Fly fishing Tasmania's Northern Rivers

The river country Inland Fisheries calls its North region — the Macquarie, South Esk, Meander and Brumbys Creek, meadow water and shingle riffles within an hour of Launceston — wild browns, red spinners in spring, hoppers in late summer, and access negotiated across private land.

Waters

If the Central Plateau is Tasmania’s lake fishing, the country below it to the north is the river fishing, and it is where the island’s dry-fly tradition was made. The Macquarie comes down out of the Midlands through Ross and Campbell Town into meadow water so slow and clear you can watch a brown drift up under a red spinner and decide. The South Esk, the state’s longest river, runs from wadeable headwater riffles at Upper Esk to broadwaters you fish from a kayak below Evandale. The Meander comes off the Great Western Tiers through shingle riffles and long runs that IFS itself calls the most attractive fly water on the river. Brumbys Creek, below Great Lake’s Poatina power station, is a tailwater of three weirs where the level moves with the turbines. Inland Fisheries Service groups these under its North region; anglers call them the northern rivers or the Midlands, and they base themselves at Launceston, Longford or Deloraine. The fish are wild browns, small and fit in the headwaters, better in the lowland glides, with rainbows in the lower Macquarie and Brumbys. Inland Fisheries Service opens and closes the season on set dates each year, and the lower stretches of the Macquarie, South Esk and Meander stay open a month longer than the upper river does. Almost all of it crosses private land, and the access that exists was negotiated by IFS and is a privilege the next angler needs you to keep.

The country

Farmland. The Midlands between Ross and Longford are Tasmania’s oldest grazing and cropping country, open pasture with willows and poplars along the rivers, poppy crops behind the fences, and the Great Western Tiers standing along the southern skyline with the plateau on top of them. The rivers are slow and deep in the flats and quick over shingle where the ground steepens, and they colour after rain in the hills. The Meander rises on the Tiers and is regulated by Huntsman Lake; Brumbys Creek is fed by Poatina’s releases from Great Lake; the Macquarie and South Esk are rain-fed and rise and fall with the weather in their catchments, which the gauges on their pages show.

The fishing

Dry-fly river fishing at its most classical, and four rivers to do it on. Tinamirakuna / Macquarie River is the state’s finest, IFS says, and it is hard to argue: wet flies and nymphs in the high water of August, the red spinner hatches of spring, early and late sessions and polaroiding through summer, hoppers tight to the grass from February. South Esk River is three rivers in one, the headwaters, the Fingal to Conara broadwaters, and the Clarendon to Hadspen kayak water, with mayfly, caenids and black spinners through the warm months. Meander River is the upstream-nymphing river, wadeable from Huntsman Lake to Deloraine and slower and broader below. Brumbys Creek is the tailwater, where weir one is the fly water and the level can change under your feet.

The fish are wild browns everywhere, with rainbows in the lower Macquarie, in Brumbys and below Huntsman Lake on the Meander. Redfin and tench are in all of them, and IFS asks you to kill and dispose of any you catch.

Where to start

Start on the Macquarie between Ross and Cressy from a signed access point, in October or November when the spinners are up and the water is still cool. Start on the Meander below Huntsman Lake if you would rather wade shingle riffles with a nymph. Leave the South Esk broadwaters for a kayak day, and Brumbys for a morning when Hydro Tasmania’s release schedule says the level is steady. For the rig, the dry-dropper page covers most of this water, and the national brown trout page carries the fish.

Through the year

August is high, cold water and wets. October and November are the northern rivers’ month: the first big mayfly hatches, red and black spinners and caddis on the lowland rivers before the highland lakes have started, and the reason a visitor times a trip for spring. December carries the spinners on early and the caddis on late. January and February bring the hoppers to the grassed banks and the fishing to the first and last hours of the day. March and April are autumn mayfly and hopper months, often settled and quiet. The upper stretches close for the season first, and the lower stretches a month later; check the current IFS Fishing Code for both dates before you plan a late trip.

Rules and access

Inland Fisheries Service sets a season, minimum size, bag limit and permitted methods for each named stretch of these rivers, and they change at named points: the Brumbys Creek junction on the Macquarie, Strath Bridge on the Meander, the Storys Creek Road bridge at Avoca on the South Esk, weir one on Brumbys. These junctions mark where the rules change; take the numbers from the current Tasmanian Inland Fishing Code and the IFS A to Z, and carry the angling licence the Code requires. Access is the other rule. IFS negotiated foot access across private land along these rivers and marks it with signs; where there is no sign you must ask the landowner, or you are trespassing. Walk around the poppy crops, never through them, leave gates as you found them, and stay off the fences.