Steve and Jo Starling are known to many Australian fishers through their website https://www.fishotopia.com.au/ and the fantastic social media profiles they maintain and promote.

Both are incredibly keen fishers with fishing pedigrees that many could only envy. They spend their lives exploring Australian fisheries and using their experiences to promote and advance recreational fishing culture here in Australia.

Based on those credentials, it was a great experience to have Jo and Steve as guests of the Highland Fly recently. They visited Tasmania during October to attend the Great Lake Tie In Miena and used their visit as an opportunity to catch up with various members of Trout Guides and Lodges Tasmania and to try a range of fishing venues across the State.

My day with Jo and Steve started with a visit to Liawenee, not only the coldest weather station in the country, but also the base for Tasmania’s Inland Fisheries’ trout spawning complex. Being the middle of October it was the rainbow trout that were on show. The fish were lining up ready to do their thing in the spawning canals that the IFS has created in recent years. It was a great taster for the Starlings before a day of fishing.

From Liawenee we headed back to Miena to grab the boat before heading down to Arthurs Lake. In October the mayflies are not so prominent on Arthurs but there was an opportunity to explore some of the flooded shores to see if we could find fish exploring in the shallows flooded by the recent deluges. Nothing showed, so it was out into the renowned “Cowpaddock” to haul gangs of wets. The water was a bit discoloured, but there were areas that were clearer than others and they proved the most attractive.

Both Steve and Jo used a rolley poley retrieve with pronounced pauses on the retrieve and a particularly long pause on “the hang” at the end of the retrieve before transitioning to the next cast. The Hang was the key on the day - with most of the fish choosing to hit the flies when they were virtually stationary after the steady retrieve.

Great day, great company, great fish and a great insight into Tasmanian trout fishing.

Check out the video that Steve and Jo put together of the day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcxV7VyT7ps