Tasmanian Fishing Report April 2024
by Spot On Fishing Hobart 17 Apr 09:51 UTC
Neil Guy with lovely Derwent snapper © Spot On Fishing Hobart
Late season fishing has been good with the settled weather.
Saltwater
Snapper - continue to be caught throughout Frederick henry and storm bay with lots of anglers reporting some good-sized snapper around 50cm being caught.
Kingfish - are still around in good numbers with some bigger models been caught lately.
Bluefin Tuna - are patchy seemingly on one day and off the next. Water temps are still fairly high (18-19 degrees) but good fish have been caught at Hippolyte, Tasman Island, yellow bluff, Cape Raoul, Dart Bank, Friars, Pedra and Mewstone.
Albacore Tuna - have gone a little quite but some reasonable fish are being caught on the shelf still.
Swordfish - have been on fire with most commenting this is the best swordfish year on record. Anglers are hooking and tagging up to 4 fish a day with lots of fish being dropped also. Meridian Sword skirts seem to be greatly improving the bite rate.
Calamari - Good Numbers of mid-sized calamari have been around the channel area with natural colour jigs proving most effective.
Bream - Are seemingly everywhere at the moment with lots of anglers having a great time targeting these fish in the Derwent and Huon estuaries. Lucky Craft Flash Minnows and Smith Panishs are the lures of choice.
Freshwater
With only a couple of weeks left in the brown trout season now is the last chance to get out for a look.
Lake Sorell - is fishing surprisingly well. Good size fish around 5lb are being caught with water clarity now good enough you can see your lures a foot or more down. The lake is still discolored but it has greatly improved and after chatting to a few anglers on the weekend all had caught good fish.
Lake Crescent - is extremely low with a closed sign now posted on the boat ramp. Fishing has slowed dramatically.
Lake Echo - is fishing really well with some nice sized fish been caught. Predominantly Browns with a few rainbows in the mix, drift spinning shallow bays and trolling deep bibbed minnows are proving very effective. The water clarity is crystal clear so fly fisherman have been having good success sight casting to fish with bigger bushy dries.
Little Pine - water level is too low to launch a boat but fish are being spotted tailing all around the lake with some reasonable fish up to 2lb been caught on dry flies.
Great Lake - is a bit dirty and low but the fish are not seeming to mind with anglers reporting good bags of fish been caught on all kind of methods with drift spinning and trolling being the preferred methods.
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