Imagery: Esri, Vantor, Earthstar Geographics

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South Esk River

River

265 km

Main stem

Species recorded

Tasmania's longest river — two hundred and sixty-five kilometres from Upper Esk to the Tamar at Launceston, wadeable headwater riffles, the Fingal to Conara broadwaters and the Clarendon to Hadspen kayak water — wild browns with the odd rainbow up high, two gauges, seventy years of the Perth record drawn on the page, and a lower river with an extended season.

The South Esk is the longest river in Tasmania, and it fishes like three rivers laid end to end. From Upper Esk in the north-east it runs two hundred and sixty-five kilometres to the kanamaluka / River Tamar at Launceston, and Inland Fisheries Service describes it in three sections that any angler would recognise on the ground. From Upper Esk to Evercreech Road it is wadeable riffles and shallow pools through forest, plantation and pasture, small fit browns and the odd rainbow, the fly angler’s headwater. From Fingal to Conara it slows through open pasture into a mix of wadeable runs and broadwaters, where the mayfly hatches and grasshopper falls are more reliable and the shore angler has room. From Clarendon to Hadspen it is a lowland river you fish from the bank, in waders or from a kayak, with red spinners and caenids in spring and summer and hoppers and black spinners in autumn. IFS manages the whole of it as a wild fishery sustained by natural spawning; browns dominate, and nothing has been stocked. Two gauges sit on it, Llewellyn and Perth, and the Perth record since 1956 is the river’s year drawn on this page: high and cold from June to September, eight times the summer flow in August, then a long low summer. IFS’s own advice is to check the flows before leaving home, because rain in the upper catchment changes the river fast, and that is the first thing this page lets you do.

Target species

Brown Trout

Rainbow Trout

Redfin

No live gauge

There’s no gauge on this water. Check recent trip reports.

Season

Regulations

Driving directions

Water and habitat

Two hundred and sixty-five kilometres of mainstem falling eight hundred metres from the hills above Upper Esk to sea level at Launceston, and the fall of the river drawn on this page shows the shape: a quick headwater, a long gentle Midlands run, and the lowland river to the estuary. The Llewellyn gauge sits at about a hundred and thirty-seven kilometres in the Fingal to Conara country and the Perth gauge at two hundred and sixteen on the lower river. The Macquarie joins at Longford and the Meander at Hadspen, both with pages of their own.

IFS’s three sections are the map. Upper Esk to Evercreech Road: wadeable riffles and shallow pools through native forest, private plantation and pasture. Fingal to Conara: open pasture, wadeable sections and broadwaters. Clarendon to Hadspen: the lowland river, shore, wading and paddle water. The wide lower reaches are the one part of the Tasmanian cohort where the bank survey from space could not be reconciled against the mapped water polygons, so this page does not draw it.

Fish and forage

Brown trout dominate the whole river, wild and self-sustaining; IFS manages the South Esk as a wild fishery and nothing has been stocked. The occasional rainbow trout turns up, particularly in the upper reaches. The headwaters hold generally small, fit browns with the odd larger fish as a surprise; the broadwaters and the lowland river hold the bigger fish. Redfin perch, goldfish and tench live in the catchment, all pests, and IFS asks that any caught be killed humanely and disposed of.

The forage runs down the river with the season: red spinner mayfly, duns and caenids in spring and summer on the Fingal broadwaters and the Clarendon to Hadspen water, grasshoppers off the pasture and black spinners in the evening through autumn, and caddis in the riffles of the headwaters.

Observed

Listed by authority

Australian Grayling

Prototroctes maraena

Common Galaxias

Galaxias maculatus

Congolli

Pseudaphritis urvillii

Goldfish

Carassius auratus

Longfin Eel

Anguilla reinhardtii

River Blackfish

Gadopsis marmorata

Southern Pygmy Perch

Nannoperca australis

Southern Shortfin Eel

Anguilla australis

Spotted Galaxias

Galaxias truttaceus

Tasmanian Smelt

Retropinna tasmanica

When to fish it

Read the river’s year drawn on this page. The Perth record puts the high water from June to September, peaking in August at eight times the summer median, then a long low run from December to March. Early in the season, with the river high, IFS’s advice is worms, wets and lures, and the fly version is a nymph or a wet swung through the pools while it drops. From October the river settles into its typical range and the spinner and dun hatches begin, more reliable on the broadwaters between Fingal and Conara than anywhere else. Summer is the lowland river’s time, red spinners, mayfly and caenids from Clarendon to Hadspen. Autumn brings the hoppers and the black spinners. The river above Avoca closes for the winter first; below Avoca to Beams Hollow it stays open a month longer.

Heavy rain in the upper catchment can spoil the headwater fishing overnight. Check the Conditions card on this page, and the Bureau’s gauges IFS names at Mathinna, Fingal, Llewellyn, Perth and Longford, before you leave home.

THE YEAR ON THIS WATER

Winter water

Flow · Jun–Sep

The Perth gauge runs eight times its summer flow in August. Worms, wets and lures while it drops; check the flows before you leave home.

Red spinners, mayfly and caenids

Food · Oct–Feb

Spring and summer on the lower river from Clarendon to Hadspen, and more reliably on the Fingal to Conara broadwaters.

Dry-fly season

Fly · Oct–Feb

Once the river settles into its typical range. Broadwaters from the shore, the flowing sections waded.

Hoppers and black spinners

Food · Feb–Apr

Autumn on the pasture reaches. Hoppers off the grass by day, black spinners in the evening.

How to fish it

Three rivers, three methods. In the headwaters, wade the riffles with a dry-dropper: a Royal Wulff or a small Stimulator over a tungsten Pheasant Tail, one cast per pocket, a step upstream. On the broadwaters from Fingal to Conara, fish the flowing sections in waders and the still water from the shore: a parachute Adams or a Klinkhammer for the spinners and duns, a hopper tight to the grass in autumn, a Woolly Bugger swung slow when nothing shows. From Clarendon to Hadspen, a kayak reaches water the bank cannot; paddle upstream, drift back down, and fish the spinners in the glides and the hoppers along the banks. A five weight is more use than a four on the broadwaters and the lowland river.

Access and safety

IFS names the accessible country as Upper Esk to Mathinna, Fingal to Conara and Clarendon to Hadspen. In the headwaters, easy access at the Mathinna Plains Road bridge and Griffin Park, harder water above and below. Between Fingal and Conara, many of the bridges, Leona Road, Storys Creek Road and Bonneys Plains Road among them, with access helped by private landowners. On the lower river, shore and wading above Evandale Bridge off Perth Mill Road, above and below Perth Bridge, at the Mill Dam in Longford and at Lions Park in Hadspen, and canoe and kayak launches at Clarendon, Perth Riverbank Reserve, the Union Street ramp at Longford and Hadspen. Much of the river crosses private land; where access is not signed, ask.

The hazards are a big river’s. High, cold water in the early season; broadwaters deeper than they look; and paddle water IFS recommends for experienced paddlers only, with extreme caution and MAST’s safety rules observed. A five-knot limit applies near shorelines, facilities and other boats, and fishing from a boat within a hundred metres of a shore angler is prohibited unless the boat is moored.

Regulations

Inland Fisheries Service states the rules for the South Esk in two parts, split at the Storys Creek Road bridge at Avoca. Above it, a minimum size, a small daily bag, all methods permitted, and a season that opens and closes on set dates each year. Below it, down to Beams Hollow above Lake Trevallyn, the same size, bag and methods with a season that runs a month longer; IFS lists this lower river among the extended-season waters with the lower Macquarie, the lower Brumbys and the Meander. An inland angling licence is required.

Take the numbers and the dates from the current Tasmanian Inland Fishing Code and the IFS A to Z page for the river before you fish. They move, so read them there on the day you go.

Prohibited

TAS

Tasmania's designated rainbow trout waters, together with the extended-season waters of Lake Mackintosh, Lake Rosebery, the lower section of Brumbys Creek, the Tinamirakuna / Macquarie River, the Meander River and the South Esk River, close

Tasmanian Government (Inland Fisheries Service), under the Inland Fisheries Act 1995 and Inland Fisheries Regulations 2019

Read the rule at source ↗

Permitted with conditions

TAS

On the South Esk River upstream of the Storys Creek Road bridge at Avoca, IFS lists a 220 mm minimum size, a bag limit of five, all methods (bait, lures and flies) permitted, and a 2026-27 season running from 1 August 2026 to 2 May 2027.

Tasmanian Government (Inland Fisheries Service), under the Inland Fisheries Act 1995 and Inland Fisheries Regulations 2019

Read the rule at source ↗

Permitted with conditions

TAS

On the South Esk River from the Storys Creek Road bridge at Avoca downstream to Beams Hollow above Lake Trevallyn, IFS lists a 220 mm minimum size, a bag limit of five, all methods (bait, lures and flies) permitted, and a longer 2026-27 sea

Tasmanian Government (Inland Fisheries Service), under the Inland Fisheries Act 1995 and Inland Fisheries Regulations 2019

Read the rule at source ↗