The 21-22 Season starts on Saturday 8 August and runs through until the end of April 2022

It’s, sadly, an unavoidable reality that COVID will continue to be a consideration across the coming season. The best I can do in that regard is offer two reassurances:

• I will do everything I can to operate a “COVID-safe” operation, observing those protections that we are all familiar with, and keeping in touch with local restrictions and guidance; and

• I will, for the time being, generally refrain from asking clients to pay deposits. To avoid the nervousness that clients may experience about the risk that a deposit might be lost to a COVID interruption, for most bookings I will rely on being able to trust clients to honour their commitments, or to advise me if they are unable to proceed. (Exceptions will apply to Herne Lodge Introductory Fly Fishing Days where there will likely be competition for places. Large group bookings may also require a deposit.)

Putting aside COVID, what else can we look forward to?

I am optimistic about the coming season for a number of reasons. Firstly, we have seen good rainfall over recent months and plenty of evidence of spawning waters showing great numbers of fish keen to keep the trout poluation up. Tasmanian Inland Fisheries have reported plenty of wild fish being relocated to waters where natural recruitment cannot be relied. This is an important part of the trout fishery in Tasmania - the relocation of wild spawned brought trout from lakes like The Great Lake and Lake King William means we fish for wild, not stocked or farmed brown trout.

One particular water - Arthurs Lake - is another area of optimism. During the 2008-09 season Arthurs Lake suffered badly when water levels fell during an unprecedented drought. This interfered with the spawning and had terrible impacts on weed beds and the associated aquatic life. After a number of very poor seasons the recovery is now very well progressed. Early season fishing on Arthurs was great last season, and there were promising signs early in the traditional dry fly season. Hopefully 21-22 will see further improvements on this once great lake. I know it will be an important part of my focus.

It will also be interesting to see how Little Pine Lagoon and Penstock Lagoon perform. The former offered fantastic wet-fly fishing during the 20-21 season, but that’s not what we expect of “The Pine” where mayfly hatches normally provide the highlights that we love. Fingers are crossed for that to change this season. And hopefully a productive Little Pine can help take some of the pressure off Penstock Lagoon which has become a very heavily fished water. It’s still a great fishery, but at times does see more visitors than is ideal.

The other water in the Central Highlands that I have great hope for is Herne Lodge. Herne is a private water that after being initially stocked with will brown trout five years ago is now experiencing annual natural recruitment. It has two spawning streams and these have been busy in recent months. And the fish to be caught on Herne clearly come from a number of different generations. Herne is not accessible to the public, but I am abler to take you there (noting that this brings an additional cost over and above the cost of fishing in public waters). It is a great option for groups and is the venue for scheduled Introductory Fly Fish days across the season.