The lagoons in the Highlands of Tasmania tend to be shallow, weedy and sag fringed. They are often silty bottomed and with lots of Canadian pond weed and, as many are Hydro Tasmania controlled, levels change ~ sometimes quite quickly. The dark bottom, combined with shallows, means that they heat up quickly and easily and this is exactly what we are experiencing just now. The browns don’t like this and they restrict their feeding to the shallows early morning and evening when the water is somewhat cooler. Scud, nymphs, stick caddis, snail, stone fly, drowned duns and spinner from the previous day, plus dragonfly and damselfly nymphs are all on the menu. Their taste is quite catholic.
They establish a fairly regular beat and they patrol the shore assiduously, but they can be very shy and 'skittish', and will take off at the slightest disturbance, so we spend a lot of time looking and watching from afar for the right moment. Indeed, this season I’ve put a chair near the water and I can sit and watch in comfort while I plan my tactics. It’s not unusual for six or eight browns to be spotted on a 100 metre stretch of shore and the trick is to target a particular fish without disturbing the others.
The lagoon is about 6 inches deep around the edges and usually the first indication is the small black triangle of the tip of the back fin or the tail. These fish can move in 6 inches of water without any observable disturbance ~ how they do this is a mystery to me!
In slightly deeper water, as they take the scud or whatever, they tilt onto their nose ~ hence the tail sticks out. My experience is that the slowly cruising fish in the shallows is ‘easier’ ~ if any fish is easy in flat calm conditions. Quite often, especially in the grey light of dawn, or when there is a ripple, the only indication of the presence of a fish is an audible one. A quiet suck or kiss sound and then you have to find the fish.
Stalking a tailing fish in the shallows -- its tail can be seen quite clearly (circled)
A quality Penstock brownie shows what can be caught with patience and application.
Just before dawn is the best time to practice chasing these ‘moochers’ and since my cottage is on the eastern shore at Penstock, I fish with the light at my back ~ much easier on the eyes!
Having found a suitable candidate, the next thing is to watch and plot its cruising path. This can be difficult if the fish is showing irregularly, but with patience an ambush can be set.
The fly is placed one or two metres in front of the fish, but as you can imagine, a rummaging trout meanders all over the place and many times the fish will miss the fly and it’s not uncommon for the fish to swim under the line or to cast and lift it over its back. As a rule it doesn’t seem to upset the fish. I suppose that it’s used to weed and rubbish.
If the fish misses the first time, continue ‘setting the ambush’ and eventually a response is achieved ~ be it total ignorance, a take, or ‘an abominable refusal’ ~ the latter description is from a fishing mate ~ signalled by a bow-wave of some proportion. In some cases it merely means that the fish makes a big circle out into the open water and returns to cruise, albeit with more caution.
Complications occur when there is more than one fish in the vicinity. This increases the chances of lining one, usually leading to the two fish retreating to the deeps in high dudgeon.
Penstock is unique in that a trickle of duns starts to emerge from before dawn, and the fish will mop up any that they come across. So, it’s worth watching any duns that come floating by, as Penstock browns can suck one under with a minimum of disturbance or noise. If it’s been mild and calm overnight, there will be a smorgasbord of spent fly ~ duns, spinner, midge, gum beetles ~ all is grist to the trout’s mill, but if there are wind lanes, midge fishing further out will take preference over shore fishing.
The standard, stock fly to entice tailers at dawn is a small, size 16 red tag, sometimes lightly palmered, fished on a shortish cast of about 12 ft, down to 6 lb Double Strength Drennan. I carefully degrease the last 6 ft and keep degreasing regularly. An alternative is a size 14 possum fur floating nymph but occasionally a size 12 spent spinner is successful as is an emerger.
I don’t fish nymphs to tailing fish, as the nymph invariably sinks to the bottom and gets caught up in the rubbish and weed. However, we have developed a small brown nymph with a foam wing case judiciously stretched to allow the nymph to float just through the skin of the water. This can be deadly on occasion. A further tactic is to use a size 10 Mrs Simpson and plonk it down in the fish’s path and leave it strictly alone. Don’t move it. It’s amazing how a fish will pick this up even minutes after it has been presented.
Fish on -- taken in a few inches of water
A misty start at Dee Lagoon
We find that as soon as the sun hits the water the fish disappear so every moment must be used well.
Fish appear again before dusk when the sun has just gone behind the trees. Fishing into the after glow extends the time that a dry fly can be strategically placed. Trout suddenly appear, to mop up lone duns, and a hackled march brown, size 12, or a big black spinner is always worth a try, as is a spent red spinner.
The above techniques were all developed for Penstock Lagoon, but similar methods are used in the Western Lakes. There are a great many lagoons ranging in size from a few acres to massive and in fact the area is known as 'the Land of the Three Thousand Lakes'. Many of the smaller lagoons contain perhaps one or two big fish, marooned after a very wet winter and many never see an angler from one year’s end to the next.
A minor tactic for 'tailing fish' is used early in the season when the rivers are in flood. The Midland rivers flood into the back waters and fish, some of the big ones not seen at other times, follow the deepening waters, picking up all and sundry. The water is usually dirty and opaque, so a fairly big matuka, size 10 or 8 is pulled over their bows. Again, these fish can be very fussy as they fossick in very shallow water and my experience suggests that only at the last light are these fish catchable.
So, that’s how we fish to 'tailing fish'!
Jim Ferrier