Fishing - Big buck anglers out in force for start of trout season

Anglers were out in force for the opening of the 2025-26 Tasmanian Brown Trout fishing season last Saturday morning.

Cold conditions greeted those that hit the water at first light but by lunch time the sun had bought back some sort of fish catching comfort.

It was one of the calmest openings for some time weather wise and with the recent tagged trout releases offering big bucks anglers targeted these waters testing their luck.

For reference 5 of the 30 tagged $5000 fish are Rainbow Trout with two in both Craigbourne Lake and Brady's Lake and one in Curries River Reservoir with the rest being Brown Trout.

Those that chose to fish the rivers/tributaries mentioned that it was tough going with a lot of anglers not seeing a fish or much less action than anticipated.

Those that targeted the bigger rivers like the Derwent had to deal with up to a dozen or more seals working to the tidal influence during the day and night which obviously makes fishing near impossible.

Those that targeted the Huon River also mentioned that it was tough going with most of the fish caught being small but I did see one good fish caught by Kylie Price which weighed around 2.9 kg or 6.6 lb.

Anglers that hit up the Central Highlands also found it tough going but it wasn't all doom and gloom with anglers reporting some success during the warmest times of the day.

Anglers targeting Great Lake for a $25000 fish found it super challenging with the lake more resembling an ice skating rink.

The Launceston Angling Club held a competition at Toom's Lake with good numbers of trout caught and along with Lake Leake these waters should continue to be considered early this season.

The Brady's Chain was popular but the cold restricted results but some reports of Rainbow Trout catches came from those fishing with bait around the canals and the Whitewater outlet into the main Lake.

Those fishing Tungatinah Lagoon and Lake Binney didn't see much action and reports from Bronte Lagoon were ok with one competition said to give up 75 trout with the best weighing 1.350 kg in weight.

Lake Sorell was targeted with some landing good conditioned fish but overall I think people left slightly frustrated and the same can be said for Lake Crescent.

One water that fished well last year and seems to have started well again this season was Talbots Lagoon with some nice Rainbow Trout hitting the net over opening weekend.

I just thought to again highlight what proper care and handling can do when you're planning on catching and releasing fish.

Last week I put in a fair bit of time in the open boundary of the Derwent River and after what's been one of the quietest lead ups I'd seen I finally started to catch some fish.

Two in particular were standouts, not for their size but if you've followed reports I've written about catching and releasing fish a few times with my record being 9 times for one fish.

Well as it so happens early last week I caught and released a fish weighing around 1.3 kg and two nights later I caught the same fish which was confirmed in the pictures.

Not to be outdone a day after that I managed to land and release a trout at 7.10 pm and at around 10 pm I caught the exact same fish again.

This doesn't happen much a lot but it goes to show that if you look after the fish and release them quickly they have no issues whatsoever.

The New Norfolk Licensed Anglers Association held their first competition of the new season on the Derwent River.

After what has been one of the quietest lead ups in relation to catch rates on the river the week leading into opening weekend saw some fish start to move and feed.

As mentioned above a large number of seals has been working the river to the tidal influence which always makes fishing tough going but specific times of a tide saw anglers get some results.

A total of 25 fish were weighed in with a total weight of 12.566 kg and an average weight of .502 kg.

I caught seven trout, six on opening morning in 3.5 hours and 1 the following night in 8.5 hours of fishing.

I kept two which were the best two of the competition one weighing 1.400 kg and the other 1.059 kg.

Shayne Langford had the next best at .848 kg, Adrian Slater had one at .724 kg, Craig Waddington one at .681 kg and Marty Evans .497 kg.

The heaviest for the juniors went to Jayden Slater with a nice fish weighing .794 kg, Amber Harrison had a nice one at .573 kg, Addi Bailey .339 kg, Mahalia Robertson .334 kg and Luca Bailey Harrison one at .227 kg.

The average weight award was won by Marty Evans with his fish weighing .497 kg and both Shayne Langford .848 kg and Amber Harrison .573 kg were awarded mystery weight awards for their efforts.

As mentioned results were slightly down mainly due to conditions and predators roaming the river but the annual opening was and will always be enjoyable.

The NNLAA will host the popular Derwent River Interclub Challenge from August 22-24 which invites all STLAA clubs to compete plus others like Launceston Anglers Club, Deloraine, Longford and Ulverstone.

For more information keep track of the NNLAA's Facebook Page.

Tip Of The Week – Adjusting the angle of your rod tip when reeling in will make your lure swim higher or lower or deeper and shallower in the water column.

A rod tip high will run a lure shallower and a rod tip low will run a lure deeper.

Depending on where you're fishing this could mean the difference to catching fish or not.

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

Tight Lines until next week.