’Tis the season to be fishing

WE ARE a week away from Christmas Day and how fast has the year flown by.

Keen anglers should be looking to finish the year in style whether that be enjoying some fishing time in both fresh or salt water. 

A trip "up the lakes" is usually an annual affair during the holidays and with fishing improving it would be well worth getting away.

Highland fisheries mentioned the most last week were Great Lake which has continued to offer good bags of rainbow and brown trout to trollers,  spin fishers, bait soakers and fly casters.

Anglers should look to fish windlanes and windswept shores because these areas see food condensed and trout are looking to feed here.

Wood's Lake continues to fish well with trollers and  spinners taking good bags of fish and look to use shallow diving or suspending lures to combat the growing weed through summer.

Fly anglers are enjoying good sport at Penstock Lagoon with the increase of mayfly and gum beetle activity and the condition of fish caught from here lately has said to be sensational.

Lake Echo and the Dee Lagoon, Bronte Lagoon and Lake King William have all seen action and are worth dedicating time to over the break as well.

Anglers trolling and spinning in Lake Sorell have caught some good fish to two kilos or more and Lake Crescent will give up the fish of the season but you might have to put in the time to get it.

Black bream are also worth targeting at this time of the year with lots of fish moving through rivers and estuaries at the moment. Tasmania has some of the biggest bream and best fishing for them in the country and The Derwent and Huon Rivers, Lune River, Little Swanport River, Swan River, Scamander River and Georges and Ansons Bay are well known to offer great fishing.

When targeting bream look to fish soft plastics, hardbodied lures or bait around rock and sand flats, oyster racks, drowned timber or snags, undercut banks and marinas.

In saltwater southern bluefin tuna fishing continues to reward game anglers fishing from the Tasman Peninsula through to the East Coast.

New Halco, Meridian and JB Skirts are getting the job done on above average size tuna.

The lower Derwent Estuary is offering good squid fishing as is water around Bruny Island and the Channel and snapper are starting to show up more although most are smaller "pinkies" but it won't be long until larger fish arrive.

Australian salmon are everywhere and tailor are also mixed in with salmon schools and they're providing good sport also in the lower Derwent Estuary.

Anglers are getting excited about fishing for yellow tail kingfish and it's looking like it's going to be a good year to target them.Fish are being caught from the North of the State and confirmed sightings and captures have come from Georges Bay,  Triabunna,Bruny Island and as far south as Dover.

The Christmas and New Years break provides opportunity to get out with the family and friends and so make the most of any time off and go and enjoy some great fishing.

IN EARLY December the Inland Fisheries  Service finished an annual electrofishing survey on Arthurs Lake.

The survey was first completed in 2022 and 200 otoliths (ear bones) were collected from 200 brown trout for the purpose of assessing their ages.

Over a two-day period recently the IFS caught 170 brown trout which were weighed and measured before being released back into the lake.

Of these, 20 trout were male, 37 female, with 102 were unable to be determined as either male or female (immature fish).

The majority of immature fish in this year/s survey was 66 per cent which compares to 30 per cent for 2023 and 51 per cent for 2022.

There has been a reduction in the average weight of fish across the last three surveys - 353 g in 2022, 334 g in 2023 and 286 g in 2024.

The lower average size of trout at Arthurs Lake is said to be caused by the high level of recruitment from spawning between 2020 to 2023 and coincides with three consecutive La Nina years.

A full report on the 2024 Arthurs Lake trout survey will be published on the IFS website in the new year.

CSIRO and Hydro Tasmania have partnered on a project which aims to measure and model water evaporation from Penstock Lagoon.

Evaporation is a concern for managing water reservoirs due to their large surface areas.

Accurately predicting these losses is increasingly necessary especially with our changing climate.

To measure evaporation CSIRO have developed a floating evaporation pan system which has been deployed at waters across Australia.

The CSIRO study aims to understand evaporation across different climate zones and Penstock lagoon has been selected in Tasmania to represent a cooler,more temperate environment.

The floating evaporation pan at Penstock Lagoon has a large protective wave deflecting device plus and a floating pan that supports measurements of wind speed, air temperature, humidity, solar radiation, water surface temperature and water level changes.

The equipment will be in place until June 2025 and when you're out fishing keep clear of it.

This is the final report for 2024 and reports will resume on January 8 2025. Tight lines until then.

Tip of the Week- Anglers always appreciate fishing gear for presents at Christmas time. Read that again.

 

Send in your fishing reports,pics and tips to valleyfishes@gmail.comand keep track of the Derwent Valley Gazette Fishing page at derwentvalleygazette.com