presidents club 2012-2013

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The Presidents club was formed at the beginning of the 2010/ 2011 fishing season by a group of people that wanted to do just that......go fishing.

It was decided that in order to become a member of this “elite” group of anglers only three rules would be applied.

Rule #1

You have to be willing to take on the role of President in order to join.

Rule #2

You didn't take anything about this club seriously.

Rule #3

There are not, nor will there ever be..... any more rules....

Inside this booklet is a reflection of that season...... enjoy.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2012

Subject: Lake Leake ( Opening day ) Hi all, Fished Lake Leake today with Bailey, Dale & Trev Howard. Arrived around 11am to a stiff 15 knot SW breeze, turning around and dying off to around 5 knots from the NW later in the day. We finished up with around twelve trout, most being small rain-bows up to 1lb. Trev landed a brown of around 3lb in fair condition which had been feeding on stick caddis. Most fish were caught on Dale’s new hard body lures, “Golden Seducer”, “Red nut” & KW Galaxia. One was also caught on a pumpkinseed coloured Yep softie & a couple more on a black n gold t.tail. Had lots of hits and misses, one broke me off, must check my leader connection I think! Most fish were caught fishing through the Big Timber shore and up near the Snowy River. Water temp was 6 degrees, size of fish a bit disappointing, but still we had a great day for the opening of the season. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Janet & Todd Lambert Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2012

Subject: Brushy Lagoon / Four Springs Hi all, I guess my report really starts on Friday at 1pm when I picked up my mate, (Kevin Wilkinson), from the Launceston Airport and took him straight out to Brushy Lagoon in the hope of get-ting him onto a decent sized Atlantic salmon. Naturally, I couldn’t get away without my daughter Demi in tow again; especially after her efforts the previous day where she managed a couple of nice Atlantics around six pounds each. I was now delegated to boat driver for the afternoon! Once again, Demi managed a six pounder and Kevin caught a ten pounder. This was the biggest fish he had ever caught, and once landed, the majority of his afternoon was spent staring at this fish on the boats floor. It was decided that since the Tooms Lake weekend was can-celled, we would get up at daylight and head to Four Springs for Opening Day (Saturday the 4th August). We staggered out of the cot at 4.30 am, only to hear the wind and rain outside and promptly went back to bed until around 6.30. (Continued next page.)

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(Continued from page 4) After observing that the weather had cleared, we headed off. Upon arrival at Fourseys, we noticed President Jim and Virginia McKenna’s Ute in the car park and were soon to find out they had done particularly well. Jim had caught his bag of five and Virginia had caught two. To cut a long story short, I managed my bag, Jim caught his bag, Virginia caught three (and released a couple), and Kevin caught four for the day. Fish ranged between 2 pounds to 5 pounds, all caught on Black n gold T tails. Kevin took a few nice feeds of Tassie Trout back to Melbourne with him along with, “hopefully” a few pleasant memories. Ps. an early Tool Academy Nomination/ Kevin Wilkinson, for putting a soft plastic on a jig head and throwing it over the side of the boat ready to cast, only to realise it wasn’t tied onto his line...how funny!! All in all a good start to the season for us. Regards, Todd

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----- Original Message ----- From: Craig Shipton Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2012

Subject: Woods Lake / Penstock Hi all, Went up to the Central Highlands, as this is our normal opening weekend trip. Fished Woods Lake Saturday and caught eight between us, (all on fly) as that’s the only way we fish for trout...was hard going. Weather was too good, plenty of flat water with bits of sun, also had others on that we dropped. Sunday morning we fished Penstock for two and a half hours for seven fish between us. A bit of wind around and patchy sky’s, headed back to shack for a feed, clean up and the drive home. Timed it nicely as it started to rain within half an hour of being back at the shack with snow falling as we left for home. Cheers Craig

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----- Original Message ----- From: Stuart Casey Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2012

Subject: Brushy Lagoon / Four Springs Hi Guys, Headed to Brushy Lagoon at lunchtime. Patrick caught 2 At-lantic salmon before we even left the boat ramp. We then fished out of the boat for a couple of hours picking up another four. We loaded up the boat and cooked up a couple snags and Patrick caught another one off the boat ramp. All were between 6 - 7 pound. Decided to then head out to Four Springs for the last couple hours of daylight. Jamie only managed a couple on pumpkin-seeds. Couldn't catch any on the t-tail. Stu, Jamie and Patrick

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----- Original Message ----- From: Reg Travers Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2012

Subject: Opening Weekend / Derwent River Hi all, President Reg Travers sent me this photo today. He fished the Derwent River this morning and landed four fish similar to this one, all around the four pound mark. Lure of choice was Dale's Yep Hardbodys. Well done mate, Regards,

Todd

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----- Original Message ----- From: got ya bait and tackle Sent: Monday, August 06, 2012

Subject: First catch of the season

Hi all, Jackson and I went to the North Esk on Sunday despite the “fabulous weather.” This is was what we came home with. We came home wetter than the fish. Jackson was happy. Cheers Nick

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----- Original Message ----- From: Leigh. Carpenter Sent: Monday, 6 August 2012

Subject: Lower Mersey River Hi all, Spent the much awaited opening day flicking a Rapala in the few hundred metres below the road bridge at Latrobe and found some good fish.

I landed 5 fish between 1 pound to a bit over 4 pound, (2 being sea runners),.. Lost a few as well in a hectic 3 hour session. Arrived at 8:30 and caught the first at 9:30, so I don't think an early start is worth it until the water warms up a little.

I think it will be a great year for river fishing. Tight Lines,

Leigh.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto

Sent: Monday, August 06, 2012

Subject: Brushy Lagoon

Hi all, Took Bailey and his mate Jack Shennan for a quick fish to Brushy Lagoon after work. Arrived there around 5pm and the boys flicked some softies around for an hour, Bailey managed to land a nice 6lb salmon. Talked to a few other anglers who all had fish. One fellow posed for the camera with a couple of nice salmon he had caught, another fellow was telling me that a couple of anglers caught 26 salmon and kept the lot,...talk about bloody cormorants!!, What would they want to keep that many for?? It’s a pity the Inland Fisheries guys weren’t there. Anyway, the boys had a bit of fun, hopefully Jack can nail one next time. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Mick Goss Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Subject: First Day

Hi President members, Bailey and I went for a fish at Brushy Lagoon on opening morn-ing. After trying power bait for an hour with no luck, we tried soft plastics. On my 3rd cast, first fish on for the season, not long after that my son caught his first big Atlantic Salmon on a soft plas-tic. Happy with our 2 fish we headed back to car park, Bailey tried along the point next to boat ramp while I packed the car up. He picked up another that was a big bigger than his first one! Again I watch others get more than their bag limit, I said to one, do you know the rules? he said "yes"... but kept on fishing. Cheers Mick & Bailey

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----- Original Message ----- From: "wal & sal" Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Subject: Great Lake / Opening day Hey Presidents,

Went up To Great Lake on Friday night to catch up with a few mates and to get ready for an early morning mission on the trout... opening morning.

We had 12 guys staying at the shack we rented... and 5 boats in tow.

Most of us made it out onto the water around 7am and myself and a mate (Pat), headed around the shorelines of Becketts Bay and Tods corner.

We fished mainly hard bodies for the first few hours of the day, using Cultiva minnows and Jackal colt minnows in black and gold colours. Fishing was a tad slow early, (on the windswept shores) and we found it hard to keep fishing these without the foot pedal for the electric motor. We then moved off into some calmer water and managed to set the hooks into a few.

Made the move to a windswept shore up towards Elizabeth bay and started to fish plastics in 4-5 metres of water. It was then that the fish started to roll in over the gunnels!

(Continued next page)

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(Great Lake continued)

Called it a day late in the afternoon with the tally just over 40 for the day. All were browns except for 3 rainbows and most of the fish could do with a good feed. That being said, water temp of 2.8 degrees would be enough to put you off your tucker!

Rainbows were in slightly better nick and we scored a nice fat maiden fish out of Swan bay on the way back to the ramp.

Was good to be out and catching a few, we didn’t keep any this trip so hopefully they stack on some condition as the weather warms up later in the season and we can catch them again.

Cheers Wally

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----- Original Message ----- From: David bye Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Subject: Tooms Lake Hi all, Friday afternoon I went with daughter Kiri-Lee to Tooms Lake to meet up with Mick Barrett and his wife Shirley. Weather cool and light with occasional showers. Launched boat after breakfast on Saturday and Mick caught first rain-bow trolling back to our campsite. Mick, Kiri-Lee and I then fished till lunchtime with me boating two rainbows. The afternoon was a little less productive with each of us hooking up but failing to land one until Mick hooked a nice brown, this being the only one landed for the session. Weather was overcast mostly with light wind. Sunday morning weather was less favourable, we fished for no catches, and the afternoon saw Mick land two nice browns. Overall weekend was good with weather being ok most of the time and fish caught for the pan. What more could one ask for. Tight lines and cheers all, David Bye

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----- Original Message ----- From: ROSE MUIRHEAD Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Subject: First fish Hi all, We went to Four Springs today, arrived at 8.30 to the wind and rain. I tried fly fishing but as the wind got steadily worse, I gave that up. We ended up with 8 fish for the day the best was 4 pound and they were all in good nick. Vic flogged his arse off for half the day with a Black n gold t tail for not a touch and as soon as we changed to pumpkinseed, off we went. All in all not a bad day to start the season. The nice gold one had a stomach full of snail and was caught out in the middle. The others didn't have a great deal inside of them. Regards Vic and Rose

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----- Original Message ----- From:Phil Zanetto

Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Subject: Four Springs Lake/ Tonight Hi all, Decided to take Bailey for a fish out to Four Springs Lake af-ter work today. Arrived there near 5pm and we were finished by 6pm, talk about fast and furious action!! We finished this little session with nine trout; I caught two beaut rainbows and a brown,... right at the ramp. I didn’t want to go for a walk, (bit lazy in my old age), Bailey went for a wade up to the right of the ramp, (to the point), and he bagged six browns, releasing two. He said he lost several others. Fish were caught on black and gold t.tails and I tried the Berk-ley “olive pearl” for the first time and caught a rainbow and brown on that. All caught were in good nick, with the biggest being the bowies, maybe between 4 to 5lb. What a top lake so close to town, haven’t really fished it be-fore, only from the shore on one occasion last season. Can’t wait to fish it from the boat next time, sorry about the clarity of pictures, I left the camera at home and had to use the mobile phone. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO ( Pictures on next page)

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----- Original Message ----- From: Janet & Todd Lambert Sent: Friday, August 10, 2012

Subject: Four Springs Today Hi all, Left home at 6am this morning and met up with Phil and Bailey Zanetto in the Four Springs car park around 6.30 ish. A couple of cars also rolled in, but not "too many" to speak of early. It is about at this time, I must admit to my own Tool Academy nomination. I launched my little 12 foot tinny, only to see the rope come undone and it drifting out of reach toward the middle of the lake. What happened next, I am first to admit, I could never do again in a hundred years. I made up a lasso and threw it over my electric motor and on the first cast, was able to retrieve it!. (How Lucky!) Phil still thinks it is one of the biggest flukes he has seen in a while, but hey, I WILL TAKE THAT ONE! Anyway, after that performance, we headed out; Bailey hooked up almost immediately on a cracker of a fish that weighed 5 pounds. (Continued next page)

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Four Springs (Continued) Another two were hooked a short time after but unfortunately both of them eluded us by pulling free of the hooks. By this time the sun had came up and the water flattened to glass, making fishing difficult, so we decided to head back to the ramp for an egg n bacon and a coffee. To be honest, we didn’t expect much after that but still man-aged another four. We felt quite fortunate as we only saw an-other couple of fish landed elsewhere. By the time we left at around 2pm, the place was a Regatta. 60 cars in the car park; we even saw one car back into an-other’s car door... (A note was left under the windscreen). The park was so full that people had to leave their vehicle in the "no parking section" just to make room! I’ve never seen the place so packed, and on a Friday too! Won-der what it will be like tomorrow?? (Continued next page)

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Four Springs (Continued) As I said, we had a great day even though we didn’t set the world on fire. To cap it off, Phil gave a lady who has been coming to Four Springs for a couple of years (without success), one of our fish. It made her (and our) day as she rushed off to clean it for her family’s tea. Water here is quite turbid at the moment. Think I will wait a little while for things to settle down a bit before heading back. Cheers, Todd

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----- Original Message ----- From: Mark Tapsell Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2012

Subject: Cramps Bay Hi all, Headed up to Cramps Bay (Great Lake), with my boy Jared this morning. Left home around 6am and was on the water & fishing by around 7.15ish. Using Yep black n gold flappers we landed 7 trout, most being browns with the exception of a lone rainbow. We fished on along the western shore using 1/8th jig heads in around 1.5 to 2 metres of water. Retrieves were very slow, keeping the plastic along the bottom for as long as possible. Not much snow left up there at the moment and fish (when cleaned), were extremely pink in colour. Regards, Mark.

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----- Original Message ----- From:Phil Zanetto

Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2012

Subject: Sth.Esk River

Hi all, Went out to the South Esk River for a couple of hours with Bailey. Not much to report really, things fairly quiet. We did manage half a dozen smallish browns, with the best go-ing around 1.5lb. All caught on black n gold totals. Water running fairly hard and still very cold due to the snow melt run off, (which could be the reason fish weren’t over ac-tive). Had a good arvo though. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Shirl and Mick Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2012

Subject: South Esk, ( Friday Eve-ning ) Hi all, My first report.

Went to one of my favourite spots on the South Esk near Mathinna about 4pm Friday, weather very cold (Ben Lomond was white).

Good water flow in the river. A couple of little fish seen on edges, so I spent an hour or so spinning with no success. Put a worm on whilst getting a coffee, and landed 3 in about 10 min-utes, half pound put backs, and my coffee was cold.

Tried again and got 3 slightly bigger.

A pleasant evening with the promise of some very good fishing as the weather improves.

Sorry no pho-tos, flat cam-era battery and too dark for the phone camera.

Mick Barrett

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Subject: Penstock Hi all, Some photos of our two and a half hour trip at Penstock today. Cheers Craig

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----- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2012

Subject: Curries River Dam Hi all, Looks like I am doing the report as Dale has handpassed it on to me! Fished Curries River Dam this arvo with Dale, Trev, & Bailey. I met up with them onsite around lunchtime. It was the first time here for me, but Dale has fished it a few times about 15 years ago and landed some nice fish out of it on the fly. Anyway, we launched the Stacer and headed over to the south-ern shore and it didn’t take long to get hooked up, we managed four nice brownies up to 3lb and lost another five. Most fish were caught drifting and casting towards the reeds and fish were caught on Dales hard body “Red nut”, one on a black n gold tee tail & one on a strike pro hard body, we will certainly be going back there! I think we did a good job in such glassy sunny conditions. All fish were in good nick with very nice coloured flesh. They had been feeding on snail & scud; in fact, Dale and I were amazed at the size of some of the scud found in one fishes gut... they were nearly an inch long. Can’t wait to give it a go with softies and hardbodys on a day with some cloud cover and a bit of breeze on top. Thanks for a great afternoons fishing Dale. (AKA “The Unit.”) CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Tony Rigby Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012

Subject: Aaron’ s Trout !

This is my son Aaron's very first Trout on his brand new rod and reel . A 2.9kg and a 3.1kg from Four Springs on Friday 10th,caught on soft plastics. As you can now imagine, he will be an avid Trout Fisherman from now on. Cheers, Tony Rigby

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----- Original Message ----- From: Dale Howard Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Subject: BRIDPORT Hi all, We are delivering equipment up to the Musselroe wind farm at the moment and there are so many streams on the way. So starting today, and every other day I go, I will slip the rod in. The chosen river this time was the one that runs into Brid-port, it wasn't long before we had a fish on the bank, caught on KW galaxia. A quick wander upstream for a look and our break was over. I think someone needs to change the rules so truckies “have to have”, longer breaks... I wonder which stream I will discover next week. Dale & Clint

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Subject: Four Springs Hi all, Had another go at Four Springs yesterday. The weather was better than last week, not as much wind and dry, (no rain). Never saw a rainbow but we managed 9 fish between us, Vic caught 5 and I caught 4 on the fly. Thank god there were only 12 boats out there, ... so no ramp problems. Regards Vic and Rose

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----- Original Message ----- From: Janet & Todd Lambert Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2012

Subject: Four Springs Hi all,

Headed out to Four Springs this morning with Bill Williams and one thing on my mind...redemption.

I use that word, as the day before; I took him out with nothing to show for our efforts but a chill in the back, 2 missed strikes... and a straightened hook.

Today was another day however.

We arrived at Fourseys around 8am and hadn’t been on the wa-ter long before landing a nice fish.

Conditions were “too good really” but we still managed another 3 for this morning’s effort. As you can see a couple of them were rippers!

Rumour has it that Bill is now considering a little boat, set up like mine, for himself, so he can have a crack at them anytime he wishes in the future. I jokingly call Bill, Mr Grumpy, but as you can see my old mate had a grin from ear to ear today.

Well done Bill!

Regards,

Todd (More Pictures next page)

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(Four Springs Continued)

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----- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012

Subject: Nth.Esk River Hi all, As soon as school finished, Bailey & I had a look at the Upper Nth.Esk River this afternoon. The river was still running clear despite all the rain, we found the fishing a bit hard. We managed five brownies up to around 2lb, all caught on black n gold t.tails. Dropped a couple as well. Bailey tried hard body’s but didn’t do any good with them, so he switched to plastics and got one straight away. He also managed to catch a black duck in the paddock on the way back to the car, sure was a sight! Bailey chasing the duck through the paddock, he’s quick! The duck had an injured wing, due to shooters in the duck sea-son no doubt. Anyway all fish “and the duck” were released unharmed. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Janet & Todd Lambert Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2012

Subject: Curries River Reservoir Hi all, Met up with Dale "Unit" Howard and his son Trevor at their house around 8.30ish this morning. I had my son Jacob with me and after Dale picked up Bailey Zanetto on the way, we headed for Curries River Reservoir. Upon arrival around 9.30, we observed that fellow President, Warwick Medwin and his mate were also there. We spoke to a couple of guys just getting off the water, they had a small rainbow of around a pound and a couple of browns that were a bit “underdone weight- wise”, but would still weigh in around three and a half pounds. Working the southern shore Jacob and I managed a couple of browns around 1.5 pounds and lost a couple of others. Dale’s boat did much better with 5 coming to the net and from memory I think Wally's boat landed seven for the day, with many others lost. A BBQ Lunch cooked by “The Unit” and a cup of coffee back at the ramp around 2.30 capped off an enjoyable little session.


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( Curries River Reservoir Continued )

Would I go back? Absolutely!

No doubt there are big fish in there and despite it being a while since it was last stocked, quite a few fish still lay in its depths for those that go in search of them. I was surprised at the amount of fisher- people there today, (shore based and in boats). Remember, this is electric motor only water, if you do take a boat.

The bag limit is 5 with only two over 600 mm allowed. Regards, Todd

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Subject: Penstock Today Hi all, Derek and I went to Penstock today for a three hour practice session. We managed to land eight fish, keeping five and releasing the others. Fish were all in top nick, dropped a few as well, conditions weren’t that ideal, but still paid off with some fly changes and hard work. Cheers Craig

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----- Original Message ----- From: John Dekkers Sent: Tuesday 21 August 2012

Subject: Penstock Hi all, Headed up to Penstock for the weekend and was joined by Ross Frankcombe, arriving there on Friday around 10.15am. After a quick unpack, we were on the water fishing at noon. A light north-easterly wind posed little problems and Ross hooked (and lost) a nice fish, five minutes into our first drift. We managed two for this session before the wind dropped out, along with any further interest from the fish. Saturday/ Only spotted one other boat, caught four using cat fly’s and sink tip lines, fish had been feeding heavily on snails and damsel nymph, one was still alive in the fishes stomach when we cleaned them. Sunday/ Lost one, put one back and landed one before making tracks at lunch time. All up I think we caught 8, keeping 6. Size ranged from 2.5 pounds to 4 pounds. Sorry about the photo, will provide better ones in the future. Regards, John Dekkers

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----- Original Message ----- From: ROSE MUIRHEAD Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Subject: Four Springs Hi all, Fished Four Springs again, arriving there at about 9.00am. Not too much wind, just enough to move the boat. Did a couple of drifts for not even a touch. We then drifted towards the trees out in the deep and Vic and I both caught fish in a short run. We then cast for ages for nothing but just when we thought it was all done, it started again. We ended up with our bag and put back 3 or 4. The fish were in fine form when you got them on, jumping out of the water, playing and pulling. One fish went just over 4 pounds before cleaning and the rest just under 4 pounds. The colour inside has improved to a nice light orange. I suppose everyone will be going out to Brushy to catch the 450 Salmon. We may go next week but I Reckon Four Springs would be hard to beat. Regards Rose and Vic

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Subject: Brushy Lagoon Hi all, After an early start at Brushy and fish caught, we never saw another. 3 fish in all,... 4, 5 and 6 pound. Hopefully other Presidents will catch some as there are plenty left there for the taking. The trick is catching them, we may give it another go next week just for a change. Regards Rose and Vic

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----- Original Message ----- From: Dale Howard Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Subject: Brushy / Four Springs Hi everyone, Trev had a student free day today so no work for me either. Todd assured us we would catch fish At Brushy lagoon after a recent stocking of atlantics. We all met at the boat ramp around 8.30am and were joined by Reg Travers who is currently camping there. A quick coffee and we were ready to hook in! It wasn't long before I had a nice one on, (but not for long), and he was gone. Ten minutes later Trev was on but his fish didn't even stop! We chased it with the electric motor, but he just kept going until “snap”... it was all over. I had one more on and lost him at the boat, by then it was time for Todd’s famous eggs and bacon. We were joined by Vic and Rose for a feed and a chat. They had fared much better than us with Vic landing three. Todd and Jacob didn’t do any good at all and it wasn’t long af-ter that, the “Big Girly Man” headed for home. (Continued next page)

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( Brushy/Four Springs Continued ) Feeling a bit deflated as well, we called into Four Springs on the way home and managed a quick one on a Yep pumpkinseed and dropped 2 others. I think that will be my last trip to Brushy. Dale & Trev

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----- Original Message ----- From: "Daniel Brandenburg" Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2012

Subject: Four Springs Today Managed to slip out to Four Springs Today.

Arrived about 12:30 and started having a talk to a bloke at the ramp that was halfway through cooking a great smelling bacon and egg.

After chatting for about 10 minutes I realised it was fellow president Reg Travers (hope I spelt it right Reg) who had al-ready boated 2 healthy browns fishing plastics for the first time.

I left Reg to his lunch and headed up the eastern shore on foot.

Pinned a couple early then another as the sun started to set. Caught up with Reg back at the ramp and had a chat about the days fishing and his plans for tomorrow, thanks for the lend of the knife Reg ...and the plastic bag. Nice day on the water and good to meet a fellow president.

Regards, Dan.

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---- Original Message ----- From: Shirl and Mick Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Subject: South Esk / Scamander Hi fellow Presidents, Just a couple of pictures of the result of trying to get blown off the island for the last couple of days. Went to my favourite South Esk hole Sunday, couldn’t raise any to lures so tried worms and scored two pan sized browns. I then decided to try the Scamander River for a couple of bream, caught eight and kept four, all in top fighting form. Regards, Mick Barrett

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----- Original Message ----- From: Craig Shipton Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2012

Subject: Four Springs Hi all, Went for a short trip to Four Springs today, arrived at 8am and the on water by 8.30am. Plenty of wind and man o man was the water dirty! As I only fly fish, I knew it wouldn’t be easy so I started in one of my spots and within four casts I am on, only to lose it in the tussocks. Kept the same drift and had one more swirl at the fly but was-n’t looking. Decided to go to the top of the lake for a drift with no suc-cess, so came back to where I started and within seven casts I was on and landed a solid brown. Started drifting again and within a few casts I was on again with another solid brown landed. By this time it was getting close to 11 o’clock so I decided to call it quits and headed home. Cheers Craig

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----- Original Message ----- From: "Danny Jacobs" Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012

Subject: Four Springs. Hi all,

Just a quick report from the Tamar marine guys (Danny & Deano).

I hit the water with my mate Grant in his revamped boat and had a nice brown landed in no time, caught on a plastic in the shallows. Dean, his son Matt and mate Josh came over; Dean had a nice rainbow and a brown.

I picked up another brown not far from last one and then we had a look around. Dean’s boat didn't see any more until his last cast of the day “BANG”, on!

Great way to finish off a good day.

I managed to pick up my best near the death knock as well... a cracker brown (such good nick) over 5 lb.

Regards,

Danny Jacobs.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Leigh Carpenter Sent: Friday, September 14, 2012

Subject: Mersey River Hey all, had a quick flick at the road bridge near Latrobe yesterday.

(On the Spreyton side on the top side of the bridge), had my little man set up with a worm on beside the bridge, so I could not cover a lot of water.

Still managed 2 nice fish on a Rapala husky jerk. Water level has just dropped nicely and starting to clear up as I'm sure it has in most rivers.

Lots of bait present so good time to hit the lower limits in our rivers guys. Tight Lines.

Leigh.

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----- Original Message ----- From: ROSE MUIRHEAD Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2012 Subject: Four Springs Hi all, We had our weekly run to Four Springs today. Tough day, weren't there long and Vic caught 2 fish in 2 casts and that was his day done... Both caught on pumpkinseed. I tried a few different flies and then caught a really nice one on a green bead headed woolly bugger. We then flogged around for a long time before I finally caught another on the dropper fly (black and red woolly bugger). Turned out alright in the end,.. as we were leaving the wind dropped right out. Regards Vic and Rose

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----- Original Message -----

From: Derek Poole Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Subject: Arthurs Lake Hi all, had the afternoon off so decided to go to Arthurs with a mate for a 3 hour session,... We headed to Jonah Bay. Arrived at the ramp about 2.30 and off the water at 5.30. We ended up with 7 fish each 14 for the afternoon... not bad, better than working. We were using Shrek’s and green woolly buggers. Fish were in reasonable condition although two were a bit slabby. Regards Derek Poole.

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----- Original Message ----- From: "Reg Travers" Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Subject: My mate ’ s pond Hi all,

this is a nice fish from my mate’s big pond.

We landed two similar plus 5, 6, & a 7lb,... all on possum wets. All were released.

A great day. Reg

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----- Original Message ----- From: Janet & Todd Lambert Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2012

Subject: Palm cove jetty Hi all, You may have noticed I have been a bit quiet of late; there have been a couple of reasons for that. One was the Super trawler issue and the other was that my family and I have been fortunate enough to spend 11 days in Cairns. We only returned last night on a red eye flight...12 degrees in Tassie was a far cry from the 30 degree average we enjoyed up there. I had planned to go on a charter boat, but never managed it. The highlight for us came on Tuesday where we snorkelled the Great Barrier reef, surrounded by Giant Trevally, turtles and tropical fish of every colour imaginable..Absolutely awe-some! (continued next page)

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Palm cove jetty (continued) Jacob and I fished off the Palm Cove Jetty (near Trinity Beach, Cairns) early of a morning a few times and managed a couple of "weird and wonderfuls" before hooking a shovel nosed shark, estimated at around 300 pounds plus, this thing was massive! See the photo below, after twenty minutes I handed the rod to a guy I befriended whilst fishing and gave him a go. I gave my arms a spell and took a photo....Between us, we played it for another twenty minutes until the drag started to smoke on the $79 outfit, so we busted it off before it was totally de-stroyed. Bloody huge !.. but a bit of fun all the same. Jacob caught a small trevally and a small Spanish mackerel that we returned as they were undersize. Regards, Todd

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----- Original Message ----- From: Dale Howard Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2012

Subject: Woods Lake Hi everyone, Trev and I had a couple of hours at Woods Lake today. Fishing was very hard with the normal old lures not performing to expectations. That being said, we got on to a few using the Devils Tongue. The weather was perfect... Overcast and not too much wind. The road in is just as good as the Midland Hwy, (minus the signs saying rough road ahead). We are not sure where we will go next week but we will be out there somewhere. Dale &Trev

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----- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2012

Subject: Great Lake Hi all, Bailey and I thought it was about time we had a fish as it’s been three weeks since we last wet a line. So with that in mind we headed to Cramps Bay to put the boat in. Arrived around 11am and got back to the ramp around 4.30pm. The day was mostly cloudy with a few sunny periods, light wind coming from the south east and turning around later in arvo from the north. We managed to bag twelve brownies, fish coming from Cramps Bay, Sandbanks Bay & Cider Park Bay areas. The fish we caught from Cider Park Bay were a better quality of fish, but a bit smaller in size. We kept four from here and their flesh was very red, they also fought a lot harder than fish coming from the other bays. Fish were caught on Berkley black & gold’s, except one caught from Cramps which was caught on a Ballista Trigger LED hard body, which Mike Stevens wanted Bailey & I to try out. We only gave them a go for a short while and managed one in the boat and one lost at the boat; they looked great in the wa-ter and tracked straight. Will give them a good try out next time. All fish were caught in fairly close to shore. Regards,

Phil Zanetto.

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----- Original Message ----- From: ROSE MUIRHEAD Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Subject: Four Springs Hi all, Went for our weekly trip to Four Springs. Caught all our fish before 10.30. I caught 2 on the fly, one just under 5 pounds and the other 4 pound. One was caught on a green bead- headed woolly bugger and the other on a red and black woolly bugger. Tried a nymph under a dun for a short while but never had a look in. The water is quite dirty and the fish had a stomach full of nymphs (Damsel, Mayfly, mudeye, stick caddis and water boat-man) Vic also landed a small one. Regards Rose and Vic

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----- Original Message ----- From: "Reg Travers" Sent: Friday, October 05, 2012

Subject: Woods Lake Hi all, Had a day trip to Woods Lake on Wednesday, (dumb idea)Bright , hot and windy along with a fast dropping barometer.

It ended up not too bad though ,two nice browns , put two smaller ones back, & two lost. I have an extremely nice digital camera (left it at home). As I said dumb!!! A guide was there with clients, for a nil result, two seniors out all day for one each, and a Victorian fly fisher who did very well.

So all things considered, I reckon my day was ok with the black and gold softies working well. Pres. Reg

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----- Original Message ----- From: Derek Poole Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Subject: Bronte / Little Pine Hi all, On Sunday we went for a look at Bronte Lagoon. We found ourselves on the water about 10.30 am and fished for 3 hours. We caught four; the fish were in good condition. Then packed up and went to Little Pine on the way home. We were there about 3pm left at 5 pm managing another five fish in good condition. We were using mainly Shrek’s. The fish in the Esky in photo... are from Bronte. The ones (on the stones) are from Little Pine. The weather and conditions were favourable, overcast and a slight breeze. Regards Derek

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----- Original Message ----- From: "Danny Jacobs" Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2012

Subject: Four springs ( Show day ) Went out for a couple of hours with a mate,.. Fitzy.

He came up with a few hits, but no fish.

He also had a follow right to the boat,.. just wouldn't take his T. Tail.

I could only manage one nice brown a bit over 3 pounds.

Still a good way to spend show day afternoon.

Cheers,

President Danny Jacobs

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----- Original Message ----- From: Janet & Todd Lambert Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2012

Subject: Lake Leake

Hi all, Johnny Dekkers and myself fished Lake Leake today. Leaving home at 5am, hopes were high that we may get some early morning wind lane action...it wasn't to be. Although a bit chilly, conditions seemed almost perfect with an overcast sky and light winds. No insect life at all, just a light smattering of midge..not enough to get them looking to the surface though. The Lake looks as healthy as I have seen it in years, full to the brim and very clear. Only saw one rise all day, so decided to fish nymphs. We landed three smallish fish of around a pound, all like the one pictured. Two were rainbows, one was a brown. All in excellent buckle for their size, we released two and kept one for my mums tea. Not much more to add really, as always a good day out on the water, home at 1.30. Regards, Todd

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----- Original Message ----- From: Dale Howard Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2012

Subject: Arthur River Hi everyone, Trev, myself and a few mates headed to Arthur River for a day’s fishing. We left Launceston at 6.45 on Friday night and arrived there about 3 1/2 hours later to a nice unit and “more than ready for bed” after a big day at work. The others had a different plan and were well into the whisky. After a few laughs, 1.30 am soon came around and then it was finally off to bed... (Continued next page)

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Arthur River (Continued) Trev and I awoke to the smell of eggs and bacon cooking and after quick feed we were the first to head out onto the wa-ter making our way to the mouth of the river. Doug soon had one on a 4 inch softie but he only stayed on for a couple of seconds unfortunately. We then decided to drift around in this area and do some spin-ning for another hour for little result. Changing our game plan, we headed up the river trolling. Trev soon had one on about 6 inches long then nothing for 3 hours, so we decided to light up the BBQ. After finding a nice spot on the bank, we spent some the time brushing leaches off whilst the sausages were cooking. As soon as we got back into the fishing Trev hooked a nice one that we estimated to be 6 or 7 pounds , we travelled about 20 klms up the river but unfortunately didn't hook any more of the big fella’s. All others hooked where only pan size. Definitely a great days fishing. Back home waiting for next weekend, hurry up! Dale & Trev

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----- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2012

Subject: Great Lake. Hi all, Decided to have a look up at Elizabeth Bay yesterday in Great Lake. My young offsider (Shane) from work has been at me to take him trout fishing for ages so I decided to take him up for a fish. Bailey couldn’t be with us as he was too busy down at St.Helens fishing with my brother Paul and his son Nathan. They have been catching some nice salmon, bream and trevally, will try and get some pics for you later on. Anyway, back to Great Lake. We arrived there around lunchtime to a very calm lake, fished around the edges casting softies, it was hard work in the glassy conditions but we managed seven trout. (Continued next page)

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Great Lake (Continued)

We also lost a few others, but only kept four for the table. The fish that we did keep were in good nick with very nice col-oured flesh. Also witnessed a good black beetle hatch on in the south east corner of Elizabeth Bay, with beetles floating everywhere. Quite a few fish feeding on them too, but I didn’t take the fly rod did I? Finished fishing around 6pm, so we had a great afternoon. Shane loves it up there; I think he's hooked now on this soft plastic fishing. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto Sent: Monday, October 15, 2012

Subject: St Helens Hi Todd, Here are some pictures of Bailey and his cousin Nathan at Georges Bay, St.Helens. Some nice trevally, black back and cocky salmon were caught as well. They got onto some bream at the Scamander River, but no pic’s of them, CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Dale Howard Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2012

Subject: Leven River I had an appointment at Devonport planned today, so I organ-ised a day off work. I also thought with all the rivers down that way, why wouldn't I take the boat? Naturally Trev came along for the ride , ..with the Leven our river of choice. With only a couple of hours to spare, we were hoping to snare a sea runner; hopefully I would be lucky this time, espe-cially after Trevs effort last week. We launched the boat at the Ulverstone boat ramp (very good ramp) and quickly headed upstream with a low incoming tide. Almost immediately after putting the lures in the water the cocky salmon were onto them! Following a bit of fun, we powered upstream to get away from the chaos and it wasn't long before the little browns started taking the lures. (Continued next page)

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Leven River (Continued) This river is loaded with cocky salmon and small trout. We didn't manage the monster sea runner we were seeking but what a great way to spend the afternoon exploring a spot I haven't fished before. Back to work tomorrow, so that's it for the weekend. Time to pick up my Trout Waters of Tasmania book by Greg French and see where we end up next week Dale & Trev

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----- Original Message ----- From: William Black Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2012

Subject: Curries River Dam Hi Fellow Presidents, This is my very first report. Went to Curries River Dam around 9am on Sunday and fished near the Dam wall. I was using Chunky Cheese power bait and caught this beauty in the first 15 mins. The weather was quite windy so fly fishing was very difficult. But if you were a fly fisher, then today would have been great. Fish were rising until 10:30am, then nothing. Kept trying until 3pm, then the weather turned, so left for home. All the best Bill

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----- Original Message ----- From: Darrell Wells Sent: Monday, October 22, 2012

Subject: Scamander River Howdy all. Feels like years since I have posted a bit of a report, so I thought I would share a couple of recent trips Johnny and I have had to the East Coast chasing a few Bream. Our first trip was early last week where we decided to head down for a look around to see what the Bream were up to. Most Bream seem to be well up the river systems at the minute be-ginning to spawn. We decided once we launched we would head well up river to see if they were congregating in one area or if they were still spread out through the system. Half way up the river we came across a stranded Calf in the middle of the river on a rock bar, long story short, we rescued it and got it back to dry land to reunite it with its very distressed mother! Once that was sorted we continued on and it soon became obvi-ous that the Bream were still spread right throughout the sys-tem as every snag held fish... Catching a majority of these was a different story as they were not keen to play ball. We did however manage to pull a few Bream fishing the deeper drop-offs on our way up to the deep hole we originally wanted to check out. (Continued next Page)

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Scamander River (Continued) We fished this spot for a while and then worked our way back pulling another handful of fish. It was a little quiet, but man-aged to land a reasonable number of fish and saved a Calf! Highlight of the day was spotting a humongous freshwater Eel cruising around in the shallows. I went to turn around and say to Johnny that I might try and hook it, but he was head first hiding under the seat in the boat - Johnny doesn't like Eels much! :lol: Second day, we decided to basically fish Vibes again, as we had a go at the fish holding on the snags and they still wouldn't bite as usual and I only had 2 inquiries on surface flies. Our second trip was a lot more productive with the Bream taking the Vibes really well in the deeper holds of the system and we also polaroided a few rolling on the rocky drop-offs and got them to eat vibes which was a bit of fun. (Continued next Page)

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Scamander River (Continued) Throughout the day we enjoyed watching numbers of very large Chub Mullet leaping a few feet into the air, the odd trout cruise past and a few Bream crashing schools of Whitebait. I probably should have covered these Bream with a whitebait pattern, but I was enjoying fishing the vibes, so didn't bother. Over the two days the average size would have been some-where around 36ttf as there were good numbers coming aboard between 34 and 37ttf and one that went a sniff over 39ttf. Towards the end of the session we lost what felt to be a few really solid Bream that decided they wanted to keep our Vibes and didn't want us to have them back! All our Bream came to CRANKA Vibes in - Ghost Shrimp, Bling Prawn, Salmon Guts’, Lava Prawn and Glass AYU. So a couple of reasonable days out, and it was great to get Johnny back out into a few Bream after a bit of a dry spell. Cheers Daz

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----- Original Message ----- From: Dale Howard Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2012

Subject: SWAN RIVER A mate rang me during the week and told me to try and get Thursday off for a day’s fishing. It didn't take me much to accomplish that part of the mission, so with that organised I rang back to make the plans for a trip to the Swan river. As it happened, my mate was now unable to attend this “planned outing” due to circumstances beyond his control (he is a big girlie man), so the only thing left to do was try and talk Trev into having a day off school. It took quite a bit of persuading him, but eventually he suc-cumbed to the pressure. I decided to make a quick call to a couple of the local bream gurus (Mike & Leroy) to find out some information on the Swan; they soon had us heading in the right direction. It wasn't long before Trev had one in the boat and following a couple of quick photos, the fish was on his way again. Trev also landed a couple more in quick succession and I hadn't had a touch, it was about this time that I was starting to think that bringing him wasn't such a good idea! (Continued next page)

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Swan River (Continued) Soon after I found myself onto them as well though, with the biggest being 36cm. I am not sure if this is classed as a big one but it was for me. We were using the Yep Yellow Peril and Red Nut hard bodies. The success of these lures on the Bream gives us great confi-dence for the St Helens Grand Slam in January, so look out Morehouse family! We also managed plenty of salmon and Trev also bagged a mul-let. Had a great day, Yep, might give Georges Bay a go next. Dale & Trev

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----- Original Message ----- From: Todd Lambert Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2012

Subject: Lake Augusta Hi all, Given today’s fantastic weather forecast, Mark Tapsell and I decided to head up to Lake Augusta for a couple of hours. Leaving home at 5.30am, we arrived to blue skies and a mirror- like water. We proceeded to cook up a quick egg n bacon roll and brewed a coffee before heading out. Once on the water, we weren’t there long and we had a couple of nice trout in the boat, both caught on orange bead head nymphs hung 2 feet under a dry. Not a lot of fish rising; only the occasional slurp could be heard as they sucked down the odd midge and stonefly. Fished until 11.30 for one more in the bag, then we made tracks for home as I have my dear old mum coming for tea tonight. Fish are in great condition and strong fighting. Had the lake to ourselves the whole time we were there. Regards, Todd

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----- Original Message ----- From: "Reg Travers" Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2012

Subject: Woods Lake Hi all,

With a good friend from QLD, spent a very nice day at Woods Lake last Wednesday.

Boated 8 and kept 3' also had a very nice smoked trout along-side the Hut. Most of the browns were in the 1.5 /2lb mark, not big, but lovely condition. (And lunch, with a nice cold beer) was nice too. All were caught on Dales Red nut & Red rascal, good lures. Thanks Dale. The road in is quite good and with a relative nice day, a good time was had. Reg.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Darrell Wells Sent: Friday, November 02, 2012

Subject: NE Breamin' Had a magnificent weekend away up the coast with the family and Johnny this weekend just gone. My wife somehow had an-other weekend off work (which never seems to happen) so I decided to take them away to our block up the bay. We hit the road around mid-morning Saturday and slowly made our way to the magnificent NE Coast. We were in no hurry to arrive, as the plan was to do a spot of Bream fishing in the afternoon and basically just relax and enjoy the weekend. After a stop at the Gladstone General Store for refreshments and the kids usual ice cream it wasn't long and we arrived at the bay, unpacked, rigged a rod or seven and headed for the ramp. I decided to head straight up river as this time of the year the Bream are usually high in the East Coast systems pre-paring and waiting for all the planets to align to get their busi-ness over and done with. I worked my first piece of water, but it was soon evident that there were no Bream in close and they were all going to be holding deeper in the river. I headed up river further to a couple of deeper holes that usually hold the odd good fish no matter what time of the year it is.

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NE Breamin” (Continued from previous page) Within the first handful of cast I managed a nice fish to a Vibe and Johnny the same on a sinking stick bait. Things were looking promising, but after this, the fishing became a little tough as can be expected when they are in the funny moods they get in at this time of the year. We continued on and over the next couple of hours and we eventually put a reasonable number of fish together. At times I sounded up schools holding in 6-7 metres of water that almost blacked-out my sounder, but they wouldn't bite. It sometimes gets frustrating when you can't get them to eat, but it didn't matter as we were pulling a fish here and there, plus if you were pulling them in one after another it would get a bit boring to be honest, and I say this from previous experience! We pulled the pin at somewhere around 20 Bream for the ses-sion, a few good ones amongst them and most the others were young males between 32-35ttf. Once we loaded the boat it was back to the shack for a BBQ and kick back and enjoy the rest of the wonderful evening with the wife and kids. Sunday morn-ing we bagged enough fish to keep us happy I decided to head home via St Helens and spend the day there with the family.


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NE Breamin’ (Continued) The weather was absolutely sensational once again, so we had lunch in the form of Fish n Chips on the edge of the bay and then thought we would head out to Blanche Point for a run on the beach. Me being the opportunist I rigged a rod “just in case “ for the walk along the rock wall. Heading down to the wall, I polaroided a school of 6 very large Bream cruising the edge, but unfortunately due to me being up so high on the wall they soon got a good look at me and drifted into deeper water. We arrived at the point and the kids got more than they bar-gained for on the beach as there was a lone Elephant Seal that had made its way to shore to moult. The wife and kids had a ball sitting, watching and getting the odd photograph while I pulled Salmon, Mullet and Wrasse from the point on Soft Plas-tics. I was joined by a local who was struggling to pull a fish us-ing his blue bait and was extremely appreciative when I threw him the odd 'Cocky' every few minutes that he planned to take home and cook up for the family dinner. All in all a super weekend away with friends and family. :D Cheers Daz

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----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Wilkinson" Sent: Friday, November 02, 2012

Subject: A little gem

My first effective fishing trip since I ventured to Tassie for the opening season in August, saw me head off to explore a re-cently discovered little gem out in the Victorian goldfields. I discovered this little reservoir on a recent weekend away. I had heard of it but had never seen it let alone fished it. It is a little expanse of water worthy of inclusion amongst many of my favourite Tassie waters... With its undulating country side vista and its relatively clear waters, the prospects seem good based on the visuals. I went up on the Saturday afternoon for hope of catching and evening rise. Alas there was no surface movement and after speaking to a regular that was just coming of the wa-ter, there was not much action under the water either. Nevertheless after probing for the best prospective spots I took up position in a recommended part of the reservoir. Armed with a dun as an indicator and a black gold beaded nymph underneath, I explored blindly for about 1/2 hour be-fore I was rewarded with a take a subsequent landing of a very nice brown around 1.5 -2 lbs. (Continued Next page)

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A Little Gem (Continued) Not much after that and dark was encroaching. Off to the caravan for some dinner then an early night intention for an early start. Well that didn't quite go to plan because an ex local (and his dog) that was travelling back from Darwin to see some family, engaged me in some conversation over a couple of wines in the camp kitchen of the caravan park. 11.30 Or so and I finally made it to bed. Still up early (but a bit blearier than I would have hoped) and off to Newlyn’s reservoir again. There was only one other angler on the water, which was sur-prising since the day was forecast for warm and sunny. He was fishless but had missed a few opportunities (apparently!) I entered the water with the same setup as the previous evening and about 50 metres away from my fishless counterpart. Within a couple of minutes I was in a tussle with a brown of about the same size as my other. Quite a fiery little brown that leapt more like a rainbow. With 3 or 4 bursts through the surface (once for about a metre) he finally won the battle and ditched my size 16 nymph on a final jump. Not disheartened, I persisted and within another couple of minutes was at it again with (I presume) a different brown of similar proportions. A similar scenario ensued and with my hand poised to grab my net, a final burst through the water and the same result of a loss. That rush of excitement was about all there was to the day and I left with only one fish for the trip. (Continued next Page)

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A Little Gem (Continued) My eagerness to play the fish probably played the biggest part in missing the trout whereas if I had allowed them more line which may have prevented them jumping, I may have had a better score. Otherwise it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and at water that I am sure will become a favourite. In fact I may head up there again on up Cup Day while everyone else is preoccupied with a horse race!! On all occasions the lit-tle black beaded nymph seemed to be the worthwhile choice of fly. Happy fishing! Kevin Wilkinson

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----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, November 03, 2012

Subject: Yella’ s on McGrath lures First cast with the new pink colour, then put on the silver and black tiger and finished with the candy red with black scale.

Tried spinner baits and didn’t get a touch!

----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2012

Subject: Eucumbene Went for a fish with Dave Westcombe picked up 12 most on McGrath and Sting lures.

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From: Janet & Todd Lambert

Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2012

Subject: Lake King William report Hi all,

Dale Howard and I organised to head up to Lake King William yesterday.

I dared not back out of this trip as I let him down at the last minute on his previous excursion to the Swan River.

I also didn’t want the name “big girlie man” to gain momentum.

Anyway, after being mucked about by “The Unit” because he owns a stupid cat that apparently loves to get bitten by snakes; we arrived at Derwent Bridge around 12 noon, so not a lot was expected in terms of a huge catch rate.

Dale had his step father Geoff and son Trevor in tow and my crew consisted of my son Jacob and the latest addition to our family,... Penny the Jack Russell.

King William is full to the brim at the moment and many boats were enjoying the perfect conditions with most seeming to catch good bags...as per usual.

We managed 16 between us in the short time that we fished, most caught on Dales “Yellow Peril” hard bodies and his signa-ture soft plastic, the Black n Gold Yep Flapper.

( Continued next page)

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Lake King William (Continued)

Tip.

Fish around the trees, that’s where they seem to be in the most numbers, and if you keep getting nips but no hook ups, shorten your plastic by cutting about 10 mms from the head end,.

This helped us improve our hook up rate.

The fish, although only ranging between half a pound and a pound and a half, were in excellent condition, very pink inside and full of stick caddis.

Our little dog, who was well behaved for most of the day de-cided to have a closer look at King William whilst the boat was moving...the picture will show the end result.

A BBQ and the usual sh%t stirring ensued, with our sons Jacob and Trevor showing us “old blokes” how it is done yet again.

These are truly days to appreciate.

Regards,

Dale and Todd

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Lake King William (Continued)

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----- Original Message ----- From: Rob Soward Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2012

Subject: Four Springs Report With all the cloud and humidity, Four Springs was on the visit list today. I needend have bothered and have no doubt I would have seen just as many rises had I stayed in Launceston!

Only a handful of duns and the anglers I spoke to also saw nothing. A few guys said that there had been large dun hatches there during the week but nothing on them, I tried everything even resorting to a sinking line in 4 metres of water.

The fact that there were only 5 boats in the car park should have hinted things would be slow.. The enigma that is Four Springs Lake...I actually never saw one rise.

Rob Soward

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----- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2012

Subject: Garden Island, Tamar River Hi all, Took Bailey and his mate Jack Seabourne for a late arvo fish down at Garden Island on the Tamar River. We wanted some salmon for the smoker and there were plenty of salmon about,... busting up on the bait fish schools. The boys had a ball catching around 40 I reckon, kept a couple dozen for the smoker, that’s plenty. They caught fish on Dale’s salt & pepper softies and Bailey caught a few on small surface poppers. Hope to head up top tomorrow so will let you know how we go there. Pictures not too clear, taken from I phone. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Stuart Casey Sent: Monday, November 05, 2012

Subject: What a Weekend at St Helens Hi Guys, Headed to the caravan park at St Helens for the long weekend. We had a very memorable trip fishing Georges bay and the Scamander River. We smashed the trevally, lost count of how many we caught, but it was a lot. The biggest two being 43cm but there were quite a few over 40cm and all caught on plastics. We also landed 13 bream (12 in Scamander River). The biggest three were 36cm, once again caught on plastics and hard bodies. A few salmon, a couple squid and a massive 60cm flathead were also boated. Stu, Jamie and Patrick. P.S Can't wait for the Grand Slam, look out Dale!

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----- Original Message ----- From: Brett Woodberry Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Subject: Great Lake report Hi all, with a big wish list for a great long weekend planned, my bubble soon got burst on Friday when I checked the 4 day weather forecast.

Arriving at the Great Lake around 2pm, I found a reasonable southerly wind coming straight up the lake and most of the fish on the fish finder at around the 7 metre mark.

I guess due to the barometric pressure on a downward trend, they weren’t very hungry.

I tried every colour of the rainbow to catch just one brown in good condition (1 1/2lbs) and a very slabby rainbow should have been over 3lbs.

I would be lucky to be 1.5 pounds on the scale.

I don’t why this fish was in such a poor condition.

Over the weekend, I was talking to another angler and he had caught one just as poor. On Saturday, I should have had a bottle of Wild Turkey in-stead of fishing, wind coming from the East... all a waste of time 6 hrs fishing 0 fish. (Continued next page.)

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Sunday morning, I found the wind had changed again , and it was now from the North West, better conditions but the pres-sure was still down with “little or no” fish movement.

They were all around the 5 m mark on the sounder and still not hungry.

Finally at around 2pm, a change came in weatherwise and fish started to move. I managed solid Rainbow 3 lbs and 3 browns between 1 & 2 lbs in 2 hours.

Much happier now! All fish were caught on lures in black & red and rainbow trout patterns, using lead line around 3 colours.

Until next time happy fishing and tight lines.

President Brett

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----- Original Message ----- From: Darrell Wells Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Subject: Outback Troutin'...... A late spur of the moment decision found me out West yester-day for a spot of dry fly action. I decided to join the boys for a wander into a lake that I had-n’t fished in quite some time. As it had been years since I had fished it, I was very eager to get in there. The plan was to meet the others at Liawenee at around 5am as they were head-ing up from Hobart. I couldn't sleep Friday night so I headed up around 11pm and thought I'd get a couple hours kip in the bus before they arrived. This never happened as I found my-self just driving around the highlands to see how much wildlife I could spot under the moonlit sky! Anyway, the boys arrived on time and we were soon at our des-tination just after dawn. On arrival we came across a couple of buggers up to no good in there, but I won't waste your time go-ing on about it on here! Two of us went one way and the other two in the opposite direction. It wasn't long and we spotted our first tail which was the size of a shovel! We both had a crack, but couldn't tempt it as it only showed itself twice!

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Later in the day as the cloud started to burn off a little, two of us decided to take a wander further over the hill for a look which was worth the stroll. In short, we both landed one each between 2.5 & 3.5lbs polaroiding. I missed one on an early “over eager” strike and popped a really nice fish off when it cut loose on top after the strike. Saw a few others and had one come up to the dry to only spook as he spotted us on the way up. My companion also dropped a couple and popped one off I think. All fish took interest in a Black Parachute Spinner. It was magic getting back out there doing something I once did a lot of every Summer, but hadn't the past few years with Bream fishing taking up all my time- think I'll be doing some-thing about that. Only a couple landed, but just being out there makes the walk worth it and the fish really are just a bonus. Cheers Daz

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----- Original Message ----- From: Craig Shipton Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2012

Subject: Van Dieman Fly Fishers / Fly Tyers Club

Hi fellow Presidents. The Van Dieman's Club held its annual outing on Arthurs lake (Saturday 10th November), with eight boats fishing. Two anglers teamed together in each boat from a draw at the last meeting. Fishing time was from 6am till 12 noon. The morning was “reasonable conditions” with a breeze, bit of cloud here and there with a bit of sun. Out of the eight boats fishing , half opted to fish the Cowpaddock area and the rest elsewhere. There were 145 fish caught all up between the eight boats, with most released. The winning boat caught 36 fish next was 21 and then 19. There were a few that caught double figures of 16,13,11,10 and also one that caught 26 fish. All in all it was great morning fishing, with a BBQ held back at Norbert Yunk shack, where the stories of what could have been and the ones that got away came to the fore, along with great food and some cold drinks to finish a good day out. Placing’s were/ 1st Craig Shipton & Ian Donachy 36 fish 2nd Daryl Shannon & John Fordham 21 fish 3rd Michael Porte & Steward Dick 19 fish Cheers Craig

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---- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2012

Subject: Tamar River Hi all, Just a little report from the Tamar River this arvo. Decided it was about time to give the Mustang a run, it has been sitting idle for weeks, been doing too much freshwater fishing & not enough salt. Wasn’t really a fishing trip, wanted to give boat a good run, making sure everything was ok for the game fishing season coming up soon. Everything went smoothly, went down with my brother Steve, Bailey & Jack Seabourne, also Jack’s dad Alan came down in his new boat. We caught plenty of Tamar River size flathead and not much else, saw one boat trolling around the salmon farm and they caught several cocky salmon. We tried fishing near the farm as well trying to catch a seven gill shark as Allan works there and said there had been some big ones caught there recently, but to no avail. We’re going to release any caught, not that good eating, but good fun to catch. Be after a mako soon off the Tamar heads, can’t wait!! CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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From: Andrew Chaplin Sent: Monday, November 12, 2012

Subject: Eucumbene Fished Eucumbene on the weekend, picked up 11 trout most on hard body lures.

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From: Mick Goss Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Subject: Port Sorell Hi all, Dads Day group family members invited people from multi cul-tural families for a bus trip down to Port Sorell for a day out-ing on the 20th October. After a nice BBQ lunch, they all headed down to the beach /jetty to try their luck at catching a fish... not much about lol. Some were lucky though and after a few hours trying, some nice salmon and a couta were caught. ( photo is a bloke who caught his first fish in Tasmanian waters. ) This is one place I haven't fished, (before this year), so I de-cided to go back down with my son Bailey for the long-weekend, fishing was still bit patchy. We did manage to get a small feed of salmon & silver trevally. Bailey was very unlucky; he lost a nice bream at the hand net whilst fishing off the Squeaking Point jetty. “Biggest Bream I seen for a very long time" Cheers Mick

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----- Original Message ----- From: Todd Lambert Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2012

Subject: Scamander River Report Hi all,

The Longford Fishing Club held a bream fishing competition on the Scamander River today.

Johnny Dekkers is a member and invited Jacob and I to tag along.

Although we are not members (and therefore not eligible for entry into the competition side of things), we decided we would still go along as a bit of company for John and do our own thing.

Mike Stevens also found himself a late minute inclusion.

The game plan was that Jacob would catch 6 fish for tea, Johnny would catch a big one, Mike would guide and I would be cook for the day.

It’s not often that a plan comes together perfectly, but today it did.

Johnny ended up winning the Longford competition, Jacob caught the required fish for tea (that he promised his mom), and I didn’t burn anything. (Continued next page)

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Scamander River Report (Continued)

Jacob actually caught a bigger bream than the one John weighed in but as it was a big breeder fish, he promptly re-leased it to swim for another day.

(He is quite smug about that) ha ha. Many others were also re-leased. Mike pulled the soft plastic rod out towards the end of the day and landed a couple of nice ones as well.

What a great day.

Regards,

Todd

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Tassie paddlers (Continued)

It was a chilly night. The tent was cold, but the sleeping bag was warm. By about 6:45 my bladder was demanding I get up. It was too chilly to go outside without dressing, so I got up and dressed, and relieved, before making and drinking a couple of coffees and a couple of bacon and egg sandwiches. The rest of the fellas were still sleeping. I was about to sneak off on my own when Blackbeard arose, and shortly after the rest of the group. Having already completed my morning routine, and as the tents were still too wet (frost!) to pack I was keen for a fish. I thought the others would be too, so I headed off telling them I'd hang around near the ramp until they arrived. Only Doc came out, I wasn't fazed, as I'd already caught 4 fish by then! All within a few 100m of the ramp, pretty much straight in front of our campsite! 2 nice pan sized ones and 2 little ones that went back to grow bigger. After a couple more circuits, and a couple more fish, I was tired of the same view so we headed over to the southern shore. Nothing on the way over, but trolling along the weed bank Doc got his PB brownie!

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A few minutes later and I had another fish on board as well. We trolled up to and into some more drowned timber before turning and going back along the edge of the weed beds. Doc pulled ashore (to clean his fish?) and I called out that I was going to fish my way back to the ramp. Heading back to the ramp I landed a few more fish. I couldn't believe the number of trout I'd caught in a few hours! I continued up past the ramp to the area I'd been fishing initially, and landed 2 more. 12 for the morning! Phark! 5 were kept, 7 released, including a couple of good sized ones, as 10 fish kept for the table was plenty.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Derek Poole Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2012

Subject: Mersey River. Hi all, Headed off to nymph-fish the Mersey River at Weegena. Arrived at the river, not much happening, we fished upstream & got couple of knocks to the fly’s but no hook ups. Then we fished the faster stuff and hooked up a nice little rainbow, let it go. Shippy hooked up a solid Brown which we kept a picture of (see attached). I hooked up again on a small brown, let it go. Good mornings fishing, had some fun. Regards Derek

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Subject: Great Lake / Arthurs Lake Hi all, Had a trip to the highlands on Saturday arvo and fished Great Lake. Sunday saw us at Arthurs Lake with my old fishing mate Roundy... Below is the wrap up of the weekend. Arrived on Great Lake around lunch time, conditions weren’t too bad when we arrived but steadily decreased as the after-noon went on; it got very cold and windy. We stuck it out for a couple of hours for one brown caught by Roundy around the 3lb mark, and a couple of missed opportuni-ties on the softies. Headed back to the shack to dry out / warm up... and have a few scotches. Next day arrived at Arthurs Lake around 10am and fished till 3pm, we had a fantastic session catching 26 brownies with Dales Yep hard body "Golden Seducer" & the "Red Nut" doing all the damage. (Continued next page)

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Great Lake / Arthurs Lake (Continued) We also lost as many as were caught. They are great lures, Dales tip to fish in Pumphouse Bay turned out to be right on the money, this is indeed a hot spot as most were caught here. A few were caught in Hydro bay as well, thanks Unit. We kept 15 for a feed and released the rest; size was a bit disappointing though. Size of fish would have been around 3/4lb up to nearly 2lb. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto Sent: Monday, November 19, 2012

Subject: Bass Straight Mako / Trevallyn Atlantics Hi all, Had a few pictures sent to me from my brother Paul & his mate holding up a couple of nice Atlantic salmon caught from Treval-lyn Lake tonight. Dave Smith also sent me some pictures of a Mako estimated to be around 70kg and caught a few klms off the Tamar heads on Saturday. They lost one other, thought you might like to see them. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Brett Woodberry Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Subject: Great Lake Report Hi all, Spent a few days at the Great Lake from Thursday through to Sunday. Had a great time,

Thursday night 1 good grab 0 fish. Friday morning sleet and strong wind still 0 fish.

Waited on the change in the weather, 3pm Friday hit the wa-ter, by 4.45pm, 5 good fish, 3 browns, 2 rainbows, finished the night with 8 in total. Saturday saw a new day, bagging a further 3 rainbows and 5 browns. Of all the fish caught, there were 3 in reasonable condition, the rest were in good condition and feeding on stick caddis. All fish were caught on hard body and cobra type lures in red & black, green & gold and rainbow colours.

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Subject: Great Lake Hi all, Bailey & I decided it was about time we got into a bit of dry fly fishing, so with a good forecast we decided to spend a few of hours up at Cramps Bay at Great lake. Arrived around 12pm and fished till 5pm, was tough going. There were plenty of gum beetles on the water, but not too many taking off the top; we did a lot of running around looking for likely spots. Eventually we found a few feeding on some lee shores (in the calm sections) and in a couple in slicks. We ended up with seven brownies, all caught on my orange dry & one on an emerger pattern. Conditions were calm when we arrived, then the breeze got up later on from the North- West, fish were full of gummies, had a great arvo. Will be back to have a go at a bit of “shark fishing” (out in the middle of the lake) in a few weeks, can’t wait. PS, had some pictures sent to me over the weekend, so will send them on for you to have a look. Dave Smith sent a few of a 200kg mako caught in Bass Straight, a school shark, nice size flathead from Tamar Heads. Another is of Nathan Zanetto with a nice striped trumpeter caught at St.Helens today. (Pictures on pages 104 / 105).

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Mersey - Hatch & Release After missing a few short takes on the Nymph I finally got one to stick as the Stimulator was ripped under the surface by my first fat little Mersey Brown Trout..... We continued on for an-other 100 yards or so and picked up a few more smaller fish and I dropped one that came up and inhaled the Stimulator in a small backwater, but this fat Gold nugget of a couple of pounds won it's freedom as it spat the hook whilst going nuts on the surface! Daniel mentioned it seemed pretty quiet in this section, morso than usual, we made the call to move further back up the sys-tem for a look. At our next location and no sooner we had made it to the river bank there was a very solid fish of 3.5+lb right under our noses. I swiftly covered the fish with my tandem rig, it ate the nymph, I struck and had weight, then gone! My heart sank as the fish exploded on the surface even after the hook had pulled and we watched it race to the other side of the river to have a sook.... I'll get him next time I thought to my-self! Once I got composed after dropping this fish and snap-ping another nice one off, I finally managed to grass a reason-able fish that went mad on the 3wt and pushed my 7X tippet to the max when he found the faster current of the river.

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Mersey - Hatch & Release We continued landing and dropping a few smaller fish. I came across another very solid fish stationed under a willow tree mopping up the odd spent Caenid as they floated down stream. I showed 5 boxes of flies to this fish and it wouldn't have a bar of anything.... even ate a natural that was 2 inches beside my #18 Adams just rub salt into the wounds! I noticed another fish on the opposite bank and slowly waded across the river like a sly old Cat to see if I could fool this one and I did... second drift of the rig and it hammered the nymph and knew where every snag in the river was as it had the 3wt buckled over in a world of pain! As the day was wearing on, we moved to one last section of river before we had to be back in town, as Daniel mentioned his girlfriend doesn't let him stay out after a cer-tain hour! So that was my first trip to the Mersey and I sure was not go-ing to be the last! Next Trip. A few days later, Daniel and I headed back out for another look. This session was mainly for Daniel to have his first go at fly fishing.... no spin rod to be seen! :D

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----- Original Message ----- From: Terry Symons Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Subject: Tassie paddlers This weekend was the Tassie paddlers annual get together @ Arthurs Lake. Only five hardy (foolhardy?) souls gathered @ Pumphouse Bay campsite on Friday, meeting Simmo who had arrived the day before. Cold. Windy. Pissing rain and even a heavy, but brief, hailstorm! Noice. Simmo and Doc were out fishing when I arrived, so during a break between showers (deluges!) I set up camp. They came back just after I'd set up and we had a coffee. Simmo had a good trout, and we decided it was cold, wet and unpleasant at the camp, wouldn't be much worse on the lake, and a better chance of a fish on the lake than at camp, so we set off.

Did I mention it was cold? At one stage Simmo got his line caught in his rudder. I freed it for him, dunking my hand and forearm into the chill water. My hands were already so bloody cold that the water felt warm! After maybe 20 minutes with-out a touch I considered a lure change, but realised I couldn't feel my fingers. Chances of tying a decent knot were slim, so I headed back to the ramp with the same unproductive lures I'd been towing.

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Loading the 'yak was a challenge in itself. The usually simple to use cam buckles proved almost impossible with my numb hands. With some help from Doc and quiet cursing the kayak was fi-nally secured and I drove the few hundred meters back to camp. More coffee! Legs got up (he'd worked night shift and come straight up after work Friday morning) by then Black-beard had arrived and set up. By now it was about time for din-ner and beers.

Dinners were cooked, beers were drunk, coffees were made, fires were stoked (apart from the campsite fire pits, Legs had his great portable wood heater). During the evening I found out that my boots were no longer waterproof. Bugger, I didn't have a spare pair. By now my hands were warm, but my feet were wet and cold. Saturday greeted us with a stiffish southerly breeze and some good gusts. At least it was mostly sunny! Hooray! After some discussion and big breakfasts a plan was hatched. We'd leave a vehicle @ Jonah's Bay ramp and let the wind blow us towards that end of the lake. We launched. We hadn't gone all that far when I was onto my first fish for the trip. A nice brownie came aboard and posed for some pics before being dispatched to my fish bag. Excellent. Wife loves trout, and I was under instruc-tions not to come home empty handed.

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After paddling/pedalling/drifting across another bay we en-tered a shallow stretch where we were sheltered from the wind by an island. The water here was too shallow for either of my lures, so I tied on a 10cm jointed minnow in a trout pattern that only dives a couple of feet. I didn't really expect to get anything on it, but figured that anything that did eat it would be a good size. Soon after felt a need to answer the call of na-ture and pulled into the shallows near the island.

I hopped out of the 'yak in knee deep water between shallower rocks, and there was a large trout holding station on "his" rock only 2-3 meters away from me! There wasn't much water in front of him to cast to, or I'd be in a bush. The cobra wobbler would run too deep. I grabbed the rod with the 10cm minnow and flipped it into the water in front of him. He didn't flinch! I retrieved just fast enough to make the lure swim and as soon he saw it he arced up and turned to chase it. Giving the lure a twitch was all it took and he smashed it no more than 2 meters from my feet! The next 2-3 seconds were the most exciting trout fishing I've ever done, until he threw the hook and swam free. Now I understand what the big deal is with fly fishing and surface lures!

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We continued on our way. I was feeling confident now, and I'd hooked fish today on both the lures I was using. We negotiated some more drowned timber and turned around the next point. Now Legs was onto a fish, a pretty decent sized one at that. Another one to the cobra. Legs said he'd decided to change lure and had been winding in pretty fast when the fish hit it. A few minutes later I thought I'd imitate the technique, and had a good fish follow and make a few 1/2 hearted hits, but didn't hook up. Approaching Jonah Bay the rod with the cobra went off again, and I caught a fish only about 50m from the shore and 100m or so from the ramp! We pulled up and shared snacks of rice crackers, lollies and fruitcake before deciding to fish this area a bit longer. I'm glad we did. Simmo caught more fish, Doc got a little one, and I landed another 4, including a double hookup. Back @ the ramp I was wrapped. 5 trout in one day! I've had seasons when I didn't catch that many! I cleaned my fish and watched the 'yaks while the others went and got their vehicles. We returned to camp where Simmo had made everyone cof-fees, then we repeated the beer, dinner, and fires / wood heater, but thankfully without the rain.

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-----Original Message ----- From: Todd Lambert Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Subject: Brumbys Creek

Hi all, I had a couple of hours off today so I decided to hook on the little 12ft tinny and explore the top weir at Brumbys creek. Managed 7 in very short time, 3 taken on a Klinkhammer dry, the rest were caught on the orange bead - head nymph. Missed another four...if only I wasn't such a crap cast! Things seem to be firing up on our rivers. Regards, Todd

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----- Original Message ----- From: Andrew Chaplin Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2012

Subject: Mulwala Fished Saturday from 9am till 6pm ...16 cod.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Derek Poole Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2012

Subject: Penstock

Hi all, Headed off to fish Penstock on Sunday. Arrived at the top of the mountain around 8 o'clock. Got as far as the Cramps bay turn off, “Road closed because of bush fires”. As we couldn't get through, we were forced to take the long way. Back down the mountain through Liffey to the A5 highway, past Great Lake, (an extra one an half hours). Finally got to the shack at Flintstone drive (to pick up my boat), then back to Penstock about 11.30 am. We were soon on the water fishing the dam end. Had a few casts as the duns started to show, we were pulling wets. Shippy caught a nice little brown and put it back, I had a few more casts, I am on!!.. But it jumped a couple of times and gone. More duns showing, an odd fish up, but only “oncers”. We had a few more grabs each but no hook ups though. Still a good days fishing. Regards Derek

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----- Original Message ----- From: Gard Saxon Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012

Subject: Bridport today. I had a day off. I hadn't been fishing forever. The forecast was for gale force winds... I had a plan. I would go to Bridport, and catch some squid. A couple for the table and a little one to use as live bait, for "something" big. A monster flathead, a snapper, a gummy flake, who knows? I would also be fishing with some soft plastics on a lighter rod. Arriving @ Bridport there was a fresh breeze, hardly a swell and only small chop. I headed out to my squid grounds with the quantas jig already tied on to a medium action rod and 2nd cast was on! Decent sized one, too big for bait, nice size for the ta-ble. Next one took probably 10-15 minutes, similar size to the first one. Hmm. was here a few weeks ago and lots of little squids, and some decent ones as well. Only a matter of time. Figured I'd dead stick some SP's while casting for squid, so I anchored up. No hits on the plastics, but soon after I had a monster cala-mari! By far the biggest I've caught. I didn't measure or weigh it, but guestimate 50cm mantle and 1.5kg? (Continued next page)

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Bridport (Continued) Tried a bit longer for a smaller one to put on a hook, but didn't catch any more. OK. Plan B. Paddle (pedal) out to the 10m mark, trolling a couple of SP's on one rod and a squid jig on the other. No hits on the jig, but something nipped the tail off my SP's. Got to my spot, replaced the tailless SP with a new one. Thought I might as well give the 3" curl tail grub in steel blue. Not a colour I would have bought myself, but since Strike Tiger are good enough to sponsor us (Tassie paddlers) and provide prizes, I might as well give it a go. The other rod had the jig replaced with a couple of plastics too. My "go-to" flattie lure, the 4" curtail grub in whitebait pearl, and one of his mates, a 3" one on the top hook. Was still stuffing about with the sea anchor when I got my first, and 2nd, fish. Both flatties, but both on the small side, so back they went. The day continued to produce sporadically. I might go 30 mins without a touch, and then all of a sudden double hook-ups. At one stage I landed 3 fish on 2 rods in 1-2 minutes. All 3 differ-ent Strike Tigers caught fish. The little 3" steel blue being the standout! Will be looking for a pack of them in 4" next time I'm in a tackle shop. Most fish were small, I lost something with a bit of weight be-fore I saw what it was, and dropped 2 nice sized ones (45-50cm) while going for the net. Grr, that never happens to me. In the end I came home with 3 squid, 3 flatties, and a good red rock cod (uglyspikeybloodydeliciousthing). Regards, Gard.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Darrell Wells Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Subject: Mersey - Hatch & Release Hi fellow Presidents. Here is a couple of my recent reports..... A couple of weeks ago I was taken to the magical Mersey River by Daniel Brandenburg In the 25 odd years I have been angling I have never once stepped foot into this system. The plan was to fish a different part of the river, but after getting the 'good oil' from a local Mersey River guru late Sat-urday night on where the best Caenid hatches have been, it was clear we were heading to a different area, which went some-thing like this...... I met up with Daniel early Sunday morning and off we set. Upon arrival at our first section of the river we came across our first hatch of Caenids which was absolutely massive and some almost formed cloud like halos over the bubbling river. I was very excited! Unfortunately two other anglers had beaten us to this first 'drop-in' so we headed down to another area to try our luck...... No more than 10 minutes down the road we were into the next section of river (which we had to ourselves) and ready to see what the day would bring for us. The hatch was considerably small further downstream and only the odd 'oncer' was coming to the surface so I changed from the single dry rig and prepared a tandem rig consisting of a #16 Stimula-tor and a #16 Pheasant Tail Flashback Nymph which I stayed with for the entire day as it seemed to be the most effective. (Continued next page)

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Mersey - Hatch & Release We decided to head to a more open and wider stretch that would make it easier for Daniel to learn. We arrived at 6:30am, donned the waders and entered the river. After spending a bit of time going through casting techniques, do's and not to do's etc. we slowly made our way upstream. Along the slower edge of the river there were trout feeding hard on Caenids which I managed to hook a few of on a #18 Adams, most were only lit-tle fella's, but I'll never complain about seeing any fish come up and take a dry fly no matter what size it is! In between landing a few fish I would quiet often pass on a few tips to Daniel who was working the faster water with his Nymph and everything I told him he listened to, took in, put it into practice, his casting was improving every hour. I ventured over to a small canal type run that flows around the back of a narrow rocky island and found a good fish poking it's snout out and sucking in Caenids about every 5 seconds. I cov-ered this fish with my small dry and it got eaten as soon as I hit the right place as the fly landed about 2 inches off the bank. I was too early on the strike and stuffed my chances with that fish...... So I thought anyway! I returned back to this fish after landing a couple more small fish from where I caught some previously that morning and luckily that particular fish was on the job again! I showed him the same fly, he ate it, I waited what felt like a week, strike and she's on.... After an awesome fight on the 3wt the fish was in my hand ready for a few quick photographs then of course released for another day.

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Mersey - Hatch & Release Daniel continued on further up the system as I waded out to cover a few fish in the deeper runs that were rising here and there, but these ones couldn't be fooled, unfortunately. Once I met back up with him it was fantastic to see how much his fly casting was improving. As the hatch had died off, I went to the favourite tandem rig of mine and nailed on more little guy be-fore we decided to head to another spot which I had not been to for a look. It was obvious on arrival the fish were of a bigger average size, but less of them, which of course isn't a bad thing. We worked around 200 yards of this section and I had a good fish follow the Nymph downstream but spooked as he got a look at me (which must have scared the sh!t out of the poor thing) I hooked another good fish but lost this one as he bolted to the sticks. Daniel was beside me and put a roll cast into a run and he was ON..... Then off! The fish pulled the hook as it went for a rundown stream. The big guy looked shattered. I said 'Don't worry about it mate, it won't be the last one that gets away, just keep casting and get another' and that he did. Not long after we made another move to another area.

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Mersey - Hatch & Release No sooner we entered the water, Daniel put a very nice cast into a run that produced fish for me on our previous trip and a lovely fat little Brown Trout absolutely hammered his Nymph. I watched it all unfold as I was standing beside him and man did it feel great! The little guy was put back for next time and af-ter a firm handshake and congrats we fished on a little further for nothing landed, just me dropping good fish, one of which was a really solid Rainbow.... not massive, but a fish I really wanted a photograph of...... But there's always next time. Thanks again for a great day out Daniel and congrats again on your first of many fish on the fly. Well done mate! Hope you all have a safe and merry Christmas and tight lines..... Cheers Daz

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----- Original Message ----- From: Dale Howard Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2012

Subject: Tyenna River Hi Everyone, I had some work to do in Hobart yesterday & Trev came along for support just in case we found a small stream somewhere on the way back. “It so happened” that we did stumble across the Tyenna River after about an hour driving from Hobart. We soon found a spot to start the search for our first ever Tyenna trout. As soon as we started looking, we spotted fish ... Not that easy to catch though, being this close to the road. I think they might have had every lure and fly in southern Tas-mania chucked at them. We soon realised we would have to walk in a bit and sure enough, “Bang”, Trevs on! He had a half a dozen small fish in quick succession (only beat-ing me because I was the main photographer, I must add.) We kept moving up the river and soon spotted the fish we had come to catch; we estimated this trout to be in excess of ten pounds!

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Tyenna River ( C ontinued ) He swam around us for a few seconds, but soon disappeared out of the shallow gin clear water into the depths and not to be seen again. Hopefully he will still be there when we return. We moved on and caught several more small fish, all caught on the Yep Golden Seducer. I know I say this every time I visit a new stream, but here goes again. What a magical river. We are so spoilt for choice here in Tasmania. WHERE NEXT ? Trev & Dale

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----- Original Message ----- From: Reg Travers Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Subject: Penstock Taken on an orange bead head.

Thanks to Rob Soward for passing the tie onto me.

-----Original Message ----- From: Andrew Chaplin Sent: Sunday, December 23, 2012

Subject: Mulwala Picked up 16. 68cm, 64 cm, ...most were between 50-60cm

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From: Janet & Todd Lambert Sent: Monday, December 24, 2012

Subject: Merry Christmas Hi all, Just wishing you all a Merry Christmas and safe New Year. Reports have been quiet of late, ( but that's normal for this time of year) as everyone is busy getting those last minute jobs done and find’s that spare time,... Is in short supply. Mike Stevens and I went up to Arthurs Lake yesterday. We struggled, with only six size fish brought home and another six returned. Fish were caught on dry’s and nymphs, but only the odd dun was spotted. Nothing over 1.5 pounds was landed. President Mark Tapsell fared better with 3 nice browns and a rainbow of around 2 pounds caught off the shore at Lake Au-gusta. I look forward to getting the boat out over the Xmas break and fishing with friends and family. Hopefully we will witness some success whilst on the water but if not, it will still be time well spent. Please take the camera and send us your reports as well, as that is what this club is all about. Kind regards, Todd Lambert

Mark Tapsell’s catch.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Grant Kemp Sent: Monday, December 24, 2012

Subject: 2012 Yep Tassie Tackle Competition. Hi everyone, President Grant Kemp from Victoria , just letting you know the Horsham Angling Club held its 3rd YEP TASSIE TACKLE com-petition for 2012. It took place from midnight 16th to 18th November at the pic-turesque Lake Fyans, which at the foot of the Grampians. The weekend was very well attended with 42 adults and 28 jun-iors. The weather was about 16 to 18 degrees with south to south east winds all weekend. The fishing was up and down with brown / rainbow trout and a lot of redfin caught. The 2012 YEP TASSIE TACKLE competi-tion once again was sponsored by Dale Howard and his family. Dale supplied a beautiful trophy for the heaviest trout and lots of YEP TASSIE TACKLE soft plastics and lures. Both I and the Horsham Angling Club are very grateful to Dale and family for their sponsorship over the last 3 years. To the HOWARD FAMILY and all Presidents, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. TIGHT LINES TO ALL Regards Grant Kemp.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Andrew Chaplin Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2012

Subject: Mulwala Hi all, Picked up 12 today, 66cm, 64cm 4 that were 59.5cm. Half were caught on hard bodies and half on spinner baits.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Todd Lambert Sent: Friday, December 28, 2012

Subject: Lake Augusta Hi all, Mike Stevens and I headed to Lake Augusta today, leaving home at 10.30am. Managed 7 nice ones between us, caught on dry’s and nymphs. Only one dun was spotted on the water, so perhaps we were lucky that they were looking up. Regards, Todd

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----- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto Sent: Friday, December 28, 2012

Subject: Xmas break Hi all, Got a few pictures for you to have a look at after a few days fishing with my family over the Xmas break. Fished off the Tamar Heads with Dave Smith & Mick Day, look-ing to get onto a mako. We had a small one to the boat around 20 to 30kg, tried to get him to eat a fly, but he just kept swimming past it. Thought for sure he would take it, but not to be, he picked up the baits that Dave & Mick had on, only to drop them after short runs. Wouldn’t swallow the baits,..Next time.

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Xmas break ( Continued )

Got some salmon out of Grants Lagoon at Binalong Bay on Dales Red Nut hardbodys.

Fished out wide from St.Helens on the one day that it

wasn’t blowing and managed some flathead, latchet, gummy shark, morwong, arrow squid, dogfish and plenty of those red gurnard.

Fished in Georges Bay & got onto some salmon, nice

size trevally & Bailey even caught a big toad, all caught on softies.

Bailey also had a go off the shore at a lagoon at Sca-

mander looking to catch some bream, but did no good, he saw a couple of horses but spooked them, there are some good bream here, as he and Trev Howard have caught a few big ones on a previous trip.

Heading up the lakes next for a couple of days so will have a report from there when we get back. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Todd Lambert Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2012

Subject: Lake Augusta today Hi all, I had grand plans to get up at 4am this morning and fish the wind lanes at Lake Leake. I must be getting soft,... as I chose ''Plan B.'' “Plan B” was to sleep in and head to Lake Augusta at around 9am...a much more civilized option. As I was heading up, I passed Johnny Dekkers coming down the hill; he was on his way home from Penstock where he managed a couple of quality fish. He posed for a photo but was quick to point out that he didn’t catch the one he was holding ha ha. He said one of his group landed a 6.5 pound rainbow last night, a great catch by any measure! After we had a quick chat, I made tracks for Augusta.

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Lake Augusta ( Continued ) Upon arrival I saw a nice sized fish swimming up and down the dam wall, unfortunately it disappeared before I could cast a fly to it. Fishing started slow, but as the wind dropped out I started to Polaroid a few amongst the waves. I found if I could get the fly in front of them, they would take it confidently. I released a couple of small ones before landing three around the 2.5 pound mark, all caught on the Klink hammer size 10. I watched an absolute ripper take my fly (estimated around 3 to 4 pounds), but must have struck too hard, the result being my fly’s are now adorning it’s mouth as we speak,... somewhere in Augusta’s depths. As you can see, these fish are in prime nick. Regards, Todd

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----- Original Message ----- From: Mark Tapsell Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2012

Subject: Swansea today Hi all, Went to Swansea today with a couple of friends, chasing bream on lures. Arrived at 8 am to 5 knots of wind and had our first bream in the boat within 10 minutes. By the end of the day we would have caught 40 or 50. The breeze came and went all day. We used hard bodies (vibes and blades) and the colour didn’t matter, looking forward to getting back there soon Mark Tapsell

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----- Original Message ----- From: Craig Shipton Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2012

Subject: Eddystone Stripey's Hi fellow Presidents, had a trip to Eddystone today. Up at 1.30am, picked up my mate Andrew from Lilydale and then headed to my nephews place at Pipers River, where we changed vehicles and left by 3am. No one at the ramp on arrival and we thought this could be ei-ther good or bad. With that in mind, we launched the boat and headed to one of to our striped trumpeter spots. First one “no go” so we moved to the next spot where we picked up six, so we decided to try the other spot that was close by and caught the rest. We also caught some jackass Perch and ocean Perch. Had a Mako swimming around the boat about 70 kilo’s, so threw him a bait which he took, had him on for a while until the trace broke,.. so off he swam for next time. All in all nice little trip, back at the ramp by 11.30am. Cheers Craig

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----- Original Message ----- From: Andrew Chaplin Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Subject: Mulwala Took a mate down to Mulwala for an afternoon fish.

Picked up 9 cod 68, 64, 63, 61cm.

Had a young wood swallow (I think) land on me for a rest, I did-n’t think I looked like a tree?

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----- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2013

Subject: Canal Bay, Great Lake Hi all, Went to the Great Lake for a couple of days with Bailey, Jack Seaborne and George Papp. All up we caught 23 trout, seven being rainbows. Fished out in the middle of the lake on Sunday afternoon from 2pm till 8pm, looking for some fish cruising in the waves. Had a 15 knot westerly, would have preferred a northerly, but still managed a couple out there on the orange dry. Sun was getting too low so we headed to Canal Bay as I was to meet the “Mad Hungarian,” George, there. Picked him up in the boat and soon landed a few nice ones on the dry fly. Some good rainbows also came to the net. We finished the session with a few more caught on hard bodies later in the day. Dale’s Red Nut hard bodies are certainly catching plenty of fish when we use them. (Continued next page)

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Canal Bay, Great Lake ( Continued ) On Monday we fished Canal Bay again, but this time in a roaring 30 knot westerly wind. I dropped George off on shore whilst I decided to stay in the boat. Once again we caught some good ones using the Red Nut, (far too windy for the fly). The boys did well in their little zodiac using hard bodies and softies. We only fished from 11am till around 4pm, too bloody windy and quite cold! All things considered, a couple of great little sessions, but would have been better if it wasn’t so windy. Most fish were in good nick, only a couple were a bit on the lean side. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Todd Lambert Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Subject: Western Lakes Hi all, Headed out to the Western Lakes again today with President Jim McKenna. Managed a couple of nice ones on the Klink hammer dry fly. Should have had half a dozen in the bag, but never managed to hold them after they felt the hook and shook their heads. Oh well, there is always next time, the pendulum of luck will swing back our way somewhere down the track. A great day all the same. Regards, Todd

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----- Original Message ----- From: Dale Howard Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Subject: Swan River Hi everyone, Trev and I fished the lower reaches of the Swan River for a couple of hours today, the first day of 14 at Coles bay. We caught a few bream, trevally, and small salmon, Trev landed a great bream of 37 cm on an A-TAS blade lure (this was the first time we have used these lures). We also caught them on the Yep Tassie Tackle “Red Nut” and “Yellow Peril”. Only one was kept one for Donna's tea, with the rest released. I had better rest up now ready for tomorrow's mission, the weather will decide what & where that is. Dale & Trev

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----- Original Message ----- From: Todd Lambert Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Subject: Western Lakes Hi all, Headed out to the Western Lakes again today with President Jim Mckenna. Managed a couple of nice ones on the Klinkhammer dry fly, should have had half a dozen but never managed to hold them beyond their initial head shakes after feeling the hook. Oh well, there is always next time and the pendulum of luck will swing back our way somewhere down the track. A great day all the same. Regards, Todd

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----- Original Message ----- From: Todd Lambert Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2013

Subject: Tamar River Hi all, Well, I am quick to post success in my reports, but you don't often hear so much of the failures (of which there are a few don't worry!) Given the calm weather this weekend, we decided to get our boat, aptly named "The Olympic torch" (because it never goes out), out of the shed. Our hope was to get the kids onto a few flathead. We were originally going to go to Swansea but given the fires; we thought it best to keep out of the authorities way and also partly out of respect for those affected. Saturday was spent ski- biscuiting on the Tamar, whilst today was spent chasing a few flathead around the Bell Buoy Beach area. (Continued next page)

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Tamar River ( C ontinued ) Jacob drove us out and we started off catching a couple of quality fish, not long after it all went quiet, perhaps it was the pirates that caused the problem (see photo.) Not even enough to feed the family....Gee we struggle on the Tamar River. My two girls couldn't make today's trip as they had to work, but on the plus side, it was great to catch up with President Jim and Virginia McKenna. Back to work tomorrow,,,bugger!. Regards Todd

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----- Original Message ----- From: Andrew Chaplin Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2013

Subject: River to sea, cod sniper lure. Found an old lure with no paint so painted it up myself. The water temp got to 32.9, picked up nine.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2013

Subject: Little Lake Hi all, Decided to have a look up at Little Lake this arvo with Bailey & the Mad Hungarian ...George. We landed 19 brownies between us; most were caught on the dry with a couple on small wets later on in the day when the wind picked up. Fish were feeding on damsels and dragonfly’s, jumping out of the water all over the place, very hard to catch though. Had to work for what we got as they were cruising very fast, no good casting to where they took off the top as they would be long gone. Also had to try and judge which way they headed off and try to cast a metre in front of them, a lot of the time they ignored our offerings. All fish were in good nick, only kept seven for a feed, size only small, around the 1lb mark, had a beaut day, sunny with slight southerly breeze, getting a little stronger later on. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Todd Lambert Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2013

Subject: Four Springs Lake Hi all, Went to Four Springs Lake last night with George Papp. I went with the camera whilst I watched George have a flick with the fly rod. He managed to catch a nice rainbow right on dark & missed another one, fish caught on mudeye pattern from the shore. Only one boat on the lake and no one else to be seen, saw a few duns and spinners, but not much at all moving on top, a bit breezy though, will take the boat next time. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Dave Egan Sent: Monday, January 14, 2013

Subject: Arthurs Lake

My Nephew Jedd and I just returned from our Annual trip to Arthurs Lake but sadly our trip was cut short to just over 3 days as my mum was very ill and we needed to rush home.

The three days we did have were very good weather-wise, with a fair amount of sunshine.

Much to my surprise this weather pattern brought on a big black spinner hatch from about lunch time until after dark. The fish were easily found in the lee shores feeding actively on them.

My nephew got his first seven fish on the fly and can’t wait to get back next trip. I caught 30 fish including 4 in 4 casts and 2 lots of 2 in 2 casts. The fish were mostly small, between half a pound and 2 pound but they were in good condition and fought well.

It’s great to see the lake looking healthy again and I’m sure that overcast days will see some great fishing on the duns in the next few weeks. Those of you lucky enough to pick your day to head up to the lakes are in for a treat.

Tight lines and wet nets.

Dave Egan.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Derek Poole Sent: Monday, January 14, 2013

Subject: Meander River Hi all, Fished the Meander River on Sunday with mate Shippy. We arrived at the river about 9am, got in the water and waded up the river about a kilometre. One on each side of the bank using nymphs. Not much happened for a little way then Shippy was on, but he dropped him. We moved up, next he was on to a small fish, put him back. I wasn't having much luck on nymphs so I changed, putting on a little black spinner. Had a few casts then up one came but I was too quick on it and just felt a tug. Shippy is on again, nice fish for this river, took a picture and put it back. I had a few more looks then one stuck, had picture taken then put it back in the river as well.

We both had a few more grabs for no hook ups, a nice day on the river.

Regards Derek

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----- Original Message ----- From: Jim and Virginia McKenna Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Subject: Woods Lake Hi all, Just arrived home after a couple of enjoyable days at the Pumphouse Bay camp ground at Arthurs Lake. Didn’t do a lot of fishing, but as Monday's weather was calm, Virginia and I decided to take the fly rod over the hill to Woods Lake for a couple of hours. I am glad we did. I caught my bag limit of five and Virginia caught two in a hot little session lasting around one and a half hours. Whilst we were there I saw a fish come up and take a dun next to the boat that would have been every bit of 8 pounds, I was flabbergasted! Certainly was a memorable experience that we hope to repeat soon. Regards, Jim and Virginia.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Dale Howard Sent: Friday, January 18, 2013

Subject: Four Springs. Hi all, I woke up to a drizzly overcast morning today so I quickly grabbed the fly rod and headed to Four Springs Lake along with Sasha my dog. With unchanged conditions greeting us on arrival, I soon had the boat on the water and slowly headed out, looking for moving trout. After about 25 minutes without spotting one, I put the fly rod down and came up with the spinning rod. 3rd cast “bang!” a nice little rainbow in perfect condition caught on the Red Nut. After flogging this area for a while without any more hits, I headed up to a spot commonly known as Jim’s tree. (Named after the great Jim McKenna.) 3rd cast, magic again and I had another one on but unfortu-nately I dropped him at the boat. A few casts later and a thumping big brown followed the lure right to the boat but then snuck off into the depths. Not long after that, the clouds and drizzle disappeared and it was all over. I didn't see one fish rise or any insect life. The weed situation is not too bad, ok for drift spinning but probably not for trolling, the water temp was 21. Dale

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----- Original Message ----- From: Andrew Chaplin Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2013

Subject: Saturdays catch .

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----- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2013

Subject: Cider Park Bay, Great Lake. Hi all, Had a look at Cider Park Bay at the Great Lake this arvo along with Bailey and George Papp. Very warm & sunny, dropped George off on the shore as he likes fishing the shoreline. Bailey and I headed out to try and find some fish in the slicks. Managed a couple on the orange fly but found the fish a bit scarce, we did a lot of moving around looking for them. Breeze picked up a bit later on and Bailey had a go with Dale’s Red Nut and got a couple. We caught half a dozen for the session, keeping four and re-leasing two smallish fish, hard going but we had an enjoyable afternoon. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Andrew Chaplin Sent: Monday, January 28, 2013

Subject: Wagga fishing Went out for an arvo fish, picked up 10 cod, 1 golden perch and some unwanted carp. The pictures were taken by kids but they turned out ok.

157

----- Original Message ----- From: Terry Symons Sent: Monday, February 04, 2013

Subject: Tassiepaddlers Yep Tackle fish off. What more could you want? dolphin’s, sharks, flathead and a bunch of great people. Yes the Tassiepaddlers Yep Tackle Fish Off weekend went off well. With no real hitches,( yes there was a tad of rain ), but we lived with that. The weather for the two main days was perfect as the wind wasn’t there and the rain stayed away, everything just went like clockwork. It was great to see Shangri-la (aka the block) filled with Tas-siepaddlers. Thank you to YEP TACKLE and the TASSIEPADDLERS MEM-BERS because without your support there would be no great weekends like these. Cheers President Simmo

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----- Original Message ----- From: Andrew Chaplin Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2013

Subject: Mulwala Picked up 18, three over 60cm, one yella.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2013

Subject: Little Lake / Great Lake Hi all, Decided to take Bailey and his mate Jack Shennan up to the lakes for a night. On Saturday afternoon we went to Little Lake and caught 27 brownies, the lake was very low, strong NW winds, mostly cloudy. Managed my bag limit using small wets and the boys caught the rest on soft plastics. Many fish were missed and lost as well. Saw a few duns on the water with the occasional fish on them; we were the only ones there, very unusual, certainly plenty of fish in the lake. Most were on the small side, fish we caught went from 3/4lb up to 1.5lb, they had scud and stick caddis in their stomachs and were very red fleshed, we had a fantastic afternoon. Sunday morning, I took the boys for a fish from the shore at Canal Bay at Great Lake for a couple of hours, Bailey managed three nice brownies on Berkley flick baits. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Todd Lambert Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2013

Subject: This was the weekend that was... Gee, what a report this will be... Took my mainland mate (Kevin Wilkinson) to the Great Lake yesterday, we were joined by Bailey and Phil Zanetto. We were hopeful of some good "Shark fishing”, (polarioding trout in wind lanes). Phil caught one, we never saw a fish, BBQ was good though. Determined not to be disgruntled with that effort, Kevin and I left home at 4.30am this morning, bound for Lake Leake. I thought "surely" we will find some moving fish at this lake for Kevin to cast at, not to be, we never saw a fish rise. In desperation, out came the soft plastics which produced two big perch and a small rainbow. What a horror show of a weekend in regards to lack of success. Regards, Todd

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----- Original Message ----- From: Mark Tapsell Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2013

Subject: 3 days at Woods Lake. Hi all, Spent 3 days at Woods Lake with my son Jarod. Landed there on Thursday night at 11 pm, up at 5 and on the water in very foggy conditions. We found fish rising all over the lake in the fog; I had my bag by 7am and put a few smaller ones back, Jarod not being so lucky. Much the same thing Saturday, myself getting 4 and Jarod 2. Didn’t fish Sunday, preferring to tour the lake instead. Had a great time, biggest fish was 1kg “gilled and gutted”; all fish were in fabulous nick. Regards Mark Tapsell

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----- Original Message ----- From: Derek Poole Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2013

Subject: St Helens Hi all, Shippy gave me a ring to see if I would like to come tuna fish-ing at St Helens with him, along with Andrew and Evan. We left Launceston at 3.30am on Saturday morning arriving at St Helens about 5.30. We headed to the shelf, got to the 100 metre mark and the rods went off, a nice albacore about 6kg. Started the boat back up, rods went off again, 2 more. We moved a bit further 3 more, then 3 more, we had 10 by 8 o'clock, good morning so far. We were on the shelf trolling around (not a touch), so we headed back into the 100 metre mark, rods went off, 3 more. In the end the rods kept going off and we had about 20 tuna. Decided to head in to do some bottom bouncing (by now we were in about 65 metres of water), Andrew caught a big flat-head, I landed a gurnard, and then he got an arrow squid. We ended up with 2 more squid and 2 more gurnard. While we were bottom bouncing Craig decided to fillet the tuna, throw-ing frames in as he went. (Continued next page)

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St Helens ( Continued ) We looked out the back noticed a mako shark swimming around so Evan dropped a trace with a squid head and hooked onto it. He swam up to it and ate it straight away, didn’t even know he was hooked. Craig started the motor up and tightened up on him, and then the fun began! Evan battled him for about half an hour before we got him to the boat and put a tail rope on him. He thrashed around until Evan cut the back of his head,... he weighed 70kg. Good day, I like shark better than tuna! Regards, Derek

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----- Original Message ----- From: Andrew Chaplin Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2013

Subject: Mulwala 23 cod 74,68,66,62cm

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----- Original Message ----- From: Dale Howard Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2013

Subject: Four Springs Lake Made the last minute decision to head to Four Springs Lake last night (Wednesday) and this saw us leaving home at 7:30pm. Trev gave me the rules, fly fishing only, so out came the old six piece (as I broke my good rod last week on the first cast.) We were soon on the water, as the lake is close by our home. First port of call was “Jim’s tree” only to find ourselves in the face of a full southerly wind, a couple of minutes there and it was time to quickly seek out some calm water. The only shel-tered spot we could find was directly in front of the dam wall. We sat and watched for rising fish, but couldn’t detect any ac-tion. As darkness was settling upon us quickly, we started to pack up our gear ready for home. Just then, we spotted two fish work-ing along the wall, I covered one and Trev the other. After cast number 3,Trev was on!

This fish was Trevs first on the fly this year so I quickly put the rod down, sat and watched. After a long struggle, he landed a beautiful brown. There is nothing better than being out fished by your son. A great little session. Dale & Trev

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----- Original Message ----- From: Rose Muirhead Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2013

Subject: Camp Burbury Hi all. This is our camp at Lake Burbury. The fishing is tough, midge hatches with hardly any fish. We will be down there again this week hopefully with more luck. There are some large, tough fish there, Vic had 3 on and lost them. The rainbows are breaking the treble hooks off. Regards, Vic and Rose Muirhead.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2013

Subject: Little Lake

Hi all, Had a look at Little Lake again this arvo, was going to go to Great Lake to have a go at the shark fishing, but forecast was for a cloudy day, so that put an end to that idea. So off we went with Bailey doing all the driving, he now has his learners license thank god, he can do all of the driving now, Bailey's mate Will Hankenson also tagged along. Arrived around noon and found the lake had dropped even lower from a couple of weeks ago. Saw three other anglers on the water. Bailey and Will decided not to have a fish because of the low water (as they were only going to use soft plastics). So off I went with the fly rod and had a ball catching 20 browns on small wets, had dozens of hits and misses as well, kept a few for the table and released the rest, size would be 1 to 1.5lb, not all the fish here are small, polaroided one monster that would have went 5lb plus, not interested in my offering. Last time we were fishing here George Papp said he saw a large trout cruising around; maybe it was the same fish? Weather was ok, sunny periods with a 15 knot northerly, fish had been feeding on scud, stick caddis and snails. I bet Bailey wishes he had brought his fly rod, what a great session. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Todd Lambert Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2013

Subject: Four Springs Hi all, Headed off to Foursey's this morning with Johnny Dekkers, leaving home at 5am. Upon arrival, it started to rain and John suddenly realised he had forgot to bring a coat, he was determined to fish anyway. Luckily we managed to hunt up a red one from the boat, hence the bright colour in the picture. Fish were feeding everywhere all over the lake (due to a huge midge hatch), but we only tempted two to take our offerings. I missed mine and Johnny caught the one in the photo. When cleaned, fish was full of water boatmen. Gee we saw some big tails and fins though, and yes we saw a lot of fish! Regards, Todd

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----- Original Message ----- From: Dale Howard Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2013

Subject: Huntsman Lake Hi all, Trev and I headed out to Huntsman Lake for a couple of hours today, the water was very calm and 22 degrees. We found a few fish moving in a wind lane but they were very hard work. The lake is very low. Dale & Trev

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----- Original Message ----- From: Rob Soward Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2013

Subject: Arthurs Lake On reading the super forecast of humid, rainy and winds 10-15 knots easing back, I headed to Arthurs confident of finding a good dun hatch. How wrong I. Wind never got under 15 knots and I'm sure got up to 25 knots meaning any hatching duns were swept up and spirited km away! I fished 4 hours and only saw 2 duns. It was a matter of getting in the lee and seeing what I could conjure up... the trusty bead head under the dry did no good so loch style it was and within minutes of changing I hooked and subse-quently lost two smallish fish A fruitless hour in the hurricane was unrewarded and then a torrential downpour occurred further impacting on the situa-tion. Notwithstanding that I found the fish happy to grab it despite the downpour and promptly boated two nice fish .The downpour became monsoonal so I retreated to the boat ramp and caught two other smallish spinner feeders in the lee. I spoke with four other fishermen who had nothing between them also being frustrated by the conditions.

So looking like I’d been swimming rather than fishing I left rather pleased id had any action on a tough day

Rob Soward

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----- Original Message ----- From: Terry Symons Sent: Monday, February 25, 2013 Subject: Tassie Paddler’s / off the Cam River Well Presidents, What a fine day up on the NW coast....Apart from the waves that play hard ball when you’re trying to get out to a fishing spot, chasing a flathead or two. Alky and I went for a paddle and a fish, and true to form Alky fell out. I was going to his rescue and came out as well on the return to the river, but we practice this for just an occasion. Yes Simmo did catch a fish, as per the photo.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto Sent: Sunday, March 03, 2013

Subject: St Helens Hi all, Just got home from a tuna trip down at St.Helens with my brother Steve and his partner Viv. Arrived at the ramp around 8am this morning and fished until around 1.30pm. We caught around 16 albacore and a couple of stripy tuna. Most of the hook ups came from the 100 metre mark, we did troll out to the Plateau and all we caught out there was a stripy. When we trolled back to the 100 metre mark, bang we were on again! Several times we had three and four rods going off at once. Had a ball, most were rats with a couple around 6 or 7 kilo. Fish mainly caught on Mack Baits & a couple on Meridian skirts, best water temp we found was nearly 21 degrees. Another great day. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Andrew Chaplin Sent: Friday, March 08, 2013

Subject: Blowering Dam Went for a short day trip.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Todd Lambert Sent: Sunday, March 10, 2013

Subject: Bicheno today

Hi all,

Headed out to Bicheno this morning, along with my daughter Demi, son Jacob and the guru Phil Zanetto. Given the promising weather forecast the plan was to troll out to our striped trumpeter spots with the hope of catching a few albacore along the way. As we arrived at the foot of the Elephant pass, we were disappointed to see white caps and a southerly wind blowing in at around 20 knots,... that along with a 2 metre swell !! By the time we arrived at Bicheno boat ramp, we had made up our minds that tuna would be our only target today, forget the bottom bouncing! Wasn’t on the water long when two rods went off and Demi and Jacob found out how much 5kg stripy tuna pull. A short time after, Phil was onto another and then Demi another. Although the weather was improving, it had taken its toll on Jacob and we had to head in due to his sea sick-ness, "oh well, always next time". Water was 17.9 degrees, lots of shearwaters (mutton birds) around and working on the bait fish. We reckon ( had we made it out to the hundred metre mark ), any-thing could have happened in regards to what else was under-neath those bait schools.

Thanks again Phil for all your advice and help with the kids today, I don’t think they will forget it in a hurry.

As Demi stated, “they sure are hard on the arms, and when are we going again?”

Regards,

Todd

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----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger Mies" Sent: Sunday, March 10, 2013

Subject: Bicheno today 2

Hi Todd What a familiar story. We went down to my mates at Bicheno last night based on a great forecast for today as well. We were also shocked to see the sea as you accurately described it. We survived the seasickness but only were game to go as far as maybe just to the 100 m mark. 1 albacore, dropped another at boat and several stripys Cheers Roger

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----- Original Message ----- From: Craig Shipton Sent: Monday, March 11, 2013

Subject: St Helens Classic Hi all, just a few photos of our rare Dolphin fish caught yesterday on “The Cliffs.” Weather was a bit dodgy but we stayed out there for a while and caught plenty of albacore (both days) along with stripys. Also lost a good fish that ripped out over 300 metres of line,... but that’s fishing. When hooked up on the three Dolphin fish all three were landed. On the next run we hooked up to three small Kingfish with two landed and one dropped. All in all good weekend. Cheers Craig.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Brett Woodberry Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Subject: Great Lake Hi all, Haven’t been fishing much lately that’s why NO reports are coming from this direction, but none the less we have one now. Went to the Great Lake on Saturday with some mates, 3 boats in total and 6 fishermen. Upon arrival we decided to make some fun out of the long weekend and made up a little competition between all the boats. Team Woodberry flew out of the blocks on Saturday afternoon boating 2 nice brownies in the first half an hour. By 6pm we caught another 2 a bit later by 7.30, 4 more, all in very good condition, (2 actually carrying fat inside them.) Upon comparing fish at the boat ramp at Brandum bay, (by the way you can still use this ramp with ease even though the water is very low), we found we had a tie with another boat and the remainder boat had only 1 rainbow. All fish were in very good condition. Sunday morning came and the Woodberry team got another one on the score card, with the other boats also getting only one fish each. Score card 4, 4, 2. Sunday arvo came with a huge thunderstorm and plenty of rain but by 4.30 Woodberry team saw an opening (and being the only boat with a canopy), decided to go out and brave the ele-ments. (Continued next page)

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This session produced another 2 rainbows & 1 brownie, all still in really good condition and colour. The rule committee deemed our team a non starter for Monday morning’s fish due to us fishing the night before but we didn’t care as the beer and bourbons tasted reallllllly nice. Final score was Woodberry’s with 7, tied with the other team of Williams, and the Blue Dolphin team finished with 3. What an enjoyable weekend, all fish caught were on lead lines around the 3 colours and all fish were about 3.5 to 4 metres down on the fish finder. Anything with pink or orange stripe caught fish. TIGHT LINES UNTIL NEXT TIME. Brett Woodberry

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----- Original Message ----- From: Terry Symons Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Subject: Penguin Hi all, Spork and Simmo went for a fish yesterday at Penguin. After sussing out a few launching spots we came up with this one as the easiest. We unloaded, set up our gear and hit the water. With no wind, rain or waves, what a great morning! Not many fish were caught but the squid were playing havoc with the plastics. Spork managed to land a prize winning gurnard, (you may laugh, but they are great on the tooth)! I was out with Spork for a while then moved in to fish around what I named the “Little Hippolyte”, I was snapped off there earlier so I went back to try again. Soon I was on and it had to be something good, I caught two sweep and lost a big salmon on a Strike tiger sp :) I suppose it was about 11.30 when I headed back out to Spork to see how he was going, still 1 gurnard. The wind and chop started so we headed along with a rather decent swell as well. Thanks Spork for a great morning’s entertainment. It’s always great out on the water with great people and friends. Cheers President Simmo

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----- Original Message ----- From: Terry Symons Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Subject: Pirtek Challenge. Well what I can say apart from it rained and the fish stayed inside out of the rain. : lol: But there were three members of Tassie paddlers that didn’t let the weather (or the fear of not catching anything), worry them. These members were Chipz, Spork and Simmo. All I can say it was a case of great company and fantastic time together on and off the water. We got into a hearty brekkie before the Pirtek Challenge started. The day wasn’t too bad for about an hour, and then along came the rain, and lots of it. Thanks to Chipz and Spork for their company and looking for-ward to our next trip. Cheers Simmo

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----- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto Sent: Sunday, March 31, 2013

Subject: Lakes Hi all Decided to take my old mate “Roundy” for a drive up to the lakes today. I didn’t take the boat as forecast was crap, just went for a bit of a look with a couple of soft plastic rods just in case we wanted to have a fish. Went into Little Lake, it was quite high after all the rain. Fished for about an hour for little result, I managed one and Roundy had a couple of follows. As it was very quiet here, we decided to head over to the Great Lake and have a fish from the western side of Canal Bay because the wind was blowing off shore here. Roundy caught a nice brown; I didn’t get a touch, (fished here for an hour and a half). So all in all not much to report, we had a good drive though, next time. PS. Also sent you a couple of pictures from Nathan Zanetto with his first Great Lake brown that he caught a few days ago. Also a picture of some nice King George Whiting that they caught today at St.Helens. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Janet & Todd Lambert Sent: Monday, April 01, 2013

Subject: Scamander River Today Hi all,

Decided to take Jacob and "Penny the wonder dog” up to the Scamander River for a couple of hours today.

This spot wouldn’t have been my first choice, but we were lim-ited as to where we could go thanks to the strong state-wide winds.

Never the less; we had a great couple of hours catching and re-leasing many bream of all shapes and sizes. As you can see, it became all too much for Penny on the trip home and a dog nap was required.

Regards,

Todd

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----- Original Message ----- From: Derek Poole Sent: Sunday, April 07, 2013

Subject: Last Trout weekend Hi all, We headed off on Friday night for our last weekend trout fish-ing for the season, arrived around 4pm. Waited for Shippy and John to arrive, they were right behind me, unpacked all our stuff and decided to go to Arthurs for a fish for an hour or two. We ended up with four, all small and not that good in condition. The plan of attack was to fish Woods lake Saturday and Pen-stock Sunday. Gavin was to join us Saturday afternoon when he finished work. We ended up with 11 fish at Woods John caught 5, Shippy got 3 , I landed 2 and Gavin caught one, not a bad ef-fort as everyone managed a fish . Sunday Penstock, we arrived there about 8am and fished until 1pm for 5 fish. I caught 4 & Shippy landed 1. Conditions were tough, no wind, bright sky, these fish were in very good condition. Overall, a great weekend and good way to finish the season. Regards Derek

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----- Original Message ----- From: Phil Zanetto Sent: Saturday, April 20, 2013

Subject: Curries River Lake Hi all, Had a trip to Curries River Lake today with Dale & Trev How-ard. Dale picked me up around 10.30am and we arrived there about 11.15am. No one else was there which was good as we had the lake to ourselves. We headed off to the south-east corner where the small river enters the lake, things were quiet early, but we picked up plenty of fish on the sounder and they seemed to be hugging the bottom. After plenty of casts with Yep hardbodys Dale finally nailed a beaut brownie of around 3lb on the Yep golden seducer. After this fish we started getting onto a few, managed a nice brown of around 2lb, then a nice little rainbow which were both caught on Yep KW Galaxid. (Continued next page).

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Curries River Lake (Continued) Trev was next to strike with a nice little bowie on the Yep red nut. We could have had a few more in the boat if luck was with us a bit more, as we all missed a few. Also saw a couple move on top, the browns were feeding on gal-axias and the rainbows had some sort of green mushed weed in their stomachs. Thought that was a bit odd?? Also saw a pair of sea eagles and their nest high up in a dead tree, which made a fantastic sight. So in summary, a good little session. We will be doing a bit of fishing here next season, it is a very underrated water so close to home. Thanks for taking me Unit. CHEERS PHIL ZANETTO

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----- Original Message ----- From: Rose Muirhead Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Subject: Four Springs

Hi all We fished Four Springs today on our way home from the high-lands. Vic caught 5 fish, 1 brown of 3LB and the other 4LB, 2 really nice rainbows and a smaller brown. He also dropped 3 good fish. We have decided to fish it again tomorrow. Also can you let it be known to whoever put the curse on me, take it off now that the season is closing, as I would like to catch a couple of fish. Regards, Rose and Vic Muirhead

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----- Original Message ----- From: Rose Muirhead Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Subject: Four Springs 2

Hi all, Returned to Four Springs again today for round 2. The curse left me thanks to Vic, he told me to use a spin rod to start the day off and when I had caught a fish, then I could use the fly rod. It worked, after casting my arm off I landed a nice 3 1/2 LB. brown. I then reverted back to the fly rod with the orange bead headed nymph. Hooked up and “all hell broke loose”. Vic was running round the boat pulling drogues in, moving rods & lifting motors whilst trying to reach the landing net at the same time. Happy end to the season,...a 6Lb brown. Victor also had a good day with 2 browns of 3LB along with a small rainbow. It is our favourite lake early and late in the sea-son. Regards to all, Rose and Vic

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----- Original Message ----- From: Derek Poole Sent: Sunday, April 28, 2013

Subject: Four Springs Hi all, Thought we might have one more trip at the seasons end be-fore we put the fly rods away. Shippy and I decided to go up the lakes Saturday afternoon but with the weather the way it’s been, (so windy), we called it off. Sunday morning Shippy rang. “What about Four Springs?” We arrived there at 10am, off the water at 2pm. Ended up with 2 fish each, a good day for our last fish for the season. All in good condition the biggest about 4lb Regards Derek

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----- Original Message ----- From: Andrew Chaplin Sent: Sunday, April 28, 2013 Subject: Eucumbene Fished Eucumbene for close to 30 trout.

Most on McGrath & Sting lures, biggest went 6 1/4 pound.

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----- Original Message ----- From: Terry Symons Sent: Sunday, April 28, 2013

Subject: Tassiepaddlers bream classic. Well the moment everyone has been waiting for... the report and photos. It goes a bit like this; we went, we saw, we conquered... For those that couldn’t make it, they missed out on another epic adventure. It starts like this, Chipz headed down to trout creek (Scamander) on the Monday to secure a spot for us all and set up the gazebo, it was more like a circus tent. A big thanks to Chipz for his mammoth effort in erecting it and giving us somewhere to stay out of the weather should it turn bad. Yakka Dave and I (Simmo) travelled down on Thurs-day morning and arrived around lunch time followed by Spork and Legs. We wasted no time in getting the kayaks off the vehicles and onto the water keen for a short paddle\peddle and a bit of a fish.

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Spork had caught a couple of small bream just for a warm up and just to show the rest of us how it’s done. We then headed back for a feed and an assault plan for Friday (the pre- fish day). Friday morning, it was everyone up early, coffee, breakfast and then armed with tackle and wit, also a sense of humour, (and you needed that just to tackle the wind!). Yes, I managed to catch my first ever bream, ( all be it under-size). Soon it was time to head back for lunch and a chat around BIG BERTHER. Now legs has a companion that he takes with him and well, let’s just say BIG BERTHER helps do all the cooking and helps keep us all warm on a cold night. Friday after lunch we were chatting to a few local fishermen that were telling us crabs were the best live bait, so legs and I headed off to St Helens to collect some. Then it was time to sit, eat and plan for our tournament on Saturday. Chipz was planning not to go hungry as he sat down to a pot of stew...I mean a whole pot of stew!

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I’m sure it was cooked by Mrs Chipz and Chipz would have cut the hand off of anyone that tried to take any I reckon. As for Spork, he was doing the usual, cooking up a one man roast on the Webber Q; it would be helpful if he took out the cardboard insert that holds the hot plate before cooking roast cardboard, (not a fan of that.) We decided to do some night fishing before bed, the crabs worked a treat and it was here that I caught my biggest bream for the weekend Comp day, well what can I say...” it was windy but as the day got on it just got WINDIER”. We had no idea that the coast was getting a battering from strong winds. I managed a cocky salmon, (a non comp fish, but a keeper), then I said to legs there is something missing,.. what’s that he replied? My new rod and reel that I had bought for the weekend gone in a flash! After a moments contemplation I started the long paddle back when my other rod started to scream with another good size bream. Upon arrival back to camp, we called it a day. Spork and yakka Dave were already back but Chipz was still out there somewhere fishing his heart out. After tea, Spork gave out the official prizes to the winners and I would like to thank him for his help in organising this comp as well as a big thanks to those that came. There were some funny & not so funny stuff that happened, but I will let others tell you all about the big Para sail that could have been.... Cheers Simmo

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The End.

presidents club 2012-2013

Documents

opening day

previous day

great day

size of fish

biggest fish

fishing season

president jim

kevin wilkinson