Fish stocks in the Central Highlands lakes have recovered from the dangerously low levels of 12 months ago.
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Lakes across the area are now experiencing good fish stock levels, a result that director of Inland Fisheries Services John Diggle expects to see continue in the lead-up to the World Fly Fishing Championships in 2019.
The lakes experienced record low water levels throughout late 2015 into 2016, before before boosted by the extreme rain events of June 2016.
“Generally, the outlook is really good, particularly because storage levels have improved from this time last year,” Mr Diggle said.
“It’s been a major improvement as far as we’re concerned.
“All the reports throughout the season have been good, with good numbers of fish and good sizes.
“It’s probably the best season that we’ve seen for quite a few years.”
The boom in fish numbers and sizes that the lakes have seen has trickled through to river fishing, in the Meander, Mersey, and South Esk rivers, Mr Diggle said.
“There are good opportunities across the state,” he said.
Penstock Lagoon, Tooms Lake, Woods Lake, and Lake Leake are reported to be “fantastic fishing” throughout the 2016-17 season.
Mr Diggle added that the Western lakes were also fishing well, for those anglers who don’t mind a hike to the water’s edge.
Most of the lakes are maintaining their fish stocks “naturally”, but Inland Fisheries will be helping to boost numbers in bodies such as Four Springs Lake, and Lake Crescent.
Mr Diggle said he expected that this season’s strong fish stock numbers would provide a strong base to build on for years to come.
“We’re expecting that number to build this year, next year, and the year after, into the World Fly Fishing championships in 2019,” he said.
“It was looking pretty bad this time last year, but now the outlook is quite good.”
The brown trout season typically opens at the start of August, and runs until the end of April. The rainbow trout season follows a month later. Great Lake (with the exception of Canal Bay) is open year-round.
An estimated 25,000 fishing licenses were issued for the 2016-17 fishing season. As many as 6000 of those go to interstate or international anglers.
It’s hoped that the 2019 World Fly Fishing championships will further boost the profile of Tasmania’s trout fishing opportunities, with about 30 teams from across the globe expected to descend on the state. The competition will run for four days, it’s expected that the teams will stay in state for about two weeks.
