Fishing Tasmania is the ultimate Tasmanian fishing guide! It is a quality magazine that comes wrapped with a free informative DVD titled ‘How to catch Bream on lures’, plus a free Fishing Tasmania sticker.

It retails for $10.95 and is available in newsagents throughout Australia and selected fishing tackle stores in Tasmania.

The purpose of the magazine is to attract increased participation in fishing in Tasmania for the future sustainability of the fishery.

Fisheries management is funded primarily through angling license sales, so the more people that buy licenses and fishing gear, the better it is for all. We encourage you to seek out a copy of Fishing Tasmania Annual and show your support by displaying the free sticker on your car or boat.

The idea for the magazine came out of discussions between keen fishermen and marketing experts. The first edition has been developed out of a marketing plan funded by the Commonwealth Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Resources and AusIndustry.

The magazine is designed and produced by Red Jelly on behalf of Anglers Alliance Tasmania. If you are a retailer and would like to order some copies for sale please contact enquiries@redjelly.com.au.

A big thank you to all the contributors for the first edition. It’s a great read full of generous advice and fabulous pics.

Download the Chair’s Report 2010.

Download letter from Chairman re TGALT and AAT.

The 2010-11 angling season starts on Saturday 7 August, with the traditional opening of brown trout waters. Rainbow waters will remain closed until Saturday 2 October this year.

Here are the current guidelines issued by the Inland Fisheries Service for locals and visitors alike.

Get a Licence!

You require a current angling licence to fish at any open inland water in Tasmania (including farm dams on private property), except at a registered private fishery where you generally pay to fish.

You can purchase or renew an angling licence by visiting a licence agent (at major tackle stores or any Service Tasmania shop). Licences can also be purchased or renewed online

Angling licences range in price from a full season adult licence at $66.50 to a short term weekend licence for $20.

The full season licence offers anglers the best value for money; being a 12 month licence with the opportunity to fish every day of the year; and with significant discounts for juniors (80% less at $12.00), pensioners (45% less at $36.50) and seniors (25% off at $53.00).

Other benefits include the convenience of being mailed a renewal form each year before the start of the season, which contains a durable licence card.

The Service also targets full season licence holders with information and special offers such as the automatic entry into competitions to win prizes.

This year, we are repeating the offer of free entry to the Salmon Ponds on presentation of a full season licence card and also a voucher, mailed out with the renewal notice, for a free weekend licence to ‘Take a Mate Fishing’.

Know the Rules!

There are rules and regulations that govern inland fishing in Tasmania and apply to individual waters. They cover seasons and times, bag and size limits, angling methods and boating. The general rules that apply to most waters are:

• an open season in line with brown trout waters from 7/8/10 to 1/5/11
• open to all methods of angling (fly, artificial lure and bait fishing)
• a bag limit of 12 fish
• a minimum fish size limit of 220 mm in length.

Waters that are an exception to these rules, such as waters open all year round, rainbow waters, waters closed to fishing at all times, and all waters in the Western Lakes area are listed in the Tasmanian Fishing Code 2010-11, which is provided for free with your licence.

You can also search the regulations applying to individual waters by visiting the IFS Waters Database.

Of special note is the closure of Lake Sorell this season under the Inland Fisheries (Delay or Prevention of Spread of Controlled Fish) Order 2003.

This is due to an outbreak of juvenile carp in Lake Sorell in 2009-10 and to assist the Service in intensifying its effort to control the population during 2010-11.

• Gunns Marsh Road (Jonah Bay, Arthurs Lake) is now open to the public, enabling anglers to access the area and set up camping sites for the opening of the season on Saturday.
• Opening and closing times for the boom gate at Huntsman Lake will be 6.00am and 5.00pm from Saturday 7 August.
• Lake Sorell is closed to fishing and boating this season, or any other activity that might result in contact with the water.

Updated August 4, 2010

Inland Fisheries has added a new brochure and map for Craigborne Dam.

It is available, along with many others, for download here.

More funding for carp eradication teams

By SARAH GRAHAM | Minister for Primary Industries and Water, Bryan Green announced that an additional $400,000 will be provided for the Carp Management Program in this year’s State Budget.

The Service has invested heavily in the control of carp at lakes Sorell and Crescent over the past 15 years. It has received financial support primarily through State government funding and to a lesser extent, the Commonwealth government.

During this time, the Service has successfully contained the carp invasion to these lakes, which was its number one priority. It went on to significantly reduce the carp population in both lakes using innovative technology, and last year, appears to have achieved a total eradication of carp from Lake Crescent.

Favourable environmental conditions last year, however, led to limited spawning and successful recruitment of juvenile carp in Lake Sorell.

This was a major set-back for the carp team which was so close to achieving its long term goal of eradicating the pest fish from Tasmanian waters.

The additional funding in this year’s budget will buoy the spirits of the carp team and it will enable the implementation of further strategies to gain greater control of the carp population in the extensive waters of Lake Sorell.

This work will focus on the capture of as many of the juvenile fish from the 2009-10 spawning as possible, while preventing any further spawning or subsequent population outbreaks in the 2010-11 season.

Meanwhile, the carp team will continue to closely monitor Lake Crescent for the presence of any carp. — IFS

Electrocuted carp catch

The Director of Inland Fisheries, John Diggle has ordered the closure of Lake Sorell for fishing this coming season due to the outbreak of juvenile carp last summer. This special closure is enabled under the Inland Fisheries (Delay or Prevention of Spread of Controlled Fish) Order 2003.

The restriction covers public access to Lake Sorell and on land surrounding the lake down to its high water mark as wells the outlets of both Lakes Sorell and Crescent, and on land around these outlets below their high water marks. It applies to all activities that might result in contact with the water, including hunting, angling, boating, wading and swimming.

The closure is required to support the IFS in its work to control carp in the Lake during the coming season, when a major operation is planned to eliminate juvenile fish and prevent further spawning during spring and summer.

Woods Lake Road has been steadily improved since this photo in 2005

Road maintenance work on Woods Lake Road has been undertaken during the closed season and is now complete. The work, which involved correcting road side drainage, installation of delineators at culverts and the filling of potholes, was jointly funded by the IFS and Hydro Tasmania.

The extent of the work was from just past Yengena settlement at Arthurs Lake Dam all the way to Woods Lake Dam, a total distance of approx 12.5km.

Anglers can do their part in limiting damage to the road surface, their vehicles and boats by travelling at speeds conducive to the conditions. The recommended maximum speed, in ideal conditions, for this type of road is 20-40 km/h. — IFS

Willow removal on Macquarie River

The Inland Fisheries Service is continuing to remove willows on the Macquarie River as part of the Anglers Access program which has already improved onsite angling infrastructure, signage and information.

Additional funding provided by NRM North has enabled the latest work involving extensive willow removal and riparian remediation on two properties, Woolmers and Brickendon, near Longford.

Both properties are also involved in Angler Access projects to improve access and fishing in the Macquarie River. Mersey NRM services have been the principle contractor and used this as a valuable training site.

The removal of willow will considerably increase the extent of fishable water downstream from Woolmers Bridge and the fishing will be further improved with the installation of fence stiles, footbridges, off stream stock watering and riparian fencing.

Anglers will be able to experience the benefits of improved access at the start of the new season in August. — IFS

Andy McCarthy of Team Spirit of Tasmania with two of his five fish on day two

A very tough tournament on the Derwent for Round Three in the Spirit of Tasmania Bream Classic really opened the championship up.

With a very subdued Calcutta on the Howler Custom Rods pre fish briefing, most teams were talking about where they hadn’t caught fish, rather than where they had.

Young gun Isaac Harris scored the Howler Custom Rods $350 voucher, making his weekend a winner before the comp had even started.

A large crowd turned up to see the very tight weigh in

Day One

Day one started with a crisp but calm morning, which gave way to a cool, clear and light wind day.

A heap of fresh water in the system restricted visibility and lowed fish activity, so hopes were not high for a big day on the bream.

It soon became apparent that the hoped for action was nowhere to be found, with only a few teams finding early success.

Fancied teams such as Sportsfishtasmania.com and Ecogear/Nitro failed to live up to expectations, while the consistent St Helens Bait and Tackle found the fish and the top of the leader board with a very nice 5/5.88kg bag. This was just rewards after a thief stole two of their rods while filling up with fuel on their drive down to Hobart.

Quiet performers Team Lyndcraft Boats chipped away and by the time weigh in came around they had a solid bag, with a few go-to spots up there sleeve for day two.

Team Pellows Saws and Mowers used the unique spot choosing technique of flipping a coin! Heads upstream, tails downstream. It paid off in spades, with a five fish, 5kg bag for day one, keeping them in touch with third place.

The bulk of the field managed to at least bag one fish, with only three boats cooking the dreaded donuts.

Team Strikepro totally ignored their pre fish work and managed to get a very respectable 5/5.51kg bag, and everyone was hoping that finally the boys would put together two days and take out the big prize.

With only four teams managing five fish, the next best bag was three, with most boats finding a couple of kilo plus fish to keep in touch with the field.

Day Two

With it down to the wire on the last day of the series to decide who would be the overall champion team, all teams set on a crisp and calm morning full of nerves.

Teams such as sportsfishtasmania.com, Ecogear/Nitro and Cranka Pro needed to get their bag of five fish to become 2010 Spirit of Tasmania Bream Classic Champions, and teams such as Strikepro just needed to hold their form from day one to take out the round and the series.

Early indications showed that is was going to be another very hit and miss day, with some of the fancied teams failing to land a single fish, while others managed a few to keep their overall chances alive.

With the stage set from 1pm when Team Lyndcraft Boats weighed in with a 5/5.73kg bag to leapfrog them into top spot, it was then a litany of bad days, missed opportunities and plain bad luck.

Fancied teams such as Ecogear/Nitro, Team Strikepro or the fancied www.tasfish.com/Bigfin didn’t land a bream.

Day one leader St Helens Bait & Tackle only managed three fish.

Team Lyndcraft Boats don’t often fish the Derwent, and used Google Earth to find a few likely spots prior to pre-fish, and then worked the spots lightly to leave plenty of fish for the ensuing days. Using mainly hardbodied lures, the boys fished generally shallow shores to compile their 10/11.22kg bag. In stark contrast to other teams, Lyndcraft Boats upgraded their bag a few times.

This was Matt and Travis’s maiden Classic win, and comes on top of a very consistent series in 2009. The boys also claimed third place in the series, which is testament to their consistency throughout the three rounds.

Big Bream the difference in Series win

Two of the teams fighting it out for the series win, Team Cranka Pro and Team www.sportsfishtasmania.com were only separated by a few places, and in the end it was the biggest bream of the weekend caught by Andrew Cox that gave them the breathing space to claim the series win on count back.

Both teams were tied on equal point at the end of the series, with the series decided by the team placing highest in the last round. That big bream was just enough to deliver team Cranka Pro two higher places up the table and the overall series win.

Spirit of Tasmania Bream Classic Series Champions Steve Steer and Andrew Cox display the victor’s trophy

Team members Steve Steer and Andrew Cox finished the series with two fourth places and a sixth to just pip out Leigh McKenzie and Patrick Sullivan.

Steer and Cox win a trip for two anglers, their car and boat on the Spirit of Tasmania to compete in the National Bream Classic Grand Final in Victoria later this year.

This series would not have been possible without the fantastic support of our major sponsor Spirit of Tasmania, Daiwa, Berkley, Ecogear, Shimano, Strikpro, Howler Custom Rods, The Tasman Door Centre, Warwick and Sally Medwin for their very generous fuel vouchers.

The tournament scene takes a break now in Tasmania until October, when the Spirit of Tasmania Trout Classic Series will be held in the Central Highlands.

Third placed Team Pellows Saws and Mowers Ben Johnson and Tom Viney