Tasmania’s big trout

By Neil Grose | Tasmania, rightly or wrongly, has an international reputation for very large trout. Most locals, however, would recognise that big trout are very much a rarity.

By big trout, I really mean anything over 8 pounds. Big fish, of course, are relative. A 2 pounder in the St Patrick’s River is a giant, a 5 pounder in Lake Crescent is perhaps only average!

In the heydays of Lake Pedder, 10 pounds was considered well below par and Great Lake in 1870 saw plenty of double figure fish!

Much of the ‘big fish’ reputation was gained on the back of numerous new Hydro impoundments that caused an acceleration of trout growth.

Lake Pedder is the prime example of this; the artificial raising of the water level led to a massive explosion in midges, which caused a massive explosion in mudeyes and galaxia, which ultimately led to a massive increase in the average size of the trout.

It has been quite some time since a new impoundment has created the conditions for accelerated growth, (and no more are planned), so as a result in these post Hydro growth days, we will have to work a bit harder, (or get luckier) if we are to crack the big fish bonanza.

You would be hard pushed to mention any lake in Tasmania and completely rule it out as a big fish venue. I have seen photos of 12 pound fish from Pine Tier Lagoon, 16 pounders from Arthurs Lake, 20+ pounders from the Tyenna River and quite a few 8 pound plus fish from the junction of the St Patrick’s and the North Esk River.

Great Lake still sees big fish, Blackmans Lagoon still has the odd thumper, and then there are the western lakes, starting from East Rocky Lagoon all the way out to the back of beyond. Some of these really big fish from the popular lakes get big and fat from eating discarded guts from around boat ramps, but there are far more large fish caught that feed on a natural diet than these aberrations.

Dedicated anglers looking for a big fish sporting challenge need to look a lot deeper into the reasons for big fish to exist in order to stand a realistic chance of catching them.

Big fish don’t get big on fresh water alone you know!

Probably the most popular of trout waters in Tasmania is Arthurs Lake.

Whether it keeps this title after 2 years of intense pressure from downstream irrigators on the Lake River and the need to keep Tasmania’s lights on remains to be seen.

Arthurs Lake does, however represent a viable big fish location. While some areas on Arthurs are plagued with small fish, there are some notable areas that house some big fish – really big fish!

What makes these areas so special? Big fish food is the basic answer. Small fish in Arthurs generally eat small mayfly nymphs, stick caddis and scud if they can find them.

As the fish get bigger they look for more of those items, plus galaxia, damsel nymphs, mudeyes, snails and so on.

Really big fish in Arthurs almost exclusively eat crayfish and galaxia! There are plenty of places in Arthurs that have crayfish, most are quite deep, but some are reasonably shallow.

Without making life too easy for you, look along the eastern shore of the Sand Lake, the western shore of the Blue Lake, the Morass, the deep areas off Phantom Bay, parts of Hydro Bay, south of Tumbledown Bay and the deep water off the eastern side of Brazendale Island.

By their very nature, these Arthurs fish feed deep and stay deep, meaning that without specifically targeting them you are only going to come into contact by chance.

I have seen some big fish on fly in Arthurs, (my wife Nicole caught one about 9 pounds on a dry fly a few years ago), but the majority of big fish specialists go deep with soft plastics and specific nhard body lures. The key areas are in and amongst the drowned timber, and often on the deep side of the lake.

Deep in Arthurs means 15 feet and over. Big fish are caught mostly when lures get down deep enough to be in front of the fish’s nose.

Crayfish are by their very nature on the bottom all the time, so lures sailing by 5 feet off the bottom aren’t going to attract the big lads very often. You will catch plenty of average 2 and 3 pounders though!

Lures and flies don’t have to be exact imitations of crayfish, and the now traditional 3” Berkley Power Minnow seems to take its fair share of large fish in Arthurs!

Crayfish and galaxia are a deep olive green along their back, but for some reason the Pumkinseed colour is the better one!

Fish them deep and hop them along the bottom. This is where heavier jig heads will be better than light – you will get down quickly, and the tail of your plastic will stand up off the bottom, very similar to the defensive response of a crayfish about to be attacked by your average big trout!

Tagged as: wild