Trout Season 2025-26 in summary

Tasmanian trout season 2025/26

Seasons come and seasons go. The older you become, the quicker they pass. As a youth with few cares and fewer responsibilities, days on the water can stretch past 100.

As a guide, days on the water drag past 100. If you know, you know.

But youth and guiding are past me now, days on the water are carefully picked, rather than just heading out the door and working it out on the river or lake.

The season started for me in the Nineteen Lagoons on a days so calm you could hear the rocks creaking as the sun’s heat expanded them. Literally.

While not being able to get past the boom gate, the top end of Augusta Dam has some excellent marshes and silty flats that are some sort of substitute for proper western lakes environments. I fish mostly in a small 12’ plywood skiff that I built. It drifts over very shallow water, is comfortable and the best polaroiding platform I’ve ever had. You can be having a lovely cup of tea while polaroiding brown trout in shallow water.

And you don’t get bogged.

The day was wonderful, but few trout were seen, in fact I saw more platypuses than trout. One trout performed the most explosive surface take I’ve ever seen. The water was like glass. From nowhere this trout chased something across the surface like a Queenfish hunting bait on Cape York. It sounded briefly then literally launched rocket-like vertically a metre into the air. Calm resumed immediately.

October usually sees me trying to find frog feeders at Arthurs Lake. Some of the best shore fishing I’ve had has been at this time of year and on this water. Peter Morse and I filmed an amazing session with Peta and John Haenke for the Fishing DVD back in 2003 which showed just how good this can be.

But not this year for me. The water was very cold and lower than I’d hoped for. The frogs were all up in the scrub and the trout were all out in deeper water. All I saw on the shore was a very skinny snake—the one and only I saw for the season.

Back in the boat and typical Arthurs trout were found in four to five feet of water on the usual flies—Muz Wilson Green Fuzzle Bugger and a #12 Alexandra.

I stayed overnight at the Central Highlands Lodge (excellent as always) and again fished Arthurs the next day between Seven Pound Bay and Jonah Bay, of which the main feature was consistent and heavy rain all day. The bilge pump was on, but the fish weren’t. I’m too old for fishing in the rain for no fish, so homeward bound.

Early November was my first trip to the Nineteen Lagoons, looking for frog feeders and tailers. Too much cloud meant little chance of polaroiding, so I bounced the little boat out to Ada and Ada Lagoon.

I did find tailing trout, I did find frog feeding trout, but they were too good for me. If I’d been there at first light it might have been different, but I wasn’t and it weren’t! I never cease to be amazed at Lake Ada, so many different shores and access points off into side waters.

The road to the Nineteen Lagoons is shit.

I’m cool with that.

The crap road slows down people and keeps others away. Selfish maybe, but it isn’t going to be fixed, so why worry, just drive slower and apologise to your car and boat trailer.

Nowhere in the world has a place like the west of Great Lake. Treasure it if you can.

That was the first of six trips out west.

St Patricks River.

I grew up fishing the St Pats. Many, many trout fishers have cut their teeth on this classic northern Tasmanian stream. I headed out to a favourite stretch in late December, mindful that the word was no fish were left after the cormorants occupied the river for the past two years. I didn’t fish the river the previous year due to a knee replacement in January (crap timing).

Now I’ve fished the St Pats since I was 10 years old. That’s 48 years of chasing trout here. Despite what the pessimists said about the previous season, I had one of the best days I can remember. Most fish came to a #14 brown bead head nymph, (black bead, copper rib, short tail of brown hackle fibres) underneath my Red Tag Royal. I tie the nymph on a three foot dropper of 4lb Maxima but tied to the fly with a loop knot.

I don’t keep scores, but I suspect that only one in every five fish took the Red Tag Royal, but it was December after all. Later in the afternoon there was a splendid hatch of #14 sized brown spinners with some lovely fish really working hard on them. Flies sitting right in the meniscus and right on target were mostly taken. I use a mixed up mash of a Possum Emerger and F Fly on a 5X leader.

What an amazing river.

I had my second trip up the lakes in late December. It was a perfect day—blue sky, light northerly and warm. While spoilt for choice, and Great Lake would have been a great option, if time is limited, I’m always going to opt for the Western Lakes.

The Nineteen Lagoons has four lakes you can put a boat on. Ada, Double, Old Augusta and Augusta Dam. Over the summer I fished three of them. Love them all, but I don’t think Double has all that many fish in it. I’ve caught fish every time I’ve been there, but there is a lot of water, good looking water, between them.

On this trip a small hatch of duns at around 9am was a pleasant distraction – grey flies work better for me, but I know others who like black. These lakes are not deep, with the exception of Augusta Dam, and then not much of it is over 3m.

In my experience, the fish are either close to the shore, or they are not. Today they were not. They were hunting the clumps of weed using foam lines as edges and cruising looking for things to eat. I showed them Black Zulu Tags (#14), Bruce Gibson Black Spinners (#11) and the English dries of Carrot, Claret Carrot and Bibio Hopper.

I’ve just about given away the English flies out here. A fish will take them every now and again, but Bruce’s Black Spinner is the best for me.

Later in the afternoon solid foam lines and cruising trout kept me busy.

The two other trips in January were pretty much carbon copies—gee I love these lakes.

Two days stand out – both flat calm days and warm. Both very challenging, but in these conditions, you see just how many trout are really in these lakes—plenty.

Both calm days saw a fall of gum beetles and the fish were on them straight away, but they were best imitated on #14 hooks – bloody small. On these calm days you can hear conversations across the lake, which can be hilarious…

It was also the only time I’ve had a hooked trout jump in the boat with me – quite remarkable.

In summary.

Despite all the nay-sayers, I have had excellent fishing all season and saw no real impact that others have from the cormorants.

The only downer was the upper Meander River. I’ve fished this stream since Bob Cooper took me up there in 1997. By upper, I mean above the Huntsman Dam. In some of the higher stretches I’ve had 40 plus days, all on dry fly.

I spent a day on it in early January, fished three different places, walked a fair way into one of them, and did not see one trout. There was a massive hatch of black spinner all day, the water was perfect, the day was perfect. But no trout.

I’d love to know why, and I am very sure it isn’t cormorants, because I fished Sales Rivulet the same day and caught heaps.

If you know why, let me know.