Fly fishing Tasmania

The lake country on the Central Plateau that Inland Fisheries calls its Central region — yingina / Great Lake, Arthurs Lake, Little Pine and Penstock lagoons, Woods Lake and the road to the Western Lakes — wild browns, highland duns from November to March, tailing fish in spring, and weather that decides the water each day.

The river country Inland Fisheries calls its North region — the Macquarie, South Esk, Meander and Brumbys Creek, meadow water and shingle riffles within an hour of Launceston — wild browns, red spinners in spring, hoppers in late summer, and access negotiated across private land.

Tasmania's high wilderness lagoon country west of the A5 — polaroiding over peat-stained water, walking between lakes, wind lanes and shy wild browns in the Central Plateau Conservation Area and the Walls of Jerusalem.

Sixty-four square kilometres of Central Plateau storage that IFS's twenty-year angler survey puts at two fish a day — a wild, self-sustaining brown trout lake, the best mayfly water on the highlands from November to February, Cowpaddock Bay from the shore, four ramps, two campgrounds, and weather that turns in an hour.

The tailwater below Great Lake — forty-four kilometres from the Poatina power station to the Macquarie through three low weirs built in the 1960s to soften the releases, a meadow stream in look and a hydro tailrace in behaviour, wild browns with rainbows, mayfly and damsels over the weed, a gauge that reads temperature, and a level that moves with the turbines.

A hundred and seventy square kilometres of Central Plateau storage a thousand metres up — Tasmania's premium wild trout fishery, browns of a kilo and more with rainbows a tenth of the catch, polaroiding shores and wind lanes, road around most of it, open all year over most of its area, and thirty-nine years of satellite record of its rise and fall on the page.

The best-known fly-only trout water in Australia — two square kilometres of shallow, weedy highland lagoon a metre deep, wild browns of half a kilo to a kilo and a half, tailing fish in the margins in spring and duns across the whole lagoon from December, public foot access right around it, and a shore for every wind.

Tasmania's classic dry-fly river — a hundred and ninety-five kilometres of Midlands meadow water from the hills above the Tooms junction through Ross and Campbell Town country to the South Esk at Longford, wild browns under red spinners in spring and hoppers in autumn, four gauges, and forty-seven years of the Trefusis record drawn on the page.

A hundred and seventeen kilometres from the Great Western Tiers to the South Esk at Hadspen — fast clear water above Huntsman Lake, the shingle riffles and long runs from the dam to Deloraine that IFS calls the river's best fly water, slow broadwaters through the poppy and pasture country below — wild browns, seventy years of the Deloraine gauge drawn on the page, and a lower river open to the end of May.

A small, shallow, fly-only premium fishery on the Central Plateau — a square kilometre and a half of weed beds that grow mayfly by the million, wild browns and stocked rainbows, sight-fishing the western margins early, duns from November, wet-fly teams from a drifting boat all season, and fifteen years of IFS stocking drawn on the page.

Tasmania's longest river — two hundred and sixty-five kilometres from Upper Esk to the Tamar at Launceston, wadeable headwater riffles, the Fingal to Conara broadwaters and the Clarendon to Hadspen kayak water — wild browns with the odd rainbow up high, two gauges, seventy years of the Perth record drawn on the page, and a lower river open to the end of May.

A big, fast, boulder-strewn freestone river an hour from Hobart — fifty-three kilometres from the forests above Maydena through Mt Field National Park to the Derwent, large populations of wild browns and rainbows with a few trophies a year, summer and autumn wading, and sixty years of the Newbury gauge drawn on the page.