Tough conditions for trout comp

THE New Norfolk Licensed Anglers Association held their fourth trout fishing competition of the 2024-25 season on the Derwent River last weekend.

The river had settled over the past week or so and good weather allowed anglers to attack the area with the hope of landing some good resident and sea run trout.

Tidal movement made fishing tough going but saying that there were some great fish landed by those who were lucky enough to get a bite.

All up 32 trout were weighed in with a total weight of 19.025 kg and an average weight of 0.600 kg.

The senior heaviest trout was won by myself with a cracker female searunner that i caught bait fishing and it weighed 3.010 kg cleaned and was 74 cm long.

After going biteless for nearly four hours I missed a fish then five minutes later caught the big one which was the best of not much else and I went fishless in an eight- hour session the next night.

Gerald Russell also landed a nice trout weighing 1.142 kg. Tony Robertson had one at 1.042 kg and Adrian Slater was next with 0.868 kg.

The junior heaviest trout was won by Jayden Slater who landed a magnificent male sea runner that weighed 2.637 kg cleaned which he caught spinning up near the rapids above New Norfolk.

Jayden continues to impress  and he loves his fishing and has learned well from his dad Adrian.

Mahalia Roberston also landed a great fish and second biggest of the competition which weighed 1.283 kg cleaned and she was awarded the mystery weight for this effort.

Lucy Russell had another one at 0.442 kg  and Adrian Slater won the average weight award with a fish that weighed 0.726 kg which was closest to the overall average of 0.600 kg.

As mentioned before most members found fishing tough going and reports suggest some small schools of whitebait were seen and also a seal was working the area during competition time.

This weekend is the highly popular Gone Fishing Day and the NNLAA will host an event up at the Bushy Park Junior fishing pond from 10 am -2 pm.For more information check out the NNLAA's Facebook page.

THE Tasmanian Government and the Inland Fisheries Service (IFS) launched a new Tagged Trout Promotion last Saturday to encourage more people to get out trout fishing.

All up a total of $150,000 has been committed by the Government in relation to supplementing tagged trout over the next three years with $80,000 up for grabs during the 2024-25 inland trout fishing season.

This season the IFS has released 16 tagged brown trout worth $5000 each across nine lakes which are Arthurs Lake (2), Brady's Lake (2), Huntsman Lake (2), Lake Mackintosh (2), Lake Rowallan (2), Lake Sorell (2) ,Great Lake (2) and both Lake Leake and Craigbourne Lake one each.

Each tag in the fish are yellow which have specific identifying details and the promotion runs from Saturday, October 5 through to  July 31,  2027.Entry is open to holders of a current freshwater angling licence or persons aged under 14 who have the permission of their parent or guardian.

More tagged brown trout will be released into various waters around the state during the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons.

The waters where trout are released will depend on environmental conditions and the need to promote individual waters and regions and how many tagged fish have been captured previously during the promotion.

Fish caught in the promotion must be kept with tag intact for verification and then the angler must contact the Inland Fisheries Service on 1300 463 474 between 9 am and 5 pm Monday to Friday or email infish@ifs.tas.gov.au and provide your name, contact details, tag number, waterway, location the fish was caught and overall length.

Remember that only fish with yellow tags are eligible to win the $5000 and back in 2021-22 and 2022–23 tags were orange and back in 2020-21 tags were blue and these are ineligible but all the same contact IFS with details if any of these fish are still caught to submit the same statistics mentioned above.

BACK in 2022 more than 2000 Tasmanian households were surveyed on recreational fishing activities by the Institute For Marine And Antarctic Studies (IMAS). Around 460 households (1300 people) responded giving details of their fishing activities over the following 12 m onths.Some interesting results came from this and almost one in four Tasmanians (130,500 people) went fishing at least once in 2022. The highest bracket of anglers were aged between 45-59 years of age but participation rates were higher in anglers aged from 5-14 years of age with one in three people fishing at least once a year.

There were twice as many males going fishing than females with 86,000 males noted to 44,500 females. Eighty one percent of all fishing trips were saltwater based with the remaining percentage fishing in freshwater .Sixty one peccent of sea fishing was done from a boat with 39 per cent fishing from the shore. Nearly three quarters of all fish were caught from the South East (50%) and East Coast (23%), North (24%) and West (2%).

Flathead is by far the main target in saltwater off Tasmania with 1.08 million caught each year accounting for 50% of total finfish catch. Ninety five per cent of the flathead catch is sand flathead, 3% is tiger flathead and the remaining 2% is unspecified flathead (bluespotted, rock or unidentified flathead). 

Of 1.02 million sand flathead caught, 63% were released. The majority of fish were released because they were under the legal minimum size. Nearly 80% of sand flathead catch is from the South East (57%) and East Coast (22%) and obviously they're the most caught here in Tasmania, Australian salmon were next with, calamari squid, tiger flathead and Goulds (arrow) squid rounding out the top five caught-to-keep species. Tight Lines until next week.

Tip of the Week - Whitebait are very wary and when fishing for them avoid sudden movements and try and also keep your shadow off the water which often also spooks them.

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