where fish are more likely to be in those conditions.

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

Tight Lines until next week.